In 2025, you can binge on nachos, chase it with a weight loss shot—welcome to diet culture’s latest contradiction.
Every year, Super Bowl Sunday Americans eat wings, seven-layer dip, nachos and more high-calorie foods while watching football. On Sunday, Feb. 9, Taco Bell, Doritos and Dunkin’ Donuts advertised its new food and menu items during Super Bowl LIX.
Sandwiched between those advertisements, a telehealth company called Hims & Hers advertised its line of compounded GLP-1 products. Injections and oral medication kits were displayed in an upbeat, aesthetically pleasing commercial, but did not include side effects, FDA information or user warnings.
So, in 2025, you can stuff your face with Taco Bell alongside Doja Cat and Lebron James, get transported into a different dimension with Doritos and lose weight with a non-FDA approved weight loss drug.
Taking an over-the-counter or prescribed medication to lose weight is not a recent trend. It dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the first three medications used to combat obesity and hypothyroidism.
Typically, prescribed medication comes with a plethora of information regarding side effects, user warnings and an explanation of what the medication does. While browsing the aisles of your local CVS, the rows upon rows of appetite suppressant supplements do not leave the fine print easily accessible to the consumer. SMU sophomore Kevin Flores Blackmore took an appetite suppressant, but said he didn’t realize how it would affect his appetite.
“I use a variety of dietary supplements to support my health,” Blackmore said. “I started taking Counter Cravings from this brand called Hum to help me with intermittent fasting. I stopped taking it about a month ago and realized how much it affected my appetite.”
Blackmore did not know what the compounds in the supplement were doing to suppress his appetite, but he quickly realized that it made him lose hunger entirely.
“I was honestly so happy that my appetite came back,” Blackmore said. “You don’t realize how severe the tradeoff is. I ask myself, ‘Would I rather succeed at intermittent fasting but lose all ability to eat or eat intuitively and actually know what I’m putting into my body?’”
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a leader in the mission to understand the correlation between weight loss supplements and the human brain. Carolyn Kedslie, the Director of Programs for NAMI North Texas, discussed how society promotes a diet culture.
Published in a 1977 edition of Vogue, the “egg and wine diet” ensured that people would lose up to five pounds in three days from eating a combination of eggs, wine and steak daily.. Kedslie said this diet and the culture of malnutrition to lose weight is abnormal and unhealthy.
“When I look at the Vogue ad or the Hims & Hers commercial, it perpetuates a norm of dieting,” Kedslie said. “If society were to lean toward a health culture, I believe that people would feel more inclined to develop healthy lifestyle habits that are not shortcut by supplements or injectables.”
On the other hand, injectable weight loss treatments have become more popular as a means to improve one’s figure and drop numbers on a scale. Kedslie described the increased usage of injectable treatments as a relief for those feeling guilty for not fitting a certain body standard.
Within the past several years, weight loss drugs have become more easily accessible due to the increase in over-the-counter medications and insurance companies covering prescription-based treatments. On March 21, 2024, Pew Research Center released data showing injectable treatment sales have skyrocketed in the United States from 2017 to 2024.
Mounjaro, a popular injectable treatment, increased $4.72 billion in its first full year on the market (2022-2023). In 2023, Ozempic accumulated $21.1 billion in profit, which is nearly 89% higher than its 2022 profit.
“I find that a lot of people who are using injectable weight loss drugs or appetite suppressants are not seeking help from a nutritionist or a dietician,” Kedslie said. “These drugs are meant to supplement a larger treatment plan that teaches the user long-term healthy lifestyle habits.”
Sophomore UCLA student Eva Wade discussed her experience using Zepbound, a four-time use treatment that helped her lose weight.
“I’ve found that if I overeat, my stomach will be so mad at me it physically hurts,” Wade said. That’s honestly been helpful because that physical queue of feeling full allows my brain to understand when to stop eating.”
Fifteen SMU students who use injectable weight loss treatments were asked to take part in an interview to further understand their experience with the drug. None of the SMU students agreed to an on-the-record interview. Kedslie said that it is fairly common for users to feel guilt or shame for turning to injectables in their health journey.
This conversation is far from over, given that weight loss treatments are progressively becoming more accessible as the market for such products has grown.
“There’s this mezzo-level of authoritative leaders in the community, whether that comes from college journalists or leaders in the student body who have the ability to make young people care,” Kedslie said. “When it’s coming from a figure at your level and stage of life, it makes people pay attention and hopefully open their eyes to reality.”
