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Supplements Companies Are Cashing In on the Ozempic Wave
Everyone wants to get in on the Ozempic craze—including the supplement industry. Some products are meant to complement weight-loss drugs. Others are positioned as “natural” alternatives.
A brand called Supergut touts prebiotics as “nature’s Ozempic” in its marketing and claims that its products “trigger your body’s hunger-quieting GLP-1 hormone naturally.” The supplement brand Pendulum offers a “GLP-1 Probiotic,” which it also claims helps increase GLP-1 production “naturally.” Other lines, like Codeage, offer blends like the “GLP Advantage+,” which contains L-taurine, decaffeinated green tea leaf extract, boron, prebiotics, and a variety of other ingredients, including berberine, an antibiotic-like ingredient popular with wellness influencers on TikTok who tout its appetite-suppressing properties. Molly Natchipolsky, a spokesperson for the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, told me via email that the NCCIH’s research team studying natural products is “not aware of any supplement that can have similar effects or mechanisms to current GLP-1 agonists.” “If you’re just talking in terms of absolute impact, there is no supplement or food or beverage or, frankly, other forms of pharmaceutical anywhere close to as effective at weight loss as these GLP-1 drugs,” says Supergut’s Washington, despite the conspicuous “nature’s Ozempic” branding his company uses.
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