The Weigh In: Johann Hari on how processed food systems are hacking our biology, and how GLP-1s can help
Author Johann Hari on self-compassion and weight loss with host Samhita Mukhopadhyay.
This week, best-selling author Johann Hari joins host Samhita Mukhopadhyay to dive into the impact of ultra-processed foods on our hunger and health. A proponent of self-compassion in a world that stigmatizes being overweight and limits our access to fresh food, Hari presents GLP-1s as a modern-day path to satiety and weight health.
Watch the full conversation above, listen in on your preferred podcast platform, or read the highlights below.
These are the kinds of real, honest questions — and much more about weight, health, and GLP-1s — you’ll find being discussed on The Weigh In, a new weekly podcast from Weight Watchers. It’s hosted by Samhita Mukhopadhyay, a journalist, author, and head of content at Weight Watchers. (As always, this is for education purposes. Talk to your doctor for questions about your health.)
On choosing love over shame and stigma
“Realities [about being overweight] are not easier to face when you're being shamed and bullied. They're much harder to face. [It’s important to] help people to understand that the reason why they gained weight is not because of an individual moral failing, but because of a complete transformation in…the kind of food we eat, and the kind of food that's promoted to us, and the kind of food that is provided to us.
If you love someone [who is overweight], you want, I think, two things for them. You want to protect them from being bullied and abused, and you want them to be as healthy and live as long as they possibly can. And I don't see those goals as contradictory. You can express your love in a bullying and nasty way, in which case there is a contradiction. But I think there is a way that we can express that love and that compassion for [overweight loved ones that says] ‘I want you to be healthy.’”
On how modern food systems impacted our eating habits
“Everywhere in the world, obesity explodes where they make one change. It's not where people become lazy; it's not where people become weak [or for any of the]…stigmatizing things we [often] say. It's when there is a flip from a culture that promotes and facilitates mostly eating healthy, fresh food…what my dad grew up with, to mostly eating processed or ultra-processed foods. This processed and ultra-processed food affects our bodies in a really different way [than] the kind of fresh, whole foods that we evolved to eat. [Ultra-processed foods] have profoundly undermined our ability to ever feel full. And what [GLP-1s] do…is give you back that sense of fullness.”
On weight loss as a race–and GLP-1s as the ‘easy’ way to win it
“It's very deep in our culture to think that obesity is a sin that deserves to be punished. There's also an element of [seeing weight loss] as a race, a competition. There are lots of people who are making painful sacrifices in this obesogenic environment to not be fat. They go to the gym for an hour a day. They deny themselves food in a way that's really painful, and see [weight loss] as a race… [thinking]: ‘I work really hard for my place in this race, and you just jab yourself in the leg [with a GLP-1] once a week.’
I think we are in a race, but it's not ‘you versus me’— it's all of us against the processed food industry [that] screwed us up from the moment we were born, undermined us, harmed us, [and] ruined our ability to feel full. And if you think of the [weight-loss] race in that way, it's not ‘you versus me’ and we're trying to tear each other down. It's all of us against these forces that are undermining our ability to be healthy.”
On being overweight as a man
“Men face a range of issues about [weight and] sort of keep it [all] to themselves. And there are some benefits to going it alone. There are times you want to go it alone. But when you have a potential health problem, you want to be able to talk about that. Men are less likely to seek medical advice, less likely to talk to their friends about it, and they're more likely to have a cult of, ‘I should be able to do this by brute force and willpower.’ I think [weight loss is] a harder conversation [for men].”
On coping with food and the future of GLP-1s
“When I was very young, the way I soothed and calmed myself was by stuffing myself. This [habit] is very deep in my orientation towards the world. And on Ozempic, I can't. I would vomit if I tried to force myself to overeat. [After starting the drug], I realized this coping mechanism, which had been really important to me, had been taken away. Now, obviously, that has good effects for my health. Obviously, in the long term, there are better ways for me to soothe myself, [but] it was a difficult adjustment process. That's a price worth paying for most people, but [the adjustment is] a process that has to be managed. And no one warned me [about] that in advance. It's a really profound and important effect. People need to understand and be aware of it and be guided through it.
We have got a really powerful tool and solution to [obesity]. There should be a moment of profound celebration and joy. And instead of this sort of awkward silence and this shame [around taking a GLP-1]…for all the cautiousness, quite rightly, this is an astonishing moment of human liberation…”