The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - Are Weight-Loss Drugs Reshaping How We Eat?

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

Researchers and analysts are beginning to ask whether two powerful forces are quietly reshaping how and why people eat: the rise of GLP-1 medications and the constant churn of food trends. What happens when drugs like Ozempic don't just reduce appetite but change how the body processes food, forcing users to rethink nutrition to avoid side effects and maintain balance? Could that shift create new demands the food industry is already preparing to meet? And at the same time, why do consumers continue to chase new diets, ingredients, and health claims month after month? What is driving this persistent search for the next solution, even as advice keeps changing? We examine whether these developments are connected, how pharmaceutical intervention may be accelerating longer-term shifts in food culture, and what it reveals about the forces shaping modern eating habits. Sylvain Charlebois, professor at Dalhousie University and director of its Agri-Food Analytics Lab, and Samantha King, professor and director of the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen's University, discuss nutrition, behaviour, and the emerging questions at the intersection of medicine, markets, and consumer choice.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi, I'm Nam Kiwanuka, host and producer of mistreated, a podcast on women's health. There just hasn't been a lot of money put into researching women's health issues. If women are in pain, it's hysteria, it's an emotional issue. And this is what we see consistently. Women's health is not taken seriously. How did we get here? Find us wherever you get your podcasts, and be sure to check out the video version of the show on the TVO Today YouTube channel. Hope to see you then. Ontario has art for every learner and TVO wants to bring it to you. No velvet ropes, no glass cases.

There's a rich artistic history you won't find in museums and traditional archives waiting to be discovered. From film, visual art and music to beadwork, textiles and street art. These moments, movements and makers have shaped who we are. With your support, a new TVO video series will uncover Ontario's remarkable art stories and preserve them in a living public archive. Visit TVO.com slash TVO Arts to make your donation today. Your gift is matched up to $100,000. Back in December, American restaurant chain ShakeShack

introduced a new menu. High protein, gluten-free, vegetarian, and GLP-1 Friendly. What does GLP-1-friendly even mean? Well, people taking medications like OZempec and Wagovi, are supposed to eat a certain kind of diet. Fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains. And a whole lot of Canadians are taking them for diabetes or weight management. And we're talking millions of people.

And that number could rise now that the federal government has approved a generic version. So, will these drugs change what's on the menu? We look at how GLP-1s could impact the food industry. Then, low-fat, low-carb, protein maxing. We dig into why people have such a big appetite for food trips. Welcome to the rundown. When you take medications like Ozempic, you eat less food and digest it differently. And it's important to eat the right kinds to avoid side effects and get enough nutrients,

meaning there may be an opportunity here for the food industry. Sylvain Charlebois is a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax and director of its Agrafood Analytics Lab. and he joins us on the rundout. How are you, Sylvain? Good. How are you? I am doing well. Thank you. All right, help us understand.

How big of an impact are GLP's having on the food industry? It's pretty significant. Every time you visit a corporation or you actually talk to an executive in the food industry, they talk about two things, AI and GLP1s. And absolutely. So it's impacting the snacking industry. The alcohol industry, both service retail, it's been pretty impressive. The impact is actually quite measurable right now.

All right. Well, speaking of measures, let's talk about some numbers here. I want to pull up some data from a poll done by Lejeure Healthcare earlier this year that looked at GLP1 use in Canada. Approximately 3 million Canadians are taking a prescription GLP1, which equals to about 8% of the population. Weight loss is the primary reason. for interest in a GLP1, women are more likely than men to cite weight loss, while men are more

likely than women to cite heart health or cardiovascular risk reduction. Now, cost is the number one factor influencing potential use of a GLP1. Amongst those with interest, over half say insurance coverage or a lower cost generic version would increase their likelihood of using a GLP1. So how consistent is this data with the conversations that you're having with users or with market specialists. Yeah, results are very, very similar. So the three million number that you presented just there is consistent with what we found out. I mean, three million is basically half of Toronto. That's a lot of people. And it's a lot of people eating less, eating differently. The issue, of course, is impulse. The one thing that people may not know is that the food industry really

relies on impulsive behaviors. We eat on impulse, we buy an impulse. Can you imagine a rational, a very rational consumer times three million and that number is likely to go up. We have generics now that are available. Two of them have been approved. Several others are pending and that is likely to make the medication much more accessible. So we are expecting that's million to perhaps reach five million with the next five years. So that change is really significant. You have kept your eyes on GLP1 use here in Canada for a couple of years now. You reported in 2024. And I am curious, how has the research evolved since then? It's been interesting because, of course, the public discourse around GLP1 has always been around how it affects you, your body,

So the medical field was very interested in knowing more about the JLP1 phenomena. As food economists in the food sector, obviously we were more focused on how that phenomenon is impacting our food economy. And back in 2024, two years ago, already we were hearing rumblings and we actually had private meetings. We actually did publish our first report and we did get phone calls from. major major companies, CPG companies that are in Canada wanting to know more about what is going on because they're probably seeing in their own numbers, top line and bottom line. I think they are seeing some changes there. We've seen companies like Nestle launching a GLP1 friendly line of products, food products. We're seeing chains also adapting as well. Shake Shack is the most recent one

with a GLP1 menu, imagine. And so you can see that it is really profoundly changing how the food industry is designing their own R&D agenda, basically. Well, so you mentioned, you know, it's Shake Shacks, what they call the Good Fit menu. This was launched back in December, specifically targeting GLP1 users. Are we going to see more of this overt marketing in the coming months and years? Oh, absolutely. and Heiser Bush actually just recently mentioned that they're looking into launching, get this, a protein fortified beer.

Okay. That is no coincidence. And I'm sure you've been at the grocery store, even in restaurants, and they offer you protein fortified, well, anything, really, coffee. Coffee's. Hop tarts. Hop tarts are protein fortified now. So you can see that. And the protein issue is, yes, there is a desire to eat more protein because the meat counter is extremely expensive.

So people are looking for another protein fix. But also the JLP1 phenomena is incredibly important here because people, when they take a JLP1, apparently they seek more protein. And so that's why companies, manufacturers are adding more protein to make themselves, immune to what's happening with the GLP1 phenomena. I want to go back to your report where you estimated that, you know, at the time in 2024, we're looking at 900,000 to 1.4 million Canadians. We're using GLP1s at that time. I'm curious about the contributing factors here in terms of why those numbers have,

if not doubled, if not tripled, in just a very short amount of time. And by the way, the industry was downplaying our number two years ago. They felt, no, it's not that much. And it's not impacting. They were in denial for a while. But now we have leisure. I think it's, they just didn't know how to deal with it. I don't think they were expecting it.

I actually had a chat with, with an executive from the pharmaceutical industry. And they're making, obviously, billions of dollars providing a JLP1 to the marketplace. And he basically said, the following statement, we are trying to fix a problem the food industry created in the fruit place, making people unhealthy. That was telling. So this is not going to go away. The farmer school industry is getting addicted, no pun, to the revenues generated by GLP1s.

And of course, on the one side, you have more money going to one industry trying to fix another problem seen as a problem created by the food industry. So the food industry, I don't think was ready for this, this confrontation, this conflict, this tension between the two industries, and they're trying to figure out how to keep consumers engage with their products. Well, let's talk about, I guess, restaurants bottom lines at the end of the day. As you mentioned, side effect of one of GLP ones is a lower appetite. So we're seeing that shift in portion sizes in food industry a little bit. Is this the end of an era for, you know, supersizing your fries or combos. What does that look like?

Well, I think we're past that already, not necessarily because of the GLP1 drug, because I think the waste issue, like food waste is a big issue. And I think companies are are more careful when they're serving their patrons. But I mean, I've been out to restaurants with friends that are taking the medication and you can see. I mean, they're not eating a full soup. They're not eating a full sandwich. And so I suspect that there'll be more right sizing going on when it comes to when it comes to serving certain meals just to make sure that they're not wasting anything. That's one thing. But I can tell that really the restaurant industry is going to struggle with this one for sure.

I mean, how can you possibly sell to someone who's going to be eating less? He's not going to drink or she's not going to drink. The entree is gone. desserts gone and those are money makers for the food service industry which is why we've predicted this year that the net number of restaurants in Canada would go from 87,000 to about 83,000. So minus 4,000 and so we are seeing more restaurant operators struggling in serving a marketplace with a growing number of people on the GLP1 drug. I have to imagine a lot of these restaurants and fast food chains.

Also, I have to think of whether it's the family nucleus or, you know, friends, as you mentioned, you're going out to places where someone is taking the medication, having to think of sort of the broader picture of who else is coming into the restaurant as well, I imagine. It reminds me of the plant-based revolution. If you remember a few years ago, people were talking about plant-based vegetable protein. And again, restaurant operators democratized their menu. They didn't want to exclude the vegans, the vegetarians, because they, you know, they didn't want to exclude the vegans, because they often have friends.

And if you actually don't have anything to offer to that one person, they're gone. They're not going to come to your restaurant. I think it's going to be the same thing for GLP1s. Not everyone will be on a GLP1, but that group of friends, family, will want to go to places where, well, the menu is absolutely democratized and flexible for everyone. And so I think that's probably what we're going to see more of. Instead of just providing or here you go, here's a menu for GLP1 users. I mean, not everyone is going to openly say that there are a GLP1 drugs.

So it's not something you'll admit openly. When it comes to protein consumption, veganism, vegetarian, people are more comfortable declaring that they have a certain dietary lifestyle. But the GLP1 situation I think is much more sensitive. I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about grocery stores. Are we seeing grocery stores changing their tactics and strategies here as well? Not yet. I would say changes are more up the food chain.

But here's the other thing happening at the same time at GLP 1 and both are somewhat intersecting. And that's the new Health Canada logo, the fat sodium sugar logo that everyone is seeing at the grocery store. So up, what people don't see is that up the food chain, many companies are saying, okay, so we have these logos. We are not launching a new product if we have to put a logo on there. But the other motivation that they have is that if they actually have to put a logo on, it means that that product may be less attractive for people on a GLP1 drug as well. So there are two things happening at once right now in Canada, which is really interesting. And I would say it's probably going to make our grocery store healthier over time

because of these two phenomena is happening at once. All right. I want to look into the future. As you mentioned earlier, a generic version of semaglutide has now been approved by Health Canada. Will we start to see the number of prescription users increase? As we should mention, you know, a GLP1 is a drug that you would have to take for the rest of your life. we have to note that there are some people who will go off of gLP ones as well there are some side effects that come with it but will we see these with these generics on the table now will we see

those numbers continue to grow yeah we are expecting that number to grow up to five million within the next five years as a result of generics being approved i mean we don't know exactly at what price these generics will be sold but we do know that that both ozembic that was approved in 2018 and while Govite was approved in 2022 for weight loss specifically is is financially prohibitive it's very expensive and so so we are expecting these generics to be more accessible financially which is likely going to grow the market so that we are going to have to leave it there but I really appreciate your insights I'm sure we will continue and pick this conversation up in a couple of years and see where we land so thank you

very much. Really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. I don't know about you, but it feels like every month there is a new food trend, new advice on what to eat, what to avoid, what's popular. So why are we always on the lookout for the next big thing? Samantha King is a professor and director of the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen's University. And she joins me. How are you doing, Samantha? good, the sun's shining. There we are. All right. Well, help me understand how does social media affect our diet and food choices? It's certainly an important factor in terms of reaching really broad and diverse demographics in a very constant way. But it's not the only factor.

And, you know, media has been monetizing and indeed playing on fears about. our health and our strength and aging for decades before we had social media. So I try to emphasize that it's important and it's especially important in moments of uncertainty and crisis. I don't think it's a coincidence that protein talk really intensified during the pandemic, for instance. You know, we can't control global supply chains or, you know, the climate changes that might produce pandemics, but we can measure and fixate on the nutrients we're ingesting. And social media really helps with that.

When we talk about the ecosystem of social media, we have to talk about the role of influencers. Influencers arguably have a wider reach than health professionals. And some may even argue that they have the trust of many people online. What are your concerns with influencers offering? health advice to people. Yeah, well, one of the things I would say is that some influences are, in fact, medical doctors and nutritionists, right?

So there isn't really a clear dividing line. And I think that's one of the things that can produce confusion and information, contradiction and overload. For me, the concern is less about the information. I mean, they think if one has a medical condition, one's doctors. if one is fortunate enough to have a doctor, is the person who's going to be able to help you manage your diet. For me, it's more about the way that this constant encouragement and advice to focus on our diets in a way that treats our bodies as, you know, machines to be tinkered with and fixed really diminishes our relationship to food as a source of pleasure and community. And that influence is really strong.

I mean, there's a way in which we're all acting as if we're elite athletes, right? For whom finding the optimum diet combination is going to increase performance. But most of us are not in that category, right? We're just living our lives. And it's a really distorted relationship to food. Everywhere I go, whether it's a coffee shop, a restaurant, or even at my family dinner with my extended family, we are talking about protein.

And I need to understand why is everyone talking about protein? That is a great question. There are a number of reasons. You know, one thing to say is that our obsession with protein actually goes back to the 19th century when it was first identified as a category of nutrition. And the first protein booster, if not influencer, was a 19th century. century German scientist by the name of Baron von Liebig, who invented the first protein supplement.

So there is a longer history, but there's also a shorter history, because some of us, if we're old enough to remember, we'll remember that carbs were the charismatic nutrient of the 1970s. And then during the 80s and 90s, we slowly saw a shift towards protein as the fixation, and that's really intensified in the last 10 or so years. And it comes from a number of places new. One is the industry. We tell the story in our book about the excess of way that was created as a result of the industrialization of the dairy industry in the mid-20th century. And farmers needed something to do with all this toxic byproduct of cheese production.

And we're dumping it into rivers and streams, and it was killing the outlets. and that was choking the fish. There was presenting huge environmental problems. And they figured eventually, after many years of experimentation, a way to dehydrate way and create a palatable and digestible product. And that's the protein powder that is most popular today. If you see a protein fortified product on the shelves in the grocery store, that almost certainly has way in it.

And so they needed to create a market for that. lead athletes and bodybuilders were certainly one such market. But that's not enough, right? You have to keep growing and building your market. And that's how we've now seen the protein fixation spread across demographic groups. So I think that's one part of it. And then the other part of it is the association with protein, with strength, with muscle growth, but increasingly with healthy skin and being.

full and brain power and menopause. You know, there isn't a problem to which protein hasn't been offered as a solution. And it's very malleable in that way. It doesn't have the same negative connotation that, say, fats or carbs have. There's no such thing really as bad protein where there is or too much protein, right, where that isn't true of fats or carbs. I want to move on to another trend that we're seeing. But very quickly, as a society, when it comes to protein, are we actually deficient in protein or are we actually consuming a decent amount already? Close to 100% of Canadians are eating enough protein, according to the official guidelines. So we're getting enough. Protein is in everything from lettuce to potatoes. And if you're getting

enough nutrients overall, if you're getting enough calories, you're getting enough protein. The only exceptions to that are people who are seriously ill or frail, who may be required to take additional protein, but they are in the tiny minority of people in Canada. We don't need this protein, this extra protein that we're being encouraged to consume. Okay, well, let's talk about another macronutrient that's getting its attention, fiber. I will admit, I myself might be looking at how I can possibly get more fiber. in my diet. I might not be quote unquote fiber maxing, but help us understand why do we become so obsessed with food trends? Yeah, that's, it's a, it's a great question. And again, it predates

the present moment. And I think it really has to do with the way we are encouraged and taught to think about our bodies, which is that we're responsible for them. No one else is going to save you, right? I mean, we're, we have a collapse. health care system. We have corporations who have a real interest in selling products that have a kind of automatic association with health, even if they're full of sugar and, you know, highly processed foods. There's a veneer of health that's attached to them. So there's a political motivation to ask people to look after themselves. There's a corporate motivation. And we're, you know, a good person in our society is a person who tries to optimize their health, right? Not just

maintain it, but measure it and make it most efficient and productive, right? That's what we're supposed to be doing with our bodies. And these magic bullets that come along are extremely appealing, right? And I think the fiber one is really interesting. I'm being asked a lot about fiber in the last few weeks. I think it's a trend that began on TikTok. And, you know, my immediate response, because I too are, I'm subject to these trends, none of us can step outside of this ideology as much as we try to. I mean, I'm a professional diet skeptic and I still can't look up my dinner without thinking about the nutrients. You know, my kind of immediate reaction is to say, okay, you know, fiber is that, we actually don't get enough fiber, the research.

suggests. You know, there are health issues that we're facing as a society that are linked to not enough fiber in our diet. So maybe it's not as problematic as the protein obsession. On the other hand, my research ahead says, you know, again, we're searching for this magic bullet. We're searching for this quick fix. We're lurching from one trend to another. And this is, It's not, this is not going to save us. There is no single nutrient that is the solution to optimal health. All right. I want to talk sort of demographics.

Historically, diet culture has targeted women. Is that the case with these trends that we're seeing now? I do think that's one of the really interesting shifts. I mean, certainly with looks maxing and, and just, you know, optimization trends in general, men are a huge part of that. One of the things that I've written about is the muscular manosphere and the absolute centrality of protein and other supplement sales to the economy of the manosphere, to the way that influences male influences touting certain kinds of masculinity are able to do what they do, are able to make a living from that. So that's really shifted. And I think the, you know, the kind of really critical relationship to the body that women have been taught to take up for decades and centuries is intensifying for men.

And we can see this in the research. And we can see it probably in our everyday lives, too, that now the focus, the particular goals of the diet might be different, the particular rationalization. Chanel for focusing on one particular way of eating versus another could be gendered. It's certainly, you know, related to age and to some extent food cultures. But that's also one of the damaging things I think about these trends is that they're global, right? And they kind of override the beautiful differences in diet that makes the world an interesting and pleasurable place to live in. Well, you talk about that global reach and how effective and attractive it is to some people.

If there is someone who has fallen for these diet trends, how do they cut through the noise? What advice do you have for people? Yeah, so, you know, Michael Pollan, who's a famous writer and food critic, says, has a nice saying, which is, you know, eat food, not too much, mostly plans. And I think that, you know, as much as it's really hard as one individual person to resist these trends, I really like that mantra. We know that most of us are getting the food that we need. And at the same time that we see this absolute fixation on the components that make up our diet, you know, this treating the body as a biochemical experiment or a, motor car to be tinkered with, we also see a lot of pleasure in cooking and procuring food

and eating and communicating about it and building relationships through it. And I think the more that we can focus on that and celebrate that approach, the easier it will be to move away from this really reductive and, I think, damaging approach. Samantha, I really appreciate you taking the time chatting with us on the run down today. Thank you so much for your insights. Thank you. It was a pleasure talking with you. I'm Jan. Thanks for watching The Rundown. Have you ever changed your diet because of a food fat? I want to know. Send us an email at rundown at tvo.org. Or as always, you can drop us a

comment on our YouTube page. Until then, I will see you tomorrow. Coming up on the Rundown. Conifers, we've been focused on conifers. Why? It's because when you, you're you know, when we started logging the old growth forests, it was the conifers that brought such great market value across the world. And so we thought, oh, so the foresters thought, well, we'll just replace those conifers with more conifers without the understanding or appreciation that a forest has goes through a successional period where there's all kinds of species, right?

There's deciduous trees. There's understory plants, and they grow together in a community. So we just, they focus so much on these coniferous trees and then spraying her. herbicides and weeding out these other plants that really increase the flammability of the forest. That's coming up on the rundown. If you're enjoying this series, please consider supporting TVO with a donation to make more insightful and thought-provoking podcast possible. TVO is a registered charity and you will receive a tax receipt for your gift. Visit TVO.org slash give TVO to make your donation today.