A researcher at the Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University investigates whether we will soon be able to eat what we want without guilt?
In recent years, weight loss injections have become the hottest trend in the diets of Hollywood stars. The red carpet is full of stars and stars who are not ashamed to admit that in order to maintain their shape they use these drugs, which were developed in general to help patients and diabetics, but have recently also been recognized as those that can increase the feeling of fullness and suppress the appetite (Ozmpic, for example, works by the mechanism of suppressing the appetite and increasing the feeling of satiety The satiety after meals and studies have proven that it can help reduce 20% of body weight within about a year). We asked Prof. Racheli Dankner, From the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, how does it work, could it be that from now on we will no longer have to think twice before a spontaneous night meal in front of the refrigerator? And maybe this is the beginning of a revolution that will cure us of addictions? (Spoiler: we should continue to maintain a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle).
Will the weight problem become history?
"I find it difficult to imagine a world where all people inject themselves, or regularly take medicine, just to deal with the issue of excessive eating. It is important to understand that the effectiveness of drugs is not 100%, among other things because some people respond better and some respond less, or do not respond at all to these drugs. There is also a phenomenon of developing resistance or adaptation, when the drug works at first, but later loses its effectiveness in the same person. Finally, every drug has side effects, and we use drugs whose benefit outweighs the harm. It would be a mistake to base the human ability to maintain a healthy body weight on medication. It is important that we all understand the enormous damage that sugar causes to our bodies and get used to healthy and balanced eating."
Does this mean that emotional eating is actually physiological?
"When they say emotional eating, they mean the phenomenon of uncontrolled eating, which is not due to hunger. Today we understand better the mechanisms of satiety and hunger, and understand that there is a connection between the different body tissues (fat tissue, muscle, pancreas, liver, brain, etc.), which react and activate the body's systems in response to eating or hunger. Our feelings are not separated from all these and are influenced by them, and I doubt that it is possible to separate the things. In addition, today's approach to food produces a reference to it as a factor that goes beyond what it was intended to be: in preschool, snacks and sweets are a reward, in schools children are allowed to eat throughout the school hours, which creates a wrong and harmful connection between eating and dealing with difficulty, anxiety, boredom."
Will we soon hear about additional drugs that will treat addictions?
"Indeed, this is just the beginning of these drugs. There are people with a tendency to addictions and extreme behavior. Such people will be more inclined to drink alcohol in excess, smoke cigarettes and other substances and also gamble. The ability to achieve balance in all aspects of health: adequate and quality sleep, balanced and healthy eating, physical activity, is empowering and helps maintain health, and this is a self-fertilizing process, as each component of health is also important to our ability to maintain the other components. The difficulty, for example, of avoiding excessive eating and harmful foods is enormous for some people, and they need external help, that is, medication. The pharmaceutical companies know this and have a tremendous motivation to develop new drugs in the field. But the message to the public is that it is important to maintain a healthy body weight throughout life, because it is very difficult to get rid of excess weight and be successful in doing so over time."
What is your personal opinion about this shot?
"I am happy that there is such significant progress in dealing with the issue. In the past, the medical treatments were through stimulants that caused damage, but the social urge to lose weight was so great that people, especially women, used them despite the risk. Today we know that obesity is a condition that is very harmful to health, and is associated with chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, malignancies and cognitive decline. This is in addition to the issue of appearance and the effects on self-image and the social situation. So the best advice I can give is to keep our home free of foods that have no nutritional value and are highly harmful to health, but it's good that today there are also safe and effective treatment options."
