Can You Afford to Lose 15% of Your Best Consumers?
- Grounded Research
- Mar 28
- 2 min read
If GLP-1 isn't getting you hot under the collar, then it is time to get a sight of your blind spots. The uncomfortable truth about GLP-1 drugs and the food industry’s biggest challenge yet.
If you work in the food industry, this is your wake-up call.
There is a seismic shift happening in how people eat — not driven by food trends, but by pharmaceutical ones. GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro are suppressing appetite, flattening emotional food responses, changing our meal occasions and and reshaping what value looks like on a plate.
And yet, many food brands are carrying on as if nothing's changed.
Let us be blunt: if your category depends on portion size, indulgence, or frequency, you are about to see erosion. Quietly, steadily, and potentially irreversibly.
"It’s not that I don’t like food anymore. I just forget to eat."
This isn’t a niche concern
Over 3 million people in the UK qualify for GLP-1 drugs.
Hundreds of thousands are already using them.
And their behaviour is contagious. Friends, family, influencers — even people not on the drugs are adjusting what they eat and why.
This is not a story about weight loss. This is a story about what happens to food behaviour when appetite becomes irrelevant.
Reduced emotional eating. Fewer snacks. Smaller portions. Aversion to ultra-processed.
Sound familiar? It’s everything the industry’s been resisting — and it’s here, now, at scale.
Why it matters commercially?
GLP-1 users aren’t fringe buyers. They’re often higher-income, brand-engaged, health-curious consumers. In other words: your core customer base.
They were the ones fuelling premium chilled meals, protein-led snacking, “better-for-you” treats. But if your innovation pipeline, positioning, and pricing don’t match their new reality — you could be left with a beautiful range of products they no longer want.
And here’s the kicker: they won’t complain. They’ll just stop buying. All that beautiful NPD, crafted over years and years, millions of pounds of investment, beautiful branding, innovative packaging...and it's giving them the ick...literally...nausea, vomiting and bloating.
You need a response strategy. Yesterday.
We’ve pulled together a short, sharp slide deck outlining:
The biggest behavioural shifts we’re already seeing
Why this isn’t just about appetite suppression
What food categories are most at risk
Why traditional NPD and comms tactics could backfire
What you need to research now to stay ahead
👉 [Download it now] — and then give us a call.
Because the food industry loves to talk about innovation. But when 15% of your best consumers start quietly slipping away, the real question is: will you respond fast enough — and smart enough — to hold onto them?
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