The complement trade has a protracted, tangled historical past with the world of weight-loss merchandise. Previous to the age of Ozempic, lots of the trendiest eating regimen aids have been dietary supplements, not prescription medicines: inexperienced tea extract, caffeine tablets, ephedra. In keeping with the US Nationwide Institutes of Well being, more than 15 percent of grownup Individuals have tried a weight-loss complement. Now, the complement trade is leaning into the GLP-1 growth. They will’t promote Ozempic—however they’re hitching a hefty wagon to it anyway, spinning up complete companies constructed round current demand for this blockbuster drug, or one thing prefer it.
Two various kinds of dietary supplements are glomming onto the recognition of GLP-1 agonist medicine like semaglutide and tirzepatide, which mimic a pure appetite-suppressing, blood-sugar-regulating hormone known as glucagon-like peptide-1. (Ozempic is without doubt one of the most well-known model names for semaglutide.) First, there’s an increase in efforts to market dietary supplements as complementary to GLP-1 medicine. The net storefronts for big complement retailers just like the Vitamin Shoppe and GNC now provide separate sections dedicated to promoting merchandise to soak up tandem with prescription meds. “GLP-1 Facet Results? Get Help for Your Journey,” the GNC website proclaims. The Vitamin Shoppe affords precise GLP-1 medicine by way of a partnership to launch a telehealth firm, in addition to extra conventional dietary supplements it markets as “nutrient assist,” together with probiotics, fiber, and multivitamins.
Brian Tanzer, the Vitamin Shoppe’s director of scientific and regulatory affairs, says that the corporate affords merchandise that may compensate for the dietary deficiencies that may come up when folks taking GLP-1 medicine minimize energy. “Present knowledge reveals {that a} important proportion of the inhabitants doesn’t meet their each day requirement for a number of vitamins, and this can be exacerbated by a drastic discount in calorie consumption due to using GLP-1 medicines,” he says.
Meals and complement big Nestlé is getting in on the motion, too. Along with launching an upcoming line of meals aimed particularly at individuals who take GLP-1 medicines, the corporate additionally launched an internet site, GLP-1nutrition.com, promoting a wide range of dietary supplements to “complement your GLP-1 journey.” “We’re the primary main meals firm to enter this area,” Nestlé exterior communications lead Dana Stambaugh advised WIRED through e-mail. In the meantime, meal supply companies have additionally began courting GLP-1 sufferers. Each day Harvest affords a “GLP-1 Help” bundle of meals designed to attraction to folks on these medicines; a smaller service known as BistroMD peddles similar fare.
Whereas GLP-1 medicine are remarkably efficient, they typically additionally cause side effects like gastrointestinal misery and muscle loss. Unwanted side effects might be extreme sufficient that folks cease taking the medicines. A latest research from the Blue Cross Blue Defend Affiliation found that over half the folks it surveyed who had been prescribed these medicine previously decade stopped taking them inside three months.
Weight problems medication doctor Alexandra Sowa not too long ago launched a line of dietary supplements aimed toward folks taking GLP-1 meds. “I used to be cobbling collectively what I might discover out in the marketplace to fulfill the wants of my sufferers,” she says. “Nothing has been made only for the GLP-1 person.” Sowa, who nonetheless runs her Manhattan-based apply, says the purpose is to maintain sufferers comfortably on the medicines by serving to to alleviate unintended effects. Her system sells three powdered dietary supplements (electrolytes, protein, and fiber) that may be bought collectively or individually; they have been designed to attraction to the tastebuds of individuals on GLP-1 meds, who won’t tolerate candy merchandise as they as soon as did.
The opposite kind of Ozempic-adjacent complement on the rise proper now could be positioned not as a helpmeet to pharmaceutical choices however as an alternative in its place. These merchandise typically have “GLP-1” of their identify, signaling to potential clients who’re accustomed to the prescription medicines that they provide one thing in the identical universe. A model known as Supergut touts prebiotics as “nature’s Ozempic” in its advertising and claims that its merchandise “set off your physique’s hunger-quieting GLP-1 hormone naturally.” The complement model Pendulum affords a “GLP-1 Probiotic,” which it additionally claims helps enhance GLP-1 manufacturing “naturally.” Different traces, like Codeage, provide blends just like the “GLP Benefit+,” which comprises L-taurine, decaffeinated inexperienced tea leaf extract, boron, prebiotics, and a wide range of different components, together with berberine, an antibiotic-like ingredient in style with wellness influencers on TikTok who tout its appetite-suppressing properties. When requested if Codeage supposed the product as an alternative choice to GLP-1 medicine for individuals who don’t need to take pharmaceuticals, cofounder Auggie Quancard mentioned it was “designed for people occupied with supporting their metabolic well being.” (Codeage additionally affords a product the corporate says is to be taken in tandem with GLP-1 medicine.)
