Global Weight-Loss Alert🚨

This Week in Review☕️: Obesity drugs can make you blind or suicidal | Softbank & Trump announce $100bn investment | TikTok loses appeal to delay ban | 2024 was the worst for Restaraunts in decades

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Quick Bites:

Health 💊 : The world is seeing a massive decline in obesity rates for the first time in years. Researchers are giving credit to the introduction of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro.

Too poor for Ozempic but too indisciplined for strict diet and exercise. Is there a secret third option??

PS. If we ever do manage to go on Ozempic, it won't be to lose weight but because the inevitable class action lawsuit is gonna pay out like CRAZY 😈

"Genes don't matter. All you need is a calorie deficit. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. No excuses"

-22-year old male gym trainer speaking to a 40-year old perimenopausal mom of 4 who is also a full-time employee 🙄

ALSO, we just wanna point out:

Weight-loss drugs are impressive and all but we're not a fan of how it works which is basically just an appetite suppressant so its easier to eat less.

We DON'T want to eat less. We want a pill that somehow absorbs the calories from the extra large cheese burger & fries we just ate and give them back to the universe 👋

Key Highlights, reported by Today.com :

💡Obesity is down in the US for the first time in a decade

💡These drugs mimic atleast one hormone produced by the gut to signal fullness, leading to a reduced appetite

💡However, obesity often requires ongoing treatment, and most people “will have difficulty sustaining weight loss after stopping the medication"

💡About 12% of Americans have taken one of these popular medications

💡Four years after starting these drugs, patients maintained an average weight loss of 10% of their body weight

The risks:

💡A study in Norway and Denmark linked Ozempic to an increased risk of the rare sight condition "NAION", which can lead to vision loss

💡The most common side effects of Ozempic and Wegovy include nausea, stomach pain, diarrhea, constipation and vomiting, according to the manufacturer.

💡Potential serious side effects can include possible thyroid tumors- including cancer, vision changes, kidney failure, heartburn and severe depression that can lead to thoughts of suicide

💡In addition, several doctors believe these drugs needs to be taken for years, decades or possibly your whole life; "It's likely to be a lifelong medication"

Our Thoughts💡:

Ozempic this, Ozempic that. Have you ever considered maybe cigarettes and starvation?🤨🤨

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Big Tech 📱 : TikTok loses appeal to delay ban.

The court refused to pause a temporary ban requested by TikTok as the case now heads to supreme court.

Background: The app faces a US ban if it is not sold by parent company ByteDance before January 19. Also on Friday, lawmakers instructed Apple and Google to prepare removing TikTok from their app stores.

Key Highlights, reported by Forbes:

💡TikTok argued it was necessary to pause the ruling in order to give the Supreme Court time to rule on the case without being “hasty”

💡The app also pointed out that a January 19 deadline would irreparably harm the company and its 170 million users

💡Delaying the ban would also give the incoming Trump presidency to help in the legal dispute, TikTok argued, as reports suggest that Trump wants to “halt” the ban- though it’s still unclear how he would do so

💡However, a three-judge panel in Washington DC remain unswayed by claiming that protecting Americans from foreign threats outweighed the app's First Amendment rights.

Our Thoughts💡:

Teachers unpaid, zero gun laws to keep people safer, women's reproductive rights being questioned, LGBQT+ community constantly being harassed.. but they got time to vote to ban TikTok🤯😱

Food & drink 🍽️: Casual dining chains are on the decline.

Say goodbye to the complimentary warm bread, the pile of cheese biscuits, the guac made at your table, the tall pepper grinder, the strawberry milkshakes, the extra large bottle of Heinz ketchup & Hellmans Mayo and the dessert tray.. aka The casual places that can make a Monday afternoon feel special.

The category of the "middle-class" restaurant is disappearing, The Atlantic reports.

The past year has been a brutal one for restaurant bankruptcies and closures- Thanks to higher labor costs, cash-strapped customers and a "COVID hangover," among other pressures.

In fact, 2024 is on track to see the most Chapter 11 filings for restaurants in decades, except for 2020, found a Wall Street Journal analysis.

"There's going to be pain for a while"

Umm you mean people are cutting down their spending on eating out all while being forced to leave a fat tip at their local restaurant in an inflationary market is actually a surprise.. Who could've f***ing guessed??? 🤬

Personally, we are NOT surprised that people are ditching their grilled cheese & tomato soup outside when its WAY, wayyyy cheaper to just make it at home 🙏🏻

Like $20 bucks for a cheddar sammie?! Stay strong millennials 💪

According to The Atlantic, American dining habits gone extreme post-pandemic, leaving mid-priced chains to dwindle.

People are either saving up and not eating out as much, or those with more means are enjoying the new influx of fine-dining.

A shift toward takeout hasn't helped, with nearly three quarters of restaurant meals now consumed off-site.

While the fast-food sector has expanded to pick up the slack, the decline of the middle-class sit-down chain represents the loss of interest in those "third places."

Our Thoughts💡:

Yep..👇🏻

Wildlife 🐳 : Humpback whale makes record journey from South America to Africa.

See now this is our kinda content 😌

A male humpback whale has made an extraordinary journey from South America to Africa- traveling more than 13,046 kilometers (+8000 miles) at a stretch.

This is the longest migration recorded for a single whale. The journey also marks the 1st documentation of an adult male humpback traveling between the Pacific and Indian oceans.

The humpback was first spotted off the coast of Colombia in 2013 and seen again a few years later not far from his original location.

But in 2022, the whale was unexpectedly detected in the Indian Ocean near Zanzibar, off the coast of East Africa.

Quicker Bites:

• President-elect Trump to the American investor: “I think you’re going to see some very good days ahead.”

• Bonobos owner buys fashion brand, Vera Wang.

• Bitcoin proxy to join Nasdaq 100.

• 12 people found dead at a ski resort in Georgia.

• Judge rules Trump does not have immunity from hush money conviction.

• Softbank CEO and Trump announce $100 billion investment into the US by firm

• TikTok appeals to Supreme court.

• Google debuts latest AI video model.