A statistic from #AspenIdeasHealth according to a PwC survey of 3,000 U.S. adults: one in five households now has someone taking a GLP-1 medication, up 57% in just 18 months. Over the same period, spending on fast food and groceries has fallen.

We have known for decades that obesity is one of the most powerful drivers of #cancer, #heartdisease, #dementia, #diabetes, and #sleepapnea. When people lose weight, they feel better, and they're making visibly different choices about what, and how much, they eat.

In the session "How GLP-1s Are Transforming the Economy," Ali Furman of PWC put it clearly: GLP-1 stigma is subsiding, adoption has climbed fast, and if you imagine a once-a-year injection, there's a plausible world where 50–75% of U.S. adults are on one of these drugs within a decade. Bertha Coombs noted generic semaglutide is likely within five years, which is when access really opens up.

But there's a gap that should bother us: Laura Steele with Eli Lilly shared that half of people living with obesity don't have a primary care doctor. One in three American adults doesn't have one at all. A miracle drug means nothing to someone the system never sees. That's why Healthful Data is focused on educating and activating each of us towards the right health care, so that we can each be seen ahead of a crisis of need.

I followed up with Ali after the panel to thank her but also to share an uncomfortable observation: the consumer goods companies whose products fuel much of this crisis simply weren't attending Aspen Ideas Health. They didn't show up perhaps because too many of them may still not believe they can be part of the solution to our health care crisis.

Until food and consumer companies recognize they have a stake in our nation's health and well-being, that they are, in fact, healthcare companies, we will keep treating reactively downstream the non-healthful foods they keep manufacturing upstream.

#AspenIdeasHealth #GLP1 #Obesity #HealthEquity #FoodAsMedicine #Healthful #HealthfulData