Just a few years ago, some food makers planned to wait around for GLP-1 users drop off the weight-loss medications and revert to their usual eating habits, Gali Artzi said recently. Today that thinking is toast.
Artzi, the chief technology officer at Tel Aviv-based foodtech investment firm PeakBridge, said food brands and retailers are adapting to what they now view as a permanent shift in the market. “What we are seeing here is the end of the calorie economy,” she told the F&A Next Summit in Wageningen, the Netherlands, with the “performance nutrition economy” taking its place.
Artzi said the market for GLP-1-friendly products now clocks in at around $62.2 billion and is projected to hit $157.5 billion by 2035. A key part of that growth will come from so-called “companion nutrition” products aimed at filling dietary gaps for GLP-1 users, whose calorie intakes plunge by an estimated 21% on average annually.
Because 25-40% of weight loss on GLP-1 drugs is lean mass, Artzi said, users can experience significant deficits in iron, vitamin D, calcium and more. The companion nutrition segment, worth around $4.1 billion in 2025, is forecast to more than triple to $13 billion over the next decade, she said.
“This machine that was built on volume is broken today,” Artzi said, as people taking semaglutide medications such as Ozempic or Wegovy shift from savory snacks and sweet baked goods toward more selective diets that emphasize fresh produce and yogurts. “Every bite has to work harder for us.”
‘Owning the patient’
“The industry is a little bit confused. This is a consumer they have not seen before,” said Maha Tahiri, the CEO of food consultancy S2B who joined Artzi at F&A Next to discuss GLP-1s’ impact. “If your model is based on impulse and indulgence, you really need to review it.” Still, the last 30 years of work on weight management gives food companies a foundation to build upon, said Tahiri, who has held leadership roles at General Mills, Danone and Coca-Cola.
In doing so, Artzi cautioned that “it’s not just a race to launch the next product” but rather “about owning the patient.”
That’s partly because GLP-1 users’ needs and preferences evolve as they cycle on and off the treatments, including at different stages of life. Semaglutide drugs can cause side effects such as nausea, diarrhea and vomiting—symptoms that aren’t exactly rare and can persist for weeks. About half of patients ditch the medications after 12 months, and regaining lost weight is the norm, she said.
These unpleasant experiences for GLP-1 users, however, are just part of the “journey” on which food brands can offer support at every step of the way, Artzi said. Expect to see more services like lifestyle coaching and telehealth offerings, she added, which some major players are already working to deliver through partnerships and acquisitions.
Adapting to GLP-1s doesn’t always mean reinventing the wheel. Sometimes rebranding will do—for instance, updating the packaging of an existing project to let patients know it’s a good fit for them, Artzi said. It’s an easy leap from there to bundle products into new portfolios or roll out curated programs or kits.
But there are novel challenges, too. As Tahiri put it, “You don’t give a baby of 4-6 months and a toddler the same food.” Mindful of semaglutide users’ fluctuating requirements, food makers are also experimenting more with product formats, Artzi said, like “microportions” and the questionably termed “liquid and semi-liquid solutions.”
Trusted messengers
Many consumers are getting information about what to eat from ChatGPT, Claude and the like, Tahiri said: “AI is becoming the big influencer in nutrition.”
As a result, her company is launching tools to help industry clients understand what GLP-1 users are asking AI platforms about dietary matters. So far, Tahiri said, the major LLMs appear to be surfacing information from a broad range of companies, which is “giving a great opportunity to small and medium enterprises who are doing a good job in understanding the consumer and providing products that are adapted.”
That’s another reason to invest in research and development, she said, adding, “R&D is the new marketing.” Companies that focus on “real science, real work [and] depth in how you really understand the consumer from an R&D perspective” stand to benefit, Tahiri said.
So do those that normalize GLP-1s, treating them more as a lifestyle intervention than a prescription medication, Artzi said. She pointed to Novo Nordisk’s Super Bowl ad for its Wegovy pill earlier this year, which featured celebrities like DJ Khaled and the actor John C. Reilly.
We’re a long way from messages like, “Talk to your doctor about…,” Artzi added.
