The impact of popular U.S. weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy (GLP-1 receptor agonists), upon their initial introduction to Americans, is showing many effects beyond just improving personal health. The new study conducted by Cornell University illustrates how these medications not only suppress appetite, but also alter the method in which households allocate resources toward food purchases – both in grocery stores and restaurants.
Lead research author Sylvia Hristakeva, an assistant marketing professor at Cornell University, published the results of this study in the Journal of Marketing Research, presenting examples of how GLP-1 agonist medications have affected the day-to-day behaviors of consumers. First developed for the treatment of diabetes, these products are quickly growing in popularity for their weight loss effects.
Rather than relying solely on respondents’ self-reports regarding their dietary habits, this research study has been able to match survey responses about individuals’ use of GLP-1 drugs to purchase history data from tens of thousands of consumers throughout the United States.
The study indicates that there are measurable and consistent decreases in total spending on food items over the months following a consumer’s first use of GLP-1 products. The nine months following initial access to a GLP-1 drug resulted in a decrease of approximately 5.3% in total grocery purchases by households.
Among those households with incomes higher than or equal to $100,000, grocery spending reduced by more than 8%. Additionally, total spending at fast-food restaurants, coffee shops, and other limited-service dining establishments decreased by approximately 8% over this same nine-month period.
“Our research team tracked the actual purchasing behavior of consumers, rather than relying solely on long-term habits. The analysis was based on transaction data obtained from Numerator, a market research firm that monitors grocery and restaurant purchases by a national representative sample of approximately 150,000 households,” Hristakeva told The Brighter Side of News.
“This purchasing behavior data was correlated with repeated surveys measuring whether anyone living in the household was using a GLP-1 product and why they began using that product,” she continued.
Through this method, researchers can compare households that take the medication to similar households that do not. The researchers can look at the amount of money spent on food before and after taking the medication to determine what changes occurred due to changing behavior after starting to take medication.
“From the data, we see clear changes in food spending after the households start taking the medication,” Hristakeva said. “After the medication is discontinued, the changes become less distinguishable from food spending patterns before taking the medication.”
The decreases in food spending were not equally distributed across the different types of food. Some foods saw a decline in spending while others saw a much smaller decline. This might indicate how food consumption affects purchasing behavior.
Ultra-processed, calorie-dense foods have shown the greatest decrease. The spending on savory snacks has declined by approximately 10%. The same large decrease has been observed in sweets, cookies, baked goods and other snack foods. Even staple foods like bread, meat, and eggs have seen a price decrease, but to a lesser extent.
A limited number of grocery categories have an increase in spending. The highest increase was seen in yogurt, followed by fresh fruit, nutrition bars, and meat snacks. These increases have been modest in comparison to the overall decrease in food purchases.
Hristakeva said, “The predominant pattern is a general decrease in the amount of food purchased, with only a few categories showing an increase and the increase being modest compared to the total number of purchases made.”
Additionally, the researchers found that households that continued taking the medication maintained a lower amount of dollars spent on food for at least one year after discontinuing the medication. However, as time has gone on, the decrease in how much people were buying and eating seems to be getting less and less; this could suggest that people are beginning to stabilize their eating habits.
The results of this study have shown similar impacts on people who had purchased food from fast-food restaurants, coffee shops, and other limited-service restaurants. The decreased spending at these types of businesses indicates that a person’s appetite not only affects how much they spend on groceries but also how many times they choose to eat out.
The results are also important for the food industry because they indicate that GLP-1 may change how consumers purchase and consume food products over time. If more and more people are taking GLP-1 and this trend continues, the food industry may have to adapt to a reduced demand for snack foods and fast-food items. Manufacturers and retailers may need to think differently about their portion sizes, their product lines, and how they market their products to fit the new pattern of consumer purchasing.
Public health officials should take note of this study. It provides context for discussions around whether or not medical treatment can shift a person’s food choices more effectively than other policy options, such as taxes, marketing, nutrition campaigns, or warning labels.
The researchers also examined those households that had stopped taking GLP-1. In these households, there was a shift in grocery spending back to levels that were closer to what they had purchased before taking GLP-1, as compared to before they started GLP-1. Additionally, there was a small shift in the types of food and Baskets that these households purchased, compared with the baseline they were at before taking GLP-1.
This pattern indicates that while a person’s behavior is affected by taking the medication while using it, it is likely that these behaviors and dietary changes will return to a more typical baseline once the treatment stops. This research demonstrates both the significant influence that medications can have on a person’s appetites and the limitations of appetite control generated by biological means.
This study also shows that demand for food changes as a result of medication use, meaning that GLP-1 should be viewed as both a health benefit and also as a force that will affect consumer behavior in the marketplace.
The results of this study have important implications for consumers, researchers, and the food industry. For consumers, it shows that individuals who use appetite suppressants may significantly change how they spend daily money on food, freeing up money for other household needs.
For researchers, it provides an example of how biological factors can drive a person’s economic behavior through the use of real data.
Research findings are available online in the Journal of Marketing Research.
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