My grandmother, who loved food, was briefly thin and apparently very crazy in the 70s due to the amphetamines her doctor prescribed for her weight. It helped me lose weight, but it was the silver bullet of the times, until it turned out that it also made me mentally ill. So she stopped taking amphetamines, gained weight again, and cut back on household chores. Another symptom of amphetamines is that housework and chain-smoking, which may be related to the aggressive marketing of amphetamines, became enjoyable. The drug was called Benzedrine (Speed).
I tell you this story because there is a new wonder weight loss drug called Ozempic. A newspaper asked me to feature it, and I told them I didn't believe in miracle cures and would rather eat my own hands. I've been overweight to one degree or another all my adult life. Perhaps this is my subconscious talking and I want to stay fat, but I'm not ready to tell you why, but I don't think so.
Ozempic has apparently caused multiple celebrities to lose their ability to enjoy food, become thinner, and stop eating. Pharmaceutical companies are now conjuring up a hellscape where people gain weight for common reasons (bad diet, lack of exercise) and then take a swig of Ozempic. Author Johan Hari calls Ozempic's new book a “magic pill,” and that's exactly what it should be called. Magic sting — lose weight again.
The list of potential side effects is scary to read, but some people want to lose weight at all costs.
Maybe I read too many fairy tales, but I don't trust this. It couldn't be simpler. Rather, I trust WH Auden. “Every cost/horrible card should be forewarned/paid.” The list of potential side effects is frightening to read, and some people want to lose weight at all costs, with what some call the “Ozempik face.”
It is true that obesity is on the rise. 65% of people in the UK are overweight, making it the fattest country in Western Europe. What should I do? Of course, you can eat less and exercise more, but in these decadent times, that's not enough. Just reopen pools and sports fields and lower usage fees. It will pay for itself in productivity and in reducing the burden on the NHS. Fat people get sick.
We can create roads where children can play safely and reduce the pressure on roads caused by cars. We all know that screen time and sugar are both addictive and addictive, but we might as well consider how to market them to children without proper restrictions. I wouldn't say no to simple chocolate packaging, and I would give every school-age child a bicycle and a safe place to ride.
But these strategies are obvious and boring, and people do not contribute to political parties to implement them. They deny the truth while rebelling against the fabricated cult of individualism. Governments have a role to play in public health, especially during times of crisis.
Shouldn't we just take a miracle drug instead? Why not replace one drug with another? Because this is what it is. Obesity is a social and emotional problem, and if you treat it with drugs rather than addressing the cause, it will stay that way. I went back to eating with my own hands.
(Lawrence Cendrowitz/Netflix © 2024)
The truth behind Bridgerton's dreams
Netflix's Bridgerton, starring Nicola Coughlan, returns with a dream of Regency London: a 19th-century city without hunger or filth. The servants are ecstatic, the people wear an impossible amount of lilac, and the horses wear ribbons around their necks. All of this is as implausible as Bridgerton's main conceit, which is biracial aristocrats, so I guess they did all of that. According to Julie Peakman's Libertine London, the city was more of a syphilitic nightmare, where bastards sold and raped young children on the streets. Although it was endemic, it went unpunished, and syphilis became less popular. I don't mind dredging up the past for entertainment, but I worry that people who don't read history will believe it and hate the modern world, where syphilis is less and democracy is more advanced. Novelist LP Hartley called the past a foreign country, but Bridgerton would blow his neck off.
Tanya Gold is a columnist for the Evening Standard
