I was hoping this would be more of a deep dive into the history and science and current issues around these drugs, which is something a lot of patrons are very interested in learning more about, and less of Hari's memoir-style narrative. (I'm not saying the topic would have necessarily been better served by an author with no personal experience of taking Ozempic--in fact I can't overstate how beneficial it can be to have academics and journalists who have actually taken drugs write about the drugs in question, eg. Carl Hart--just that I think in this particular case the book would be better served and more widely appealing and useful to readers if it were less author-focused.)

Around 7 years ago, I did a full spectrum of lab tests that determined that I was close to becoming pre-diabetic. I had gone to a digestion specialist because I was concerned that I might have still been suffering from side effects of h-pylori food poisoning that had given me an ulcer a few years earlier. Instead of addressing this concern, that stomach-doctor was lobbying me to get a colonoscopy and to perhaps to a weight-loss surgery. I had gained around 100 pounds across the previous few years after another doctor had put me on a steroid-spray drug for my light sinus problems. The doctor who ordered lab-tests refused to see me again when I refused to do the invasive procedures he recommended, so I had to research the lab-data myself by searching for what each of the tests (hundreds of data points) was stating about my health. When I researched my weight (248 pounds at the peak in 2016), I realized for the first time that I was classified as morbidly-obese. Back in 2009, when I started my PhD studies, I was at my lowest weight in a while at around 148 pounds. I had not weighed myself outside a doctor’s office almost ever, being entirely unconcerned regarding my weight (except for moments such as when I was seriously considered for an acting role in 2008 at my lowest weight, without having looked in the mirror to check my looks had improved). When I researched obesity in 2016, the answer I found was going vegan, and so I moved rather rapidly in that direction, and lost around 100 pounds, dropping back down to around 148 temporarily by the end of 2017, before climbing upwards to 160-70 and staying at that weight through the present. I have changed my diet occasionally. Eating almost no processed food led to the low-point, as did precise calorie-counting with an app and keeping the calorie-count low to decrease the weight. Aside for my solid will-power, eating large quantities of unprocessed fruits and vegetables through the bulk of the loss kept me from being hungry simply because of the chewing labor involved and the fullness felt after eating such buckets of good food. I have also been hydrating with water and tea regularly, whereas before I almost never drank simple water just to meet a hydration-minimum, if at all. And I have been exercising daily for over an hour with aerobic, weight-training and stretching sets, across these years. I have occasionally eaten non-vegan foods whenever I have traveled to conferences and the like across my diet years, as practically always wins over the rules of this diet. I was conditioned to follow strict food rules from the 4th grade when I was exposed to them at an Orthodox Judaism school. And I have even eaten processed foods like chocolate vegan milk recently, which I would not have touched when I started this diet. The reason I almost immediately went vegan and maintained a diet unflinchingly after reviewing my lab results is because of my terror of needles, knowing that I would have to give myself regular shots if I developed diabetes. I fainted when I had those lab-tests done, and have not repeated any full set of tests since. Thus, if that stomach-doctor had told me in 2016 that the solution was to give myself Ozempic shots it would have been as strong or stronger of a “no”, as his ideas about a colonoscopy etc. being relevant. That stomach-doctor declared bankruptcy shortly after my visit, so this financial pressure must have been the reason for his strange refusal to see a patient to help with solving problems cheaply. Given these facts regarding my own experience, the weight-loss-shot trend is horrifying. If the drug is maintaining the weight loss, then going off this drug is equivalent to me reversing all my pre-weight-loss practices, including not drinking water, not exercising, and eating twice more calories of non-vegan fatty food. Staying on any drug for a lifetime is obviously as damaging to health as being an alcoholic or a tobacco smoker, especially if the drug is designed to fool the body, altering its chemistry, etc. Weight-loss surgeries work because they make people vomit if they attempt to over-eat, forcing adherence to a diet, until the stomach or the like re-expands and can again take in over-sized bunches of food. Because veganism works by over-filling the stomach with food that convinces the brain it is full earlier than compressed processed food would with equivalent calories, somebody who has had weight-loss surgery cannot also go vegan and take advantage of such fruit/vegetable-bulking. Eating half-a-watermelon for lunch would be far safer to make somebody feel full than getting a shot that makes them feel so noxious they do not want to it. I just wanted to insert this public-service-announcement before looking inside this book to warn readers away from this idea: giving this warning was my motive for requesting this book.
The subtitle of this book is at least not a pure puffery as it refers to the extremes of “Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks”. But then the “Contents” page of Hari’s book includes a typo in the subtitle of “Chapter 1… How he Drugs Work”. The first chapter that caught my attention is the one that seems to argue against my previous paragraph: “Chapter 6: Why Don’t You Diet and Exercise Instead?” Hari begins by describing a dinner out he had with a friend when “he shoveled some breaded chicken schnitzel”. I have not dined out (except for during conference trips when all rules are out) since I moved to my tiny house in Quanah in 2017. There are no fancy or semi-fancy restaurants in my region, so dining out means cheap fast-food, which is not appealing, even if I was not vegan. As soon as I realized I was morbidly obese, I decided to avoid such fast-food or minimize it. So I do not understand how Hari is actively eating this stuff, and is contemplating diabetes shots instead of just putting the “schnitzel” down. His friend asks him this same standard question. He answers that since his “late teens” he had “diligently tried” this “usually around once a year.” Why would not eating out, or eating a vegetable once a year be a serious attempt at weight loss? Obviously, whatever anybody does for 1/365 days is not going to have any meaningful impact on our weight. The obstacle that stopped him after this vigorous day was “hunger”. What? Not eating out for a day makes him hungry? Is he going from eating a wagon-of-fat to nothing, maintaining the near-zero calories until he is starving and then returning to the wagon? Why isn’t he snacking on fruits, or nuts or anything reasonably low-calorie throughout his diet days to make sure to avoid feelings of hunger preventing slide-backs? Then, he goes to a clinic for an “intestinal cleansing therapy”. The colon etc. is self-cleaning: everything in it comes out eventually somehow. If special cleaning is necessary due to constipation, eating half-a-watermelon is more likely to “clean” it thoroughly than over-the-counter drugs, or the invasive stuff that can happen at an over-priced clinic. The more fiber we eat, the faster the “intestinal” stuff is going to exit. Just a basic tip in case Hari is going to ponder the options in the future. Hari then describes that he was served “stale” bread deliberately at this clinic to teach him “to chew”. Amazingly, Hari remained in this facility, and listens with amazement to an absurd lecture on chewing technique and silent eating. At this point I realize that this chapter is supposed to be about simply exercising and eating less, and instead of just trying this, Hari has taken on a money-wasting exercise that has him having “tea” for all his meals, without meeting the caloric minimum necessary to avoid the extreme-hunger he was afraid of at the onset. When he is refused food days in, he stages an “uprising” by eating “pizza”, and leaving without his deposit. Those who run that facility know that everybody will fail and either will have paid in advance, or will return again after hunger forces them to binge after a stay. The scientists at these facilities spend their time investigating how to make people pay as much as possible, while having to provide as little food as possible, and maximizing recidivism. They win if their diet-plan fails. The simple advice is, eat less and exercise, not starve and meditate in silence. The reason 95% of dieters fail is because the diet-industry makes billions if most diets fail, whereas it would make no money if they gave advice that led to success. For example, telling a patient to go vegan and to eat as much as they want has been proven by studies to lead to significant weight-loss, which continues if veganism is maintained. It would take a few seconds for a doctor to tell a patient to go vegan and to thus increase fruit-vegetable-bean-bread-oats-etc. fiber consumption. Since this can happen during an unrelated appointment with a non-specialist, this doctor would make $0 extra for this medical prescription of good food. The patient can then lower their grocery bill by maintaining this diet. In contrast, any wellness guru who can give nonsensical advice that does not work can pocket hundreds or thousands for continuous streams of nonsensical lectures, and then this patient is forced to seek out another nonsense-lecturer or servicer who makes even more to make sure than 95% of clients fail and keep paying into this system. Weight-loss-shots that cost thousands are an example of extreme profit-margins, as the production of this drug costs pennies, and if 25% of a population were on these drugs this would equal the cost of 25% of the population having entirely unnecessary surgeries annually.
In “Chapter 7: The Brain Breakthrough”, Hari begins by reporting that he has started taking Ozempic, but while he believed (without reporting the numbers) that he was losing weight, he started feeling that his “mood was strangely muted. I didn’t feel as excited for the day ahead… I felt a little listless…” Only when he was facing clinical depression did he then begin researching “the brain effects”. He writes that the drug is supposed to work because “They are an artificial copy of a guy hormone—GLP-1—that tells you when you’re full. The real hormone lasts for a few minutes and then vanishes; the replica lingers for a whole week.” It is “boosting fullness and slowing digestion.” One of the most-frequent pieces of advice for weight-loss is increasing metabolism, which means speeding up digestion, and yet this drug performs the opposite function. Additionally, Hari realized that GLP-1 is produced in the brain, so the reduction in appetite really happens by manipulating the normal chemistry in the brain. He then cites a study that claimed that GLP-1 injected into the brain causes a “cut back on” specifically “junk food”, and the consumption of the same amount of “normal” food. This is absurd because there is no rat “junk-food”, as rats are fed rat-food… He goes on to speculate that this drug can dampen addiction, but this is entirely a false argument because he started this digression by explaining that GLP-1 is a hormone that the body releases specifically when somebody has eaten too much to signal fullness, and to slow digestion because there is too much food to process. The Mayo Clinic explains it thus: “When blood sugar levels start to rise after someone eats, these drugs stimulate the body to produce more insulin. The extra insulin helps lower blood sugar levels.” They are used by diabetics in combination with insulin because they have a parallel effect on blood sugar levels. This process can only be making somebody noxious instead of full because a drop in blood sugar level should stimulate new natural hunger to bring the blood sugar level to a stable level. If there is an artificial chemical constantly lowering the sugar level, this must be an enormous risk towards developing diabetes, just as giving somebody who is non-diabetic insulin can trigger the start of diabetes. This is all extremely disturbing. Every time I hear somebody talking about a trend towards widespread usage of these drugs, I am horrified, and reading this conversational account explains how people who fail to look up definitions on Mayo Clinic (at least) are fooled by such personal-narratives.
I hope nobody reading this review will try these drugs, nor read this book. Just listen to my free advice: exercise and eat more fiber in real food.

This was a very interesting book about using GLP-1 for weight loss. I decided to read this as my husband is using one of the drugs and I though this book would be more about the how to use it, nutrition and things you could do to prolong the weight loss when you stopped taking it. However it was about the authors journey using this type of drug for his own weight loss journey. It was interested to read about the way it made him feel and the side effects he endured. This book also has a lot of information from interviews, the history of how this drug came to be and he talks about the stigma of using these meds rather than “healthy exercise and diet” which we should all know doesn’t work for everyone.
Very interesting and with a read if you want to know more about this medication that is helping so many people.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the arc.

With the current state of injectable weight loss drugs being a hot topic in the media, I wanted to read more about the subject.

Enter Johann Hari's "Magic Pill"

This book details Hari's journey into his own weight issues, his eventual journey into taking the new weight loss drugs as well as his thoughts and research into how we got into this state of obesity in the first place. This was a fascinating book into the culture of weight and medicinal tools. Even though a lot of the book is information that is well known in regards to the obesity epidemic as well as solutions to curve it, I found myself more interested in Hari's journey into taking the weight loss medications.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read to see one man's journey into this unknown territory!

Wow. This book feels like a must-read in our current times. I have been a fan of Johann Hari since first seeing his TED Talk on addiction back in 2014. I have since read a few of his other books and have always enjoyed the subject matter he focuses on. Magic Pill was no exception. Hari is able to explore the topic of Ozempic and its related weight-loss drugs both from a first-hand experience, as well as through investigative journalism. I always appreciate when a book is able to meld the two perspectives in a way that clearly explores a topic with the reader. I was captivated by Hari's exploration of his own upbringing with food (farm-life dad and urban mom) and how eating ultra-processed foods ultimately created a coping skill of sorts in his adult life. I found it very relatable that he had a mom who viewed a microwave as a godsend.

As an American, obesity is a huge problem in our country and I think so many people would feel both validated and educated in reading Magic Pill. I also enjoyed the look into ultra-processed foods and how this is shifting our society as a whole, regardless of health or exercise status. I learned a lot in reading this book and have a greater empathy for those struggling with both diabetes and living with excess weight. I think these "magic pills" are going to be something our society will need to grapple with as they become more accessible and move from injection to pill form. Reading this book feels like a wonderful first step in making lasting lifestyle changes that can create a longer and healthier life.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing, Crown, and the author Johann Hari for the ARC of this wonderfully explorative and informative book!

Deeply fascinating read for those learning about GLP-1s, although many of the language choices discussing plus size people were unfortunate. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

Ozempic, and its semaglutide sisters, is certainly a hot button topic lately. These medications have been highly successful in terms of their promised outcomes as well as the profit they have amassed. I was curious to learn more about how these drugs work, the downsides to taking them (the author cites 12) and the long term impacts. The book’s author actually bases the book, in part, on his own personal experience plus much in depth research and analysis. I found the book to be quite balanced and it provided great arguments in favour of these drugs but also important points that countered these. Plus, the author takes a big step back and looks at the macro implications of these drugs and if they will truly solve the larger issues caused by the predatory food industry and cultural eating habits.

I found this book to be really informative and captivating. I particularly liked the chapter that explored Japanese culture and delved into what the Japanese are getting so right in this realm, and how their habits can factor into making meaningful and long term change in Western society.

The one thing I would have liked to hear in this book is a medical perspective on these medications, in addition to that of a journalist, albeit one that did thorough research.

I had read Johann Hari's previous book, Stolen Focus, so I was intrigued to read this one. He is a journalist, so this book is not a full medical treatment of obesity or weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic. Instead, it is his memoir of personally taking Ozempic for weight loss, as well as a look at the obesity epidemic and other ways to treat it. According to Hard, food-caused illnesses are estimated to be the leading cause of death, when you consider that heart disease, cancer and dementia all have a strong diet and lifestyle component. Over 42% of adults in the US are now obese, so it is incumbent on us to figure out why this happened and how to cure it. Hari looks at much of this in the book.
He looks at how Ozempic and related drugs works, as well as its benefits and side effects. Unfortunately no one knows that long term side effects of taking these drugs and once started, they usually need to be taken for life or else the weight returns. Hari suggests, and I agree, that we need to radically change the foods we eat. Our diet needs to consist of substantially more whole foods and very few processed foods. One chapter looks at the Japanese food and health culture. Japanese people have the longest life span of anyone on earth, and they remain healthier longer with many fewer heart attacks and cancers. Their society has many factors that help them reduce obesity and improve health. Unfortunately it may be difficult for the US to implement many of these changes because the processed food industry has a huge influence over both government and media.
The pharmaceutical industry also holds a huge sway over both government and media. They have a financial interest in keeping people sick and tied to medications for a lifetime. As a nutritionist I do not recommend that people use weight-loss drugs until they have exhausted the diet and exercise means available to them. I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in health and nutrition.
I received a complementary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGally.

Johann Hari’s book Magic Pill is a must-read for anyone considering using any of the recent influx of weight-loss medications:. Hari has done extensive research going to the beginning of the GLP1 trials, and the book follows his own weight-loss journey through years of successes and setbacks and personal discovery as to why weight has always been such an issue. His honesty is refreshing and I share in the frustration as he does of why some people never seem to be concerned with calories and others do. He is also very honest in his assessment of the newer weight loss treatments in that they do carry warning labels for a reason.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Crown Publishing for and advance copy on this new book about losing weight, magic cure-alls, profit, food, and the mental instability that we give ourselves for trying to live up to ideals, that might impossible.

I have always been on the portly side. Sometimes more than portly. I have in the past lost tremendous amounts of weight. And found them not as quickly, but slowly overtime. I blame this on my depression, lack of willpower and lack of motivation, which is odd in that I enjoyed exercising, walking, and even doing obstacle courses when I was slimmer. And I have never really fixated on food, as much as most people do. I do a lot of my own cooking, and don't really eat out or have fast food. I can go a whole work day without eating, and not be bothered. Which always bothered me. And like everyone I always wished for a magic spell that would make me fit, and well handsome, as being fat has always left me with a well poor body image. Johann Hari has had some of the same struggles, and feelings and in his latest and most personal work Magic Pill, discusses weight, losing it, keeping it off, the mess we have made of foods, the genetics of body size, and what a magic pill can do, both good and bad for so many people.

Johann Hari was very much like me, portly most of his life. Plus he loved food. Alot. During the pandemic he might have been without people, but he was not without Uber Eats, and gained some weight. At a Hollywood party he was surprised to see so many thin people, and was told about the new wonder pill Ozempic. Designed for diabetes, a side effect was found that it was great for weight loss, a lot of weight loss. Concerned about health issues, Hari began to take Ozempic, and noticed immediate results, some good, some not. Yes he lost weight, but he lost his taste for food, and the comfort that food gave him. Hari also lost motivation in many ways, and had many side effects. And also was faced with the fact that for all his talk about health, and losing weight, vanity had a very significant part in his reasons. Hari began to investigate he world of weight, why we lose, why it comes back, and genetics that might stop us from losing. Hari looks at the world of processed foods, and how awful it is, as compared to a country like Japan, that has a healthy relationship with food. As, Hari learns about the science of weight, he learns just as much about himself, sometimes not being happy with what he has discovered.

Johann Hari is probably one of my favorite nonfiction writers. I am not sure if it is the personal way in which he writes, the subjects that have all been of interest, and that I have learned so much. What I think I really enjoy and respect is the dogged way he will try to get answers to questions that it seems no one has asked, or even thought of. Maybe questions these experts, and medical professionals don't want to face. When a drug company like Eli Lilly doesn't want to answer questions about drugs that are making them billions, well there must be a reason. Hari looks at weight loss from a view I have not seen before, from real loss. The death of a friend from complications in health, maybe due to weight bothered Hari deeply. And made him think the best of this magic pill, even with all the side effects. Yet, while taking this, Hari still wanted to know more. And why.

After reading this I am not even tempted in the slightest for magic pills. There are fairy tales, and their are morality plays where actions have consequences. And a magic pill probably have consequences. At one point Hari discusses a study, that showed that even on Ozempic people were starting to gain weight, but the study ended, so the results are inconclusive. So there might not be a magic pill, but what I learned was to pay a little bit more attention to what I put on my plate. And who knows, simple steps might lead to big weight loss. Another fascinating book by Hari, who drops hints about his next book, which sounds just as great.

Oh boy! If your weight is affecting your health, this is a must-read. If you're sick of yo-yo dieting, read this book. If you're considering using some of the new diet drugs, read this first.

Whether you are overweight because of genetics, addiction to food, health issues, or personal choice, get this careful study. Hari examines obesity, the consequences and liabilities of being perceived as "fat" in Western culture, and the weight-loss drugs that make "the new skinny" a first-time reality for many.

I was introduced to Johann Hari through Stolen Focus, his exposé of digital addiction. It blew me away and changed my habits. (Read that review here.)

Now here comes a startling review of another current crucial issue. But Hari's writing style is compelling and readable. He highlights the advantages, risks, and unknowns of what's been unleashed in the world.

Let me say this: I am not the target market for Ozempic or the other diet drugs. Yet be forewarned. I stayed up late into the night to finish this one. And I included the subtitle above for clarity (which I rarely do).

The book contains information and implications you need to know, either for yourself or to share with others.

Read it if you or someone you care about is struggling with excess weight.