It’s Week 1 of the NFL season — meaning many of us have already started grazing for the winter.
Fans of losing football teams have been found to devour 16% more saturated fat the day after a big game than their normal daily amount. Fans of winning teams consume 9% less than usual … as if the victory were not enough.
Dig a little further into the data behind our football eating habits, and you’ll find that as a nation, we consume more calories on Super Bowl Sunday than we do on Christmas Day or Easter. Food and football are so synonymous in America that we consume more calories on Thanksgiving than on any other national holiday — not just because it’s a harvest feast, but also because there are three NFL games that day.
Face it, Week 1 tailgating may look innocuous, my friends, but usually it is our first step toward Gluttonyville.
I say usually because the rising use of GLP-1 drugs is leading some of us in a new direction.
Cornell University and the market research firm Numerator recently found that within six months of usage, new GLP-1 users reduce their overall grocery spending by 6%. They’re also exchanging ultra-processed snacks and sugary beverages for healthier options. We’re talking hamburgers, hot dogs, chips … you know, some of ultra-processed foods’ biggest hits.
The decline in interest in traditional tailgating favorites is so measurable that “retailers are adapting their strategies accordingly to be more forward-thinking,” according to Amanda Mosseri Oren, vice president of Industry Strategy for Relex Solutions. Her 20-year-old firm specializes in supply chain logistics for retailers around the globe. She said grocers are “reformulating ready-meal offerings to include higher protein content and more vegetables, recognizing that traditional convenience foods no longer match consumer needs.”
It’s still football season in a country with a 40% obesity rate, so end caps at grocery stores are still going to be dominated by salty snacks promotions and cases of soda. However, celery sticks and hummus are likely to become easier to find as the habits of the expanding community of GLP-1 users continue to reshape industry purchase orders.
For the retailers that already specialize in healthy foods, this trend potentially widens a customer base that has more disposable income. There is a quirk though: While changing eating and spending habits may be a triumph for science — and ideally wallets and waistlines — Oren noted the research “also revealed that higher-income households cut shopping by nearly 9% and that “trend has been consistent since 2024 and continues strengthening.”
So, the top 10% are getting thinner and saving money. Great news for the rich — except those wealthy folks who make their money selling junk foods. This trend is a conundrum for them.
As for the rest of us, the monthly cost for drugs such as Wegovy or Ozempic prevents a large-scale shift in consumer behavior without subsidies, greater insurance coverage or a more competitive free market to drive prices down significantly.
And then there’s this wrinkle: GLP-1 users still crave ultra-processed snacks.
Brandon McFadden, a professor at the University of Arkansas (and Tyson endowed chair in food policy economics), told me that GLP-1 users still want junk food, they just don’t want to pig out anymore.
“It’s all still fairly new,” he said. “For sure, there seems to be research evidence showing … stomach size is decreasing.” McFadden said “number of calories overall is obviously decreasing,” but not “uniformly across categories.”
Even as we’re getting a handle on the effects of the drugs being adopted widely now, new ones are in development. He pointed to clinical trial data on a new drug that reduced weight as much as 24% in 36 weeks — “really wow stuff,” as he put it.
Speaking of “wow stuff,” I was stunned when Sally Lyons Wyatt, global executive vice president and chief advisor for consumer goods and food service insights at Circana, told me 60% of U.S. consumers now report reading the labels on food.
“I can guarantee you that was not the case five years ago, not even close,” she jokingly said. “How did we get here? It’s a culmination of things. Obviously it started during COVID, where people started to learn what they needed to do to stay well. … More people are looking at what they’re putting into their body.”
With all that said, Wyatt was also clear on this: Indulgence is human nature. It won’t go away, but we might see more moderation.
So even if your team finishes 0-17, and all of that losing has you eating more chips and salsa than usual, as long as you’re monitoring what you eat the other days of the week, there’s a slim chance you may be able to watch the playoffs still able to fit in your favorite jersey.
YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow
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