We are delegating away another entire region of our lives—weight management—to Big Pharma. We’re essentially holding our hands up and saying, “Sorry, we just can’t do this. You’ll have to do it for us.” And would you believe it, that’s exactly what Big Pharma is saying in its advertising for these new drugs? “You can’t do it alone. Dieting, exercise and willpower just don’t work.” (It’s what processed-food manufacturers, like General Mills, are saying too, by funding anti-diet influencers on social media, who tell viewers how much you eat doesn’t affect your weight—so go ahead and have another bowl of frosted fruit loops.)
We’ve already delegated significant control to Big Pharma over portions of our lives that were once entirely our own. We’ve delegated control of our moods, for example. In Scotland, a full quarter of all adults are now on anti-depressants—that’s one million out of a total of four—in addition to hundreds of thousands more who are on a potent cocktail of antipsychotics, anti-anxiety, mood-regulator and pain relief drugs.
This is what the philosopher Ivan Illich, in his book Medical Nemesis, called “cultural iatrogenesis”: “when the medical industry saps the will of the people to suffer their reality.”
Or, indeed—he should have added—to change it.
From my latest essay on weight-loss drugs, exclusively on my Substack:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-154108928
