Opinion: The Magic Pill/Johann Hari's synopsis on what we know about Ozempic by now
Disclaimer: I am not against these drugs. I understand and agree that for some/many people, they are needed to prevent early death.
No one is missing the most likely to become a best-seller book, *The Magic Pill* by Johann Hari, out now. Obviously, being very vested in the developments of the new semaglutide drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, etc., I pre-ordered the book and anxiously waited to read it. Since I have a little bit of difficulty fully taking everything in while reading, I also decided to listen to it as an audiobook on Spotify at the same time. Clearly, I don’t want to miss anything—the topic is pressing and is about to change the world of health as we know it.
If you have been my co-traveler throughout the years, you by now know that I deeply care for humans, I take my job as a health provider and guide very seriously, and I don’t like to make statements that are not fully thought out, carefully prodded through, and pondered over. I don’t think I’ve ever written an opinion on a book either. I am definitely of the conviction that all things can be viewed from different lenses and made the hero or the villain. It’s a question of the ability to communicate and often a question of willingness to care for humanity. But as these drugs are about to change everything health-related as we know it so far, I feel that now is a good time to chime in.
What I’m writing is my opinion. It should not be misconstrued as absolute fact. I have my definite biases, and just the fact that I had to prepare myself to read with an open mind before I opened the book would tell you that what you’re reading is an opinion. I also found that process difficult. Nevertheless, it’s an opinion from a person who has faith in people, is well-read and educated, has been around for a while, and has vast experience in the fitness industry and the psychology of health and humans. But, as always, don’t believe the hype, read, learn, engage, and decide for yourself. Also, respect that other people do that too!
Who is Johann Hari, I wondered? He is a best-selling journalist who has authored several books, one on depression with which he seems to have personal experience, and one on addiction, neither of which I have read. When he narrates his book *The Magic Pill*, he has a gorgeous, soothing voice and accent, and is truly a joy to listen to. It’s somehow calming. Johann also has a very close experience with being overweight, having disordered eating behaviors, and he is currently also taking Ozempic. All of this makes me aware that already the hope for a neutral report is out of the question. Maybe good insights could come from his experience, though! Halfway through the book, as it becomes clear what tone the book has, I research a few opinions that I trust to see if my gut feeling is wrong. I like to do that because gut feelings are at best confusing. Is it gas or the nervous system? One of the reviews enlightened me with findings about the author that were interesting to me. If I’m going to read a book of facts, I need to know who wrote it. Hari has a beautiful way of telling stories interwoven with citing studies and statements from interviews he has conducted. At the end of the day, even though I believe he is a well-intentioned human, his book is riddled with bias at best, and there are so many times where words are not telling the whole story. This, in my opinion, can be detrimental to anyone who reads this book and doesn’t have the knowledge to discern what is true and what is not really true or maybe just the author's own thought or question, even bias. And since it’s a hot topic, just by sales alone it will be a best-seller. Many people will read it and form a truth of their own.
The overall feel of the book, while it weaves personal stories, interviews with scientists and people touched by the obesity pandemic, and cites studies, is that Hari cares about the topic. He also seems to love the act of journalism and prosaic writing. The language is beautiful, and even though facts are harrowing, informing us of the list of side effects as known up until now, he manages to get a chuckle out of me once in a while. That’s an art, considering he is writing about one of the most significant health crises in our living history so far.
In his attempt to state what good the semaglutide drugs are bringing, and what bad side effects they are having, he is missing the point on several things and simply completely missing facts on some. Brushing over the facts about how important and effective exercise is for health and life made me think that he is writing from his own bias, opinions, and experience much more than a research journalist should. Hari loses me completely in credibility several times throughout the book. He speaks about the proof on how diets don’t work (everybody knows this by now) but doesn't explain in depth that healthy eating, which saves lives, can be taught and is a natural healer. He also doesn’t mention anywhere, except for saying the statement that exercise does not make you lose weight, the actual benefits of movement. Movement and nutrition are how we evolved as a species. Brushing it off as “it doesn’t work for weight loss” without explaining in depth about the function and actions of eating well and movement is an embarrassing way to prove that you’re in fact NOT willing to weigh all sides in the most candid and educated way. This happens throughout the entire book.
Hari does a good job moving the story forward with facts that we have all heard about in the news up until now. He does a mediocre job at best of staying neutral and reporting facts. To me, that feels like it's feeding into our miseducation on the present societal battle, which is keeping people sick and uneducated about what makes us sick. At times he even draws conclusions that seem to be thoughts of his own. Is Hari a doctor?
The couple of things that shock me the most are how a journalist, with the best-seller stamp of being a well-researched journalist, would not even discern something so important as the differences between diabetes 1 and 2, but continuously clumps them into the same bracket. Suggesting that it is an illness that we can’t do anything about. He states it’s not anyone’s fault, except for others of course: the food manufacturing industry, government carelessness, our failing bodies, genes, the fact that we don’t have willpower, etc. Another thing he doesn’t even mention is interventions such as behavioral therapy, which is the therapy that is proven to be the most effective for disordered eating habits. In his landscape, it would be highly informative to have at least one paragraph about that.
As the end of the book approaches, he travels to Japan, which has only 4% obesity, and teaches us how Japanese society handles work, nutrition, and health education from a very young age. It’s a beautiful tale of a culture that doesn’t feel like it can’t tell people what to do. In my opinion, this is the opposite of the American, and maybe Western as a whole, culture. Hari says, after spending time there, witnessing their cultural ways, that maybe we could try to be a little bit more like them? Reading this statement makes me feel disheartened, Suddenly I’m thinking: does Hari actually know the US culture, (read western culture)? Is it helpful and realistic to write: “maybe we should be a little bit like them?” I find this statement equally absurd as saying that we should all go to a Catholic church in Italy and wear a bikini and not worry about it (this is, by the way, against the actual law). Maybe the Catholics should live a little bit like us? Suggesting that our culture, which doesn’t have their citizens health as a priority, which he himself argues throughout the whole book as he blames the food industry, society, food deserts etc for the reason of the obesity crisis and diabetes 2 pandemic, comes off as a thoughtless and random filler question. Basically, after hearing statements of this nature throughout the whole book, it makes me just not take Hari seriously as a non-biased research journalist.
The author is missing the point on so many things. He is brushing over important information like nutrition and exercise and why it works when you do it, and omitting plenty in this hugely important discussion on who is responsible, what to make of this, and where we are going with this new type of drug. I’m all FOR a great factual review of what we know so far, but if there is going to be a discussion about why we are in this terrible state of health so far, as a research journalist, I’d expect less personal stories and more researched facts. Also, missing the opportunity to lean into giving people agency and responsibility is to be a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.
The absolutely most heartbreaking fact is at the very end of the book, where Hari discloses that Novo Nordisk, the company that makes Ozempic, is now doing trials on 6-year-old children. Nowhere does he even mention that parents are in charge of their children’s eating habits. Why does a 6-year-old need a semaglutide drug?
I walk away from this read with a terrible gut feeling. How are we going to work towards collective health if we make taking a drug that is yet another band-aid for a symptom the norm? How is taking agency away from people a GOOD thing? I recommend reading scientific articles from trusted sources before reading the book *The Magic Pill*.
OH, and for people who do NOT need to take Ozempic for weight loss, but still do, i.e., people who are not morbidly obese: please know that the side effects, which I suggest you seriously explore, even the ones you don’t think are the worst ones, will forever change your life, and most likely not for the better.