The problem was always about enablement. We know the solution to smoking too, the problem is enablement.

lubujackson 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The interesting solution to smoking was social pressure. No smoking in restaurants, no smoking on planes, general intolerance to smokers, insane taxes on tobacco... suddenly, smokers for 30 years started quitting at a certain breaking point.

The real solution to weight loss (especially in the U.S.) is to change the social norms. When everyone is hitting the buffets and going to Cheesecake Factory and buying high calorie garbage at a discount, of course to population gets fat. France, for example, makes all of that much harder. Maybe Ozempic will help reduce the Walmart-wheelchair-fat population, but truly becoming fit as a country requires significantly more friction for everyone.

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lkey 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Nicotine addiction has not been 'solved'.

Tobacco consumption still causes about one of every five deaths in the United States each year (439k). That number won't start going down (due to alternatives) until 2030, according to AJPM. Phillip Morris ($PM) is near an all time high, despite killing millions.

It killed both my grandfathers, it's likely killed someone you knew and loved, please get your facts straight.

And on your other point, fat people already get a lot of social 'friction', from people exactly like you who call them 'people of walmart' who eat 'garbage'.

A fat person who has exercised more and eaten less than you, and lost weight every day for a year will still be called a 'lazy fat-ass' by a person like you until they actually reach the promised land of 'normal'. (and before you ask to invalidate my opinion. No, I am not fat).

On France, Paris is a delightfully walkable city. US cities are car-or-else (excepting NYC). We're the ones who made our people sedentary.

You are on HN, most people here are hacking the attention economy to keep people seated and glued to screens.

Are you willing to vote to give up your car and a part of your future compensation to be surrounded by fitter people?

The social changes you have imagined are forms of shame/intolerance maximization (governments should not do this!), rather than designing our world around good food, human movement, and healthy habits (a thing governments can and should do!)

Regardless, GLPs are an absolute win, and once most people are a healthy weight I hope you will dial back on you reflexive disdain.

	▲	kortilla an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Nicotine addiction isn’t the problem though, you’ve just shifted the goal posts. A nicotine pill is not giving someone lung cancer.

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nemomarx 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The nice thing about ozempic is that it makes people less hungry and less able to eat large portions. Once 30% of the country is on it, expect buffets to go out of business and restaurants to need to shift to smaller portions in response. So it'll make it easier for everyone not on the drugs too.

	▲	rrr_oh_man 35 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> Once 30% of the country is on it, expect buffets to go out of business and restaurants to need to shift to smaller portions in response It's funny how a buffet in almost every other country really just exists for the self-serving simplicity/cost-savings and a broad-ish selection for customers, not to trigger overeating.

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wcarron 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Ironically, nicotine suppresses appetite. Maybe the solution was chain smoking all along.

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zoeysmithe 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This ignores how food today isn't much like food of the past. It has all manner of added sugars and things to make it more marketable, hence higher profits, but also causes over-eating. Snack culture is pretty much an attempt to make food as addictive as possible, and many of those methods are in 'regular' food too.

Not everyone knows this and many who do can't afford an expensive farm to table whole foods diet.

Now toss in car culture and the suburban model and a culture very strongly against any sort of socialized commons like public trans and the little exercise they otherwise would get isn't available anymore. I live in a walkable neighborhood and take public trans, I know my health would be much worse if I didn't get all those steps, fresh air, sense of community, etc in everyday.

Pretty much everything Americans do is wrong when it comes to food, diet, walkable communities, and transportation. What we need to fix this is not putting everyone on ozempic, but a frank look at how our society is organized and figuring out ways to move to a saner society.