Last year, Americans spent over $50 billion on weight loss drugs like Ozempeck and Wagoe.

Their popularity and their price are having effects throughout the economy.

PBS News Hour Special Correspond correspondent in Washington Post columnist

Catherine Rampell has the story.

I would have come right here.

At the grocery store,

Taren Mitchell always made a beeline to the cookies.

Biskoff would have gotten me every time.

Mitchell has long struggled with her weight.

This says that a serving size is four cookies.

I would not have been able to stop at four cookies.

I'm like, I would have had four cookies

and then the next hour I would be hearing them call me.

The noise would be so loud that I would have to eat all the cookies because they just can't be there.

They miss me when they're in the pantry.

They need me.

Her food noise was muted thanks to a new class of drugs called

G. L.P. once, such as Osempic, Wegovi, and Zeppbound. They were first made to treat diabetes. After being approved for weight loss,

prescriptions have surged. About one in eight U.S. adults has now taken these meds.

The name brand versions cost about $1,000 without insurance.

It changes the way my brain responds to the hunger and it changes the way my brain tells me that I am hungry, right?

So your stomach still rumbles a little bit,

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