We ask a lot of questions about our diet.

What's the right way to treat a chronic illness, fight off a virus, lose weight?

The problem is we get a lot of different answers.

Well, I'm here to help.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

The new class of weight-loss drugs, GP-1 agonists like OZempic, have received enormous,

almost unprecedented attention in the mainstream media.

They've been called the medical sensation of the decade.

The business press was practically giddy, declaring the end of the obesity

epidemic. The enthusiasm is shared in the medical literature, with headlines suggesting

there are game-changing revolutions in the treatment of obesity, therapeutic wizard miracle

drugs that are hugely effective in the treatment of obesity.

But history is littered with failed weight-loss wonder drugs.

Every other year or so, an anti-obesity medication that had been approved to be safe and effective

has had to be withdrawn from the market after serious side effects emerged.

To date, most weight-loss drugs, despite their initial approval, have since been polled

from the market for unforeseen side effects that have turned them into a public threat.

From rainbow diet pills packed with amphetamines that were marketed to women, to the rise

and fall of fen-fen,

which triggered catastrophic heart and lung conditions, history is beset by failures to find

safe, successful weight-loss drugs.

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