GLP-1 Users Lose Weight, and Their Taste for Meat

People tend to eat less meat and animal products, such as beef, pork, seafood and eggs, as well as fewer processed foods, when taking GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. Researchers say that as use of these medications rises, shifting consumer habits and food preferences could transform the food industry.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medicines help control blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes. These drugs can lead to weight loss by making people feel less hungry and more full, which has led to FDA approval of drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic as weight management prescriptions.

Clinical trials of GLP‑1 drugs show weight losses of 15% or more, and emerging research suggests these medications also affect people’s food preferences, including less interest in high-calorie foods. But only a handful of published research focuses on which specific types of food people are cutting back on.

Brandon McFadden, an agricultural economist at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, and his team designed a study to investigate changes in food choices among people taking GLP-1 drugs. In a survey of 1955 consumers, 495 people were currently taking the medication and asked whether they were eating more or less of 20 different foods, including beef, pork, eggs, milk and processed foods.

One of the most significant shifts was a decrease in high‑calorie meat consumption. Nearly half of current and former GLP-1 users said they were eating less beef or pork, while far fewer said they were eating more of these meats. Many also reported consuming less milk, chicken, seafood and eggs.

Echoing previous findings, McFadden and his team found that the greatest change in food preferences was in processed foods, with more than 70% of participants reporting consuming less of them.

Fruits, leafy greens and water were the only types of food that people reported consuming more of in the study.

As sales of GLP-1 drugs are expected to grow, less beef will be eaten, suggests McFadden. Sales of GLP-1 drugs were $71 billion in 2023, and it’s estimated that roughly 9% of the U.S. population could be taking the drugs by 2035. “I don’t see any way consumption of beef isn’t decreased,” he says.

This would be a stark shift in food trends seen over the past decade or more. Today, people in the United States eat 10% more meat on average than they did in 2010, reports Investigate Midwest.

McFadden says it’s not clear what is causing the significant shift in food preferences for many people taking GLP-1 drugs. Some research suggests that people don’t like sweet and high-fat foods as much when they are taking GLP-1 drugs.

Brian Roe, an applied economist at Ohio State University, has also studied changes in the eating patterns of people taking GLP-1 drugs. He says that McFadden’s research moves beyond his own by surveying for more specific food types. Identifying how people’s interests in specific types of food could change, says Roe, can provide insight into how a rise in GLP-1 drug use could affect the way food is grown and produced.

“[It] has massive implications because meat is an intensive product to create and has a supply chain all of its own with lots of intensive use of feed grains,” says Roe. Shift in dietary patterns due to GLP-1 drugs could have “knock-on effects to the whole agricultural system,” he adds.

A similar trend appears in a preprint by Sylvia Hristakeva, an economist at Cornell University, whose team found that households with at least one person taking the GLP-1 drug spend less on food. Their data analysis shows that during the first six months of taking the medication, household spending on meat dropped by more than 5%, while spending on eggs was just slightly lower. Both were among the top ten food groups that households spent less on.

At current adoption rates of GLP-1 medications, the researchers estimate nationwide cuts in total grocery spending of around 0.9% (roughly $9 billion annually). This shift “could have meaningful economic consequences for retailers, suppliers, and overall food industry dynamics,” the authors write.