Has the US turned the tide on obesity? The latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control show that between 2017-20 and 2021-23, the prevalence of obesity fell by two percentage points.
It is perhaps too soon to get out the bunting. The obesity rate is still a hefty 40 per cent (compared with 28 per cent in the UK) and the proportion of Americans who are morbidly obese is 10 per cent (in the UK, the figure is two per cent). It will take another year or two to see whether the decline is sustained. But the signs are promising and – as John Burn-Murdoch argues in the Financial Times – there is only one plausible explanation for it: the weight-loss drug, semaglutide, sold as Ozempic or Wegovy.
I do not know enough about the success of these drugs or their side effects. I am reluctant to proclaim them a miracle.
