A suitable offer, and less waste. Some professionals have found the solution and now offer lighter menus and largely limited portions.
“It’s simple, I’m not hungry anymore. Often, I prepare a salad just to say that I have eaten, but I could very well do without it.confides Christian who, very greedy, always loved large, convivial and hearty meals, until the day he started taking Ozempic. This treatment for obesity, very popular across the Atlantic, made him lose around ten kilos and his appetite. Today seated in an Italian restaurant, this sixty-year-old bon vivant now hesitates to order a starter rather than a pizza, something unthinkable until some time ago. New reflexes to which catering professionals must adapt, at the risk of losing customers who always want to eat well, but who consume differently. In the United States, the rise of anti-obesity treatments is such, particularly among the wealthiest households with strong purchasing power, that some restaurateurs have imagined new menus just for them.
“I realized when I went out that people were eating a lot less, a piece here, a sip there, and that’s it”leaving “large quantities” of food on their plate, says Aristotle Hatzigeorgiou, owner of five restaurants in New York. Faced with this observation, the restaurateur had an idea: a narrowed menu with a small burger, a few fries and a small glass of alcohol for eight dollars. Very far from the other much less light options on its menu, like this fondue burger. Unsurprisingly, his narrow menu has been a great success, he says. And he will never know if this new card appeals to customers undergoing weight loss treatment or to those who are simply looking not to pay too much for their meal in a city with an astronomical cost of living.
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And everyone seems to have gotten on board, including the well-known fast food chains. The Californian company Chipotle Mexican Grill launched this week a “protein-enriched menu”. “With the rise of GLP-1 and growing interest in macronutrients, Chipotle’s new high-protein menu gives customers more opportunities to get the protein they want in portions tailored to their needs”declared the company in a press release. Proof if another was needed that weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy are taken very seriously by professionals in the sector.
“A vast human experience”
The growing use of these treatments is producing a transformation in eating habits in the country, notes Marion Nestle, professor emeritus of nutrition at New York University. “When, after having been one of the great pleasures of life, food becomes your enemy, it changes everything”she analyzes to AFP. Although GLP-1 treatments are sometimes accompanied by unpleasant side effects, they have been “miraculous” for others, she adds. She nevertheless warns that the long-term effects remain little known, physiologically but also from a social point of view, seeing in the large-scale use of these products “a vast human experience”. Will Americans’ consumption habits be changed forever? Only history can tell. The use of Ozempic or similar drugs remains limited to this day in the United States due to their very high prices.
Known under the names Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro, these treatments – recently recommended by the WHO – are used by approximately one in eight Americans, according to a survey in November by the KFF think tank specializing in health issues. Earlier this week, the US Medicines Agency (FDA) even approved a first tablet version of Wegovy, as an alternative to injections. Experts even expect them to become increasingly affordable. A huge market has opened up to meet the specific needs of millions of people following these treatments, which create a feeling of satiety by imitating a gastrointestinal hormone.
