Published as part of YouGov’s new Health and Wellbeing Tracker, the data illustrates Britons’ rapidly changing attitudes towards weight-loss drugs, and their growing impact on changing food consumption and shopping habits.
A range of grocers including Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Ocado and the Co-op have already introduced GLP-1 friendly meal selections in order to keep up with the zeitgeist.
But longer term, if weight-loss drugs are to take root in a larger proportion of the population than the current 4.3 million users, the food and drink sector could be facing yet another monumental headache.
With a potential 7.6 million Brits considering such medications in the future, well over 10 million UK adults could become users.
Acting primarily as appetite suppressants – GLP-1s will play a role in reduced spend across hospitality and retail venues as customers consume less.
This is corroborated by YouGov’s data: GLP-1 usage results on average in an 11% reduction in weekly grocery spend a 19% reduction in monthly takeaway spend.
Alarmingly for food manufacturers and grocery retailers, this impact appears to continue even after treatment concludes - although on a more moderate scale - with former users spending on average 7% less on their weekly shop and 9% less a month on takeaways.
“The rise of GLPs is having a huge impact on the grocery and takeaway market,” said Ag Hoffmann, YouGov’s lead healthcare director.
“Whilst the number of users is relatively low at the moment, this is only going to increase in the future, creating both opportunities and threats to the wider market from QSRs to grocers, we also expect to see impact across other sectors like leisure and retail. YouGov will continue to monitor these trends.”
A significant change in dietary habits was also discovered in GLP-1 users, many of which were found to have increased their intake of vegetables (38%), vitamins (21%) and fish or seafood (21%).
Reductions were most noticeable in the snack and convenience food categories, with 64% saying that they ate fewer snacks, and 53% claiming they had reduced fast food consumption.
Many also reported drinking less alcohol (39%) and fewer fizzy drinks (33%).
