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To the Editor:
Re “Oprah, Ozempic and Us,” by Tressie McMillan Cottom (column, March 23):
I’ve always been a big Oprah Winfrey fan and understand her reasons for going all out in the hopes of shedding light on obesity as a disease and on the cost of drugs. But it is important to remember these three points:
1. A person must stay on these drugs for life or it is highly likely he or she will put the weight back on (a nice bonus for Big Pharma).
2. Where are the long-term studies of the safety/health of the body for lifelong use? There are none, since no one has taken these drugs for that long.
3. The side effects to achieving weight loss with these drugs sometimes make the dieter feel miserable enough to come off them. Then what? Go back on again? We already know yo-yo dieting is harmful to the body.
Andrea Candee
South Salem, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Tressie McMillan Cottom’s column about our nation’s chief dieter, Oprah Winfrey, raised some compelling points.
As a registered dietitian and licensed mental health counselor who has treated food addiction for years, I’ve also heard my clients speak of Oprah as though she possessed more credentials than I do to address their health and emotional issues related to food.
Growing up in Milwaukee during the ’60s and ’70s, I don’t recall seeing obese individuals. We saw “big-boned” girls, as muscle weighs more than fat. In 1996, I learned about body composition, which considers the weight of muscle, bone, organs and fat, rather than just scale weight.
