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Food is great; don't you love eating? I do. As a species we evolved in scarcity. Who knew when you might get your next meal? That was fine when we were hunter-gatherers, but these days most of us spend all day sitting in an office chair, working on a computer screen.
The result is widespread obesity. The World Health Organisation estimates over 1.9 billion adults are overweight, with 650 million obese. That's defined as a body-mass index greater than 30.
Many modern foods are highly processed, and absolutely delicious. Takeaways are easy to arrange. Poor diet is the root of many early deaths, from causes like heart disease, cancer, strokes and diabetes. Being overweight was also the leading co-morbidity during the Covid pandemic.
Exercise is the obvious solution, and that's why we own Nike shares. The problem is that many people find sweating unpleasant. Some are too far gone to take up jogging.
The good news is that a new class of drugs from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, originally developed for diabetes, has proven remarkably effective at curbing eating, and the side effects are not too bad at all.
Novo Nordisk's Wegovy received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval last year, while Eli Lilly's tirzepatide probably will be given the go-ahead soon.
The drugs mimic the effects of gut hormones, known as GLP-1s, that work to increase satiety. Tirzepatide, which promotes an additional hormone known as GIP, helped obese people lose as much as 22.5% of their body weight in an Eli Lilly study released in April.
We are keeping an eye on this investment theme. Of the two, I prefer Eli Lilly, as US corporations normally trade at a premium. Novo Nordisk is Danish, with headquarters in a town called Bagsværd.
