Content Consumed: Ozempic, The Cut, and The Lemon

Hello! It’s Tuesday and it’s sort of snowing again here in Portland. I’ve got two things on my mind for Content Consumed today:
💉 The Cut’s Ozempic article
🍋 The Lemon, a book I just read and did not like

I read The Cut’s Ozempic article so you don’t have to

TW: If you’ve struggled with your relationship to food and eating, and/or have experienced an eating disorder, maybe skip this section of Content Consumed today.

Yeah, we’re talking about another reckless article from The Cut.

This article, obnoxiously titled “Life After Food?”, is harmful and rather irresponsible in the modern media landscape.

It’s worth talking about Ozempic and its effects on our culture: how a diabetes management drug has turned into the newest instant weight loss method.

It’s irresponsible to romanticize it, especially without significant critique, as done in The Cut.

Some choice quotes from “Allison”, an already-thin interviewee in the entertainment industry who spoke about her current experience on Ozempic (illegally prescribed, with the goal of losing weight):

• “It’s kind of like being on a very low dosage of Adderall without that crack feeling.”
• “You can eat one and a half meals a day and then you’re kind of hungry at night, but it’s not terrible. You can drink some tea with magnesium and maybe take a Xanax and get to sleep.”

Added by the author:

• During busy periods, when [Allison] may not be able to closely monitor or prepare her food and get to the gym daily, the Ozempic takes the nearly full-time job of body maintenance off her mind. Before Ozempic, she’d hole up in her hotel on film shoots, juice-cleansing to fit into her costumes.

How is this not categorized as an eating disorder?

The focus of the piece was so narrow. Why only speak to those taking the drug, without diving deeper into the doctors prescribing this drug for weight loss?

When doctors are spoken to, they also seem to have a screwy view of what’s going on with Ozempic abuse.

“The last six months, I’ve written 1,400 prescriptions for semaglutide [generic Ozempic],” Dr. Holly Lofton, NYU Langone Health’s Weight Management Program director, told The Cut. She didn’t seem to have any questions or regrets about that.

The last sentence of this article really puts the bow on the present, icing on the cake, whatever:

“You know, you do miss food a little bit,” Arthur [another Ozempic user] admits. “But not that much.”

What the fuck is going on?

Book review: The Lemon

⭐⭐

I wish The Lemon made more sense.

My first dilemma: the main character, John Doe, a famed chef and world traveler with a No Reservations / Parts Unknown-style TV show, is found hanging dead from autoerotic asphyxiation gone awry. This main character, dead for the entire book, is very clearly meant to be Anthony Bourdain.

His mannerisms, his career, his legacy — it’s all Bourdain. I wish the authors could’ve gotten a bit more creative, more original with it. That said, I understand it’s a satire of exactly this world. The absurdity of the media and high-end dining played into Bourdain’s death and its aftermath, so that lines up. “On the nose” describes it perfectly. Too on the nose.

Another dilemma: three authors. S.E. Boyd is not one, but three writers. Unfortunately, you can tell. The characters and the plot felt disconnected, chapter by chapter, because writing styles are obviously different. This made it even harder to connect with characters than it already was.

And it was hard. Charlie’s character, and especially his motivations, is nonsensical. Paolo’s character doesn’t react to situations in a way a human would. There’s no way Katie is living in a Four Seasons after getting paid for one television appearance. There’s no way she’d get the John Doe gig in the end with the minimal blackmail she has, especially with her behavior. The outcomes for these characters are just not realistic in ANY way (except MAYBE Patrick, and that’s a massive maybe).

Nothing is rational. Real questions go unanswered. Nearly nonexistent plot. Wouldn’t read again.

Read more of my book reviews on Goodreads.

And that’s it for today! Thank you for reading. Love ya!

Cheers,
Casey

👉🏼 Read yesterday’s edition of Content Consumed over here.

👉🏼 Explore more content on the Content Consumed Instagram.

👉🏼 Find out what else I’m reading at my Goodreads profile.