THE FUSE

A few weeks ago, while preparing for a training on GLP-1 medications, I found myself going down a rabbit hole. What started as research on today's medications quickly turned into an unexpected history lesson about Lord Byron drinking vinegar to suppress his appetite, Horace Fletcher insisting people chew each bite until it liquefied, rubber garments promising to "draw the fat completely away," and amphetamines marketed to housewives as a way to stay slim while doing the laundry. It would all be amusing if it weren't so familiar and so harmful. The deeper I went, the more one question stayed with me: What might the last two hundred years of weight-loss history teach us about this moment?