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Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not a fan of Ozempic, the drug that appears so effective at helping people lose weight that it gave rise to a condition called “Ozempic face.”
The drug and others in its class effectively suppresses the appetite, and it has been credited not only for weight loss, but for growing the economy. These drugs have also become political, in part because of debate over whether Medicaid should cover them and whether, as RFK Jr. says, Americans are better off changing what they eat to lose weight, instead of taking pills.
Into this debate comes an interesting new worry: What weight-loss drugs are doing to the American dinner table.
In the journal First Things this week, Kari Jenson Gold wrote about a dinner party in which three guests, presumably on Ozempic, spent the time pushing their food around their plate, without eating or drinking anything. Their inability to eat the meal she had spent so much time preparing, Gold wrote, cast a pall over the table. In this setting, “Even the most charming of guests cannot compensate for an untouched plate.”
She goes on to connect the dots of how something that seems so benign — taking pills to suppress appetite — can have unintended consequences, such as suggesting to children that food is something to be avoided, not enjoyed, and making people unable or reluctant to participate in one of society’s most meaningful rituals. There is, after all, little pleasure in sitting down at a table filled with food if you have no desire to eat.
“Dinner,” Gold writes, “is the foundation of a civilized society. Hospitality is a fundamental human virtue, and the profound importance of coming together around a table over food has been understood for millennia. Welcoming strangers and those who are not already part of the family is central to every religion and culture. Dinners have begun marriages and ended wars. They unite families, communities, and nations.”
It is also worth noting on Holy Week that a shared meal plays a central role in the Christian journey to Easter.
It is true that millions of people are being helped by these drugs, officially GLP-1 receptor agonists. Ozempic, in particular, was developed to treat people with Type 2 diabetes, and that is still its only approved use, although it has become synonymous with other drugs in this class. But there are also reports of celebrities using the drug to get even thinner than they already are and people microdosing Ozempic as part of a wellness routine. About 54% of Americans approve of the use of the drugs for adults with a weight-related medical condition, but that falls to 12% when respondents are asked about the use of the drug by people who aren’t obese and just want to lose some weight, according to polling released earlier this year.
It is this casual use of the drugs that might warrant concern, particularly as we see the disturbing rise of what Gold describes as “gobbling fast food while scrolling through Instagram.” In this culture, children fail to learn the pleasure of good conversation and the exchange of ideas while lingering over a good meal. Research has shown an astounding array of benefits to children who regularly sit down for meals and conversation with their family, ranging from better vocabularies and more interest in reading, to improved outcomes later in life — including reduced odds for obesity.
On the same day that Gold’s piece was published, the headline on Ryan Burge’s Substack was “High school students are growing incredibly antisocial.”
And the most recent World Happiness Report noted that the frequency of eating alone is associated with lower levels of wellbeing: “In 2023, roughly 1 in 4 Americans reported eating all of their meals alone the previous day – an increase of 53% since 2003. Dining alone has become more prevalent for every age group, but especially for young people.”
Ozempic and other appetite-suppressing drugs are not solely to blame for that, of course. But they are yet another factor nibbling away at a vital thread in our social fabric: the relationships forged and strengthened while sharing meals.
Is it OK to say ‘happy Easter’ again?
President Donald Trump issued a statement on Holy Week that has raised eyebrows, even among people who liked the substance of the message. The president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Albert Mohler Jr., for example, took it up on his podcast, The Briefing, noting that the statement made “explicitly theological claims.”
“That’s not the language you expect to hear from a government official, not to mention the president of the United States. There is something here which should have our attention,” Mohler said. The statement certainly got the attention of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which called it “overt iteration of extreme Christian dogma” that signaled “fealty to Trump’s white evangelical Christian base.”
In fact, the language of the statement was more Catholic than evangelical, referring as it does to the “Mass of the Lord’s Supper” and “the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night.” Melania Trump is a Catholic, and while her husband is not, he has posted Catholic prayers on social media.
There’s certainly an argument to be made that Trump’s “Make Holy Week Holy Again” campaign — which includes a worship service at the White House on Thursday — is political theater, and inappropriate in a nation that cherishes the separation of church and state.
But many Christians are celebrating it, feeling that it contributes to a growing sense that it’s OK to be religious again. This is not just coming from the White House, but from celebrities encouraging us to join a prayer app, reports of a resurgence of faith among young men and the mind-boggling fact that “American Idol” will have a three-hour special on Easter Sunday, featuring “songs of faith.” And maybe it’s just me, but I seem to be seeing a lot of cross necklaces everywhere these days.
Last year, my oldest son committed the faux pas of wishing a stranger happy Easter on Easter Sunday. The person snippily replied “Happy holidays,” casting a pall upon what could have been a pleasant exchange. Sunday is Easter whether you observe it or not. Maybe one day we can return to the place where we can say “happy Easter” or “happy Passover” without fear that someone will make a federal case out of it.
Recommended reading
Asma Uddin, who recently wrote movingly about how her husband’s cancer diagnosis upended their observance of Ramadan, shares another story from that experience — how she and three friends began reading aloud from a prayer book in the hospital waiting room. “As weeks passed, I realized our ritual was serving purposes beyond its original intent. Yes, we were directing blessings toward my husband, but something else was happening too. A friendship was deepening through shared practice, through whispered Arabic phrases, through the vulnerability of praying together in public.”
When love and prayer intertwine
Los Angeles County has agreed to pay $4 billion to settle claims in a sex abuse case involving victims of child abuse. Naomi Schaefer Riley unpacks what enormous payouts like this mean, not only for those who suffered harm in the past, but those who will today because of limited resources: “These eye-popping awards may seem justified when considering the harm that is done to people, and maybe they will send a message to organizations that we are serious about the problem of sexual abuse. But could that have been accomplished with a $1 billion or a $500 million settlement?”
A $4 billion settlement in LA has implications for the whole country
While divorce can be a relief for children whose parents had a “high-conflict marriage,” the effects are more brutal and long-lasting if the marriage was low-conflict before the divorce. Meagan Kohler examines the research: “Because the upbeat divorce narrative reinforces the idea that impermanence is a feature of our most intimate relationships, children from these marriages often fear forming intimate and committed relationships. ... (Judith) Wallerstein’s study found that 40% of children from divorced families had never married ... By contrast, only 16% of children from intact families had not married.”
The hidden tragedy of an ‘upbeat divorce’
Endnotes
Taylor Lorenz, once of The New York Times and The Washington Post, is defending comments she made on CNN about Luigi Mangione, the man charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year. Watch the full interview, and it appears that she was saying that some women consider Mangione a “morally good man,” as opposed to making that pronouncement herself. But her past comments about the case rightly color how this interview landed. Here’s the story.
Happy Easter, happy Passover, happy Spring and happy Boston Marathon to those who celebrate. As always, you can reach me at Jgraham@deseretnews.com or find me on X. Thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community.