But when people begin taking GLP-1 medications, it's as though someone finally found the volume knob and dialled it down to zero. The experience is something like an instantaneous liberation, so surreal and dramatic it almost feels like magic.
Recently, a good friend described starting tirzepatide this way:
"Bro, my food noise just vanished. Gone. Poof. I finally had the freedom to think about other things. And my shopping basket changed overnight. I actually wanted leafy greens and sweet potato. Sweet potato! Do you know how crazy that is?”Stories like my friend's are piling up everywhere. So what's actually happening inside the brain when food noise just... stops?
When the brain says no
We've known for a while that GLP-1 meds like semaglutide dial down cravings, but now we've got visual proof of it actually happening in the brain.
A groundbreaking randomized controlled trial just published in Nature Medicine, used functional MRI (fMRI) scans to watch people's brains in real-time as they looked at images of high calorie, high sugar foods (think pizza, cakes, burgers etc) while taking tirzepatide, liraglutide, or a placebo.
After just three weeks on tirzepatide, the brain regions that light up when we see junk food went quiet. The areas responsible for cravings and reward anticipation (like the cingulate gyrus and medial frontal gyrus) showed roughly 170 % to 220 % less activation than they did on placebo, meaning these brain regions actually went into suppression. (...)
You’d think a drug like this would just crush hunger everywhere, like a sledgehammer smashing through a wall. Nope. Tirzepatide works more like an elite sniper perched on a rooftop, laser focused and zeroing in on your strongest cravings for high calorie, high sugary crap and picking them off with precision.
Amazingly, it leaves your appetite for fresh salads, crisp veggies, and sweet raspberries untouched.
Cravings for healthier foods (fruits and vegetables) remained virtually unchanged
The $1.2 Billion Question
Now, let’s zoom out for a second. What happens if millions of us suddenly lose that intense urge for soda, chips, or those wonderful chocolate chip cookies from subway (my fave)?
Agricultural economist Brian E. Roe calculated that even moderate levels of adoption of GLP-1s, say 10% among overweight people and 20% among those with obesity, would lead to a 3% drop in total calorie demand in the U.S.
That translates to around 20 billion fewer calories eaten daily and $1.2 billion less spent each week on food and drinks.
In other words, companies like Coca-Cola, Kellogg's, and Nestlé, who’ve built sprawling empires by tapping directly into the very cravings we've just seen silenced on MRI, may soon face an existential threat.
Some innovative companies, however, have already started adapting.
Smoothie King sensed the winds shifting first, cleverly rolling out high-protein, GLP-1-friendly shakes to capture the health-aware consumer.
Expect other fast-moving brands to dive headfirst into a wave of products customized specifically for people freed from the constant grip of food cravings.
The rest will need to pivot quickly or risk fading into oblivion.
GLP-1s as Impulse Dampeners
But tirzepatide might be doing something even more profound than silencing food noise. The same study suggests it's actually rewiring impulse control in the brain itself.
The researchers measured impulsiveness using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, a validated psychological tool that captures everyday impulsive tendencies like “acting without thinking” or “struggling to resist urges.”
After 3-6 weeks of tirzepatide treatment, participants reported feeling significantly less impulsive than those who received the placebo.
They reported feeling calmer, more in control, and far less prone to snap decisions or irresistible urges.
This is important when you consider that impulsivity is the engine behind pretty much every self-destructive habit out there. Whether you're talking binge-drinking, gambling, chain-smoking or falling into the black hole of substance abuse.
If GLP-1 meds can dial down the noisy circuits in our brains screaming 'just do it!', we might be staring down the barrel of an entirely new way of treating addiction and it’s devastating consequences.
Just imagine a world (to borrow from John Lennon) with fewer overdose headlines, calmer Friday nights in emergency rooms, shrinking gambling debts, maybe even drops in domestic violence and incarceration rates.
Researchers are taking this seriously.
Major clinical trials already underway are testing whether GLP-1 meds might quiet the destructive impulses behind addiction itself. If they're right, we're looking at something much bigger (and far more important) than just weight loss.
by Ashwin Sharma, MD, GLP-1 Digest | Read more:
Image: GPT/GLP-1 Digest Illustration; Nature Medicine
[ed. See also: How GLP-1s Are Breaking Life Insurance; and, Why are GLP1 drugs good for everything?]
