Overview
- Households cut grocery spending by 5.3% within six months of starting GLP-1 medications, compared with similar nonusers.
- Purchases at fast-food, coffee shops, and other limited-service restaurants fell about 8% after adoption.
- The steepest pullbacks hit ultra-processed snacks, with savory snack spend down around 10%, while yogurt, fresh fruit, nutrition bars, and meat snacks ticked up.
- Reductions persisted for at least a year for ongoing users, whereas many discontinuers — roughly one third — rebounded toward baseline and bought more candy.
- Higher-income households saw larger cuts of more than 8%, and the study cautions it cannot fully separate drug effects from concurrent lifestyle changes even as it outlines potential shifts for food manufacturers, restaurants, retailers, and policymakers.