Book Review: Magic Pill by Johann Hari
A digressive account of Ozempic and society’s struggles with obesity
In 1984, a Canadian researcher, Daniel Drucker, reluctantly took on an assignment to research the glucagon gene in the pancreas. He focused on the snippet at its end - the GLP-1 - and discovered that it stimulated the creation of insulin, raising the question as to whether GLP-1 could be used to treat diabetes. Drucker’s discovery, the author writes, “was going to reshape his whole career, and the lives of millions of people.”
GLP-1 acts upon the body by regulating appetite. It reduces hunger and cravings while increasing the feeling of satiety. Further research on it led to the development of semaglutide, an injectable drug, marketed under the brand name - Ozempic. The drug also helps with rapid and drastic weight loss. This factor alone has made Ozempic a global phenomenon and has transformed the health, bodies and lives of diabetic patients and celebrities. While Ozempic is an anti-diabetic medication, its sister drug, Wegovy is marketed as a weight loss and management solution.
The story of Ozempic is the story of a global struggle with weight gain and weight loss. There are many threads to pull at in Magic Pill, yet somehow none are explored or concluded with satisfaction. Did I come to this book looking for hard science? Not exactly. But something with more heft would have been appreciated. At its core, Magic Plll explores how to fight obesity by addressing societal roots but fails to offer new information or genuine insight.
Johann Hari is a British writer and journalist whose books explore globally trending subjects through his personal connection to them, such as the rapid loss of society’s ability to pay attention in Stolen Focus. In Magic Pill, the story of Hari’s own use of Ozempic in his journey towards health is interwoven with an exploration of the global rise in obesity and its impact on individuals and society. While all this is part of the conversation, the central story of Ozempic itself gets left behind in the dust. Writing from personal experience served Hari well in Stolen Focus; yet, the same approach dilutes his study of the subject at hand here.
Weight loss drugs have been around for a long time. Their popularity waxes and wanes in cycles of high demand, risk and illness, and social aversion to their existence which lasts until the next big thing comes along. Hari uses the Ozempic craze as a gateway to explore the social structures that shape obese populations, including the psychology of food consumption, body image, and the expense of obesity.
For example, his account of how the global economy shifts when people consume less and become thinner is fascinating. As Ozempic usage increased across the world, Hari writes, “strategists at Barclays Bank urged investors to move away from the fast-food and snacks markets.” He goes on to say, “There’s already been a decline in the value of the stocks of the doughnut company Krispy Kreme, which analysts directly attributed to the growing popularity of Ozempic.” Since Ozempic users drink less alcohol, there would a few billion knocked off the alcohol market. Further, hip and knee replacement surgeries drop because people lose the extra weight that puts a strain on their joints. The list of affected sectors includes airlines which, Hari writes, “save millions of dollars a year because less jet fuel is burned when you are flying slimmer people.” More of such information and analysis would have helped elevate the understanding of Ozempic’s impact.
Hari examines how the food we consume as a society has shifted from natural, whole foods to more and more processed foods. He critiques systems of food production and points out that instead of returning to old ways of producing and consuming healthy foods, we are now creating drugs to offset the impact of processed lifestyles.
If we are to understand why Ozempic has become a global phenomenon, we must acknowledge how society, including everyone from well-meaning friends and family to the medical community, treats people who are fat. As Hari takes Ozempic and feels his excess weight fall away, he revels in the fact that his neighbour’s good-looking gardener begins to hit on him. He has to acknowledge that his pursuit of thinness is not only for health. It is also about how he looks and how society treats him when he is thinner.
He unpacks why taking weight loss drugs is seen as cheating. Ozempic users gain the health benefits as well as the increased risks of using the drug, but they also get a fast track to all the social capital that being thin gives you - the compliments, better social treatment, admiration that one won a fight against the body’s propensity to gain weight. Ozempic comes with risks - a 50 to 75 percent higher chance of developing thyroid cancer, increased risk of pancreatitis with debilitating pain and risk of death. Yet, individuals with healthy bodies still choose to take the drug to become even thinner. Through his own experience, he realises that even if the extra weight is gone, the underlying psychological issues that led to the initial weight gain very much remain. Unless those are addressed, long-term changes to health and perspective remain elusive. This is a powerful part of the story that Hari could have spent more time on.
Hari provides a balanced view of the nuances in arguments for and against weight loss drugs, even if some of the perspectives come from his friends rather than verified experts. His friend observes that if someone has cancer, you don’t start worrying about how society can change itself to reduce the risk of cancer: you take chemo and treat it. So if you get one life and Ozempic will help you lose weight and walk and run and play and feel satiated, then why not start there?
However, Hari does worry about how society can change itself. Unfortunately, this derails the book into a confused semi-self help genre that list obvious tips for healthy living and weight loss. If a reader has never read an article about the science of obesity, the the basics here, including the changing scientific consensus on what constitutes health and its surrounding culture trends. Beyond that, Magic Pill manages to dull the appetite for a topic that offers no shortage of complexity.
Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs
By Johann Hari
336 pages, Bloomsbury, 2024
Rs 699/ USD 30