A former Coca-Cola and pharmaceutical consultant said the push to put kids on weight-loss drugs ignores what he calls the root issue behind obesity — added sugars and processed food — and will fail to prevent more people from developing the disease.
The American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) released guidelines last month encouraging pediatricians to be more proactive in fighting childhood obesity, with treatments including rigorous lifestyle changes or even weight loss drugs, or in some cases, surgery for children as young as 12. Calley Means, who co-founded a company that promotes food as medicine, blamed added sugar that food manufacturers put in products to increase flavor or extend shelf life for the rise in obesity along with other chronic diseases.
"The only thing that will make us healthier, more fertile, less depressed, less obese, is attacking the root cause," the TrueMed co-founder told Fox News. "There are public policy measures that can take the poison out of our children's food supply and stop subsidizing it."
Added sugar intake has long been connected with a variety of health issues. Effects include "higher blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes and fatty liver disease," which are "all linked to an increased risk for heart attack and stroke," according to Dr. Frank Hu, a Harvard University nutrition professor.
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Obesity affected around 20% of children between the ages of 2 and 19 between 2027 and 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When left untreated, obesity can lead to heart disease, diabetes, depression and other chronic conditions.
Ozempic and Wegovy are Food and Drug Administration-approved diabetes medications that doctors prescribe for weight loss, which act as appetite suppressants, however, only Wegovy has been approved for chronic weight management in adolescents 12 and over so far. But an April 2022 peer-reviewed study published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism found that patients who went off these drugs regained two-thirds of the lost weight within a year.
"Ozempic will not decrease obesity long term," Means told Fox News. "Making teenagers lifetime patients, that's not good for kids."
"Ozempic is a Band-Aid," he added.
H/T Fox News (read more at FoxNews.com)
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