The results suggest that the buying changes could matter for grocery chains and restaurants.<\/p>\n Receipts show appetite shifts<\/p>\n Food purchases change quietly when people feel full sooner, and store scanners record those choices without relying on memory.<\/p>\n The work was led by Sylvia Hristakeva, an assistant professor of marketing in Cornell\u2019s SC Johnson College of Business.<\/p>\n Her research centers on how health influences consumer demand, a perspective that keeps the spending study firmly rooted in everyday household choices.<\/p>\n How the drugs work<\/p>\n Doctors prescribe Ozempic and Wegovy as GLP-1 receptor agonists<\/a>, medicines that mimic a gut hormone to curb appetite.<\/p>\n These medicines also slow stomach emptying, which reduces the urge to keep eating soon after a meal.<\/p>\n Lower hunger<\/a> can bring nausea or vomiting for some users, so clinicians usually increase doses slowly over several weeks.<\/p>\n Why appetite signals matter<\/p>\n A late-night snack run often reflects a mix of physical hunger and ingrained routine rather than true need alone.<\/p>\n Appetite medicines can change cravings, because the brain weighs pleasure signals differently when hunger cues stay lower all day.<\/p>\n Less craving often means fewer impulse snacks, yet individual experiences vary widely, especially when people take the drugs for diabetes.<\/p>\n Linking surveys to receipts<\/p>\n The researchers matched survey answers about when the medicines were started to checkout records from about 150,000 participating U.S. households.<\/p>\n The team used an observational study, research that tracks people without assigning treatments, to compare adopters with similar non-users.<\/p>\n Matching narrows the most visible differences, but unseen factors \u2013 such as dieting efforts or changes in insurance coverage \u2013 could still shape what ultimately ends up in shopping carts.<\/p>\n Grocery spending and snacks<\/p>\n Grocery budgets fell soon after adoption, and lower totals lasted at least one year for households that stayed on medication.<\/p>\n \u201cThe data show clear changes in food spending following adoption,\u201d said Hristakeva.<\/p>\n Later, the decline weakened, so the results describe average behavior, not a guarantee for any individual family over time.<\/p>\n The biggest cutbacks appeared in ultra-processed foods<\/a>, where cravings often drive extra buying.<\/p>\n Savory snacks dropped 10.1%, with similar declines in sweets, baked goods, and cookies during the early purchasing period.<\/p>\n Everyday essentials, including bread, meat, and eggs, also saw declines, showing the trend went beyond merely skipping snacks.<\/p>\n Foods substituted for snacks<\/p>\n Some purchases moved the other way, hinting that smaller<\/a> appetites can steer shoppers toward foods that feel easier to finish.<\/p>\n Yogurt rose the most, followed by fresh fruit, nutrition bars, and meat snacks \u2013 which all increased modestly.<\/p>\n Because the baskets shrank overall, these bumps may reflect substitution, not a sweeping turn toward healthy eating for everyone.<\/p>\n Appetite drugs and restaurant spending<\/p>\n Eating out often happens without much thought, especially when commuters grab quick meals between work, errands, and school pickups.<\/p>\n Spending fell about 8.0% at fast-food chains, coffee shops, and similar places after households started GLP-1 medicines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fewer restaurant visits could matter most in neighborhoods built around drive-through traffic, though home cooking also carries its own costs.<\/p>\n Appetite effects vary by income<\/p>\n Money and time both influence what lands in a cart, because higher-income households buy more convenience and discretionary treats.<\/p>\n Among higher-income households, grocery spending fell 8.2% \u2013 a larger percentage drop than the average cut across all adopters.<\/p>\n Bigger starting budgets can produce bigger percentage changes, but the spending study cannot determine whether choices came from health goals or side effects.<\/p>\n What happens after treatment <\/p>\n In the spending study, discontinuation of appetite drugs pulled food spending back toward earlier levels, and grocery baskets became slightly less healthy than before starting medication.<\/p>\n In a U.S. cohort<\/a>, 46.5% with diabetes and 64.8% without diabetes discontinued GLP-1 medicines within one year.<\/p>\n That pattern makes long-term market forecasts tricky, since food habits can bounce back when treatment pauses or ends.<\/p>\n Food industry reactions<\/p>\n Food companies watch these patterns, because smaller appetites can reduce demand for large packages, snack multipacks, and combo meals.<\/p>\n Retailers may respond with smaller portions, more protein-rich items, and clearer nutrition information that fits lower-calorie shopping habits.<\/p>\n Those moves could broaden choice, yet they could also steer marketing toward medically driven customers and away from people without access.<\/p>\n Bigger health questions<\/p>\n As GLP-1 medicines spread, public health planners want to know whether appetite control lasts, and who can afford ongoing treatment.<\/p>\n Better data on diet quality, muscle loss, and long-term safety will matter as insurers and governments debate coverage rules.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the study shows how a medicine that changes appetite can ripple into spending, supply plans, and daily routines.<\/p>\n Tracking purchases over time can show how biological appetite control interacts with education and labeling, though barriers like access and adherence continue to limit its impact.<\/p>\n The study is published in the Journal of Marketing Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new analysis of millions of shopping receipts reveals that popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,1625,490],"class_list":{"0":"post-380741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-lifestyle","12":"tag-medication"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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