Nutrition Therapy Should Anchor the Fight Against Obesity

 In 2023, obesity and excess weight cost U.S. businesses and employees $425.5 billion, according Global Data. If we are serious about tackling the obesity crisis in America, then we must start with the foundation: food. Nutritional well-being is not a luxury—it is a prerequisite for lasting health. And yet, far too often, our healthcare system treats nutrition as an afterthought, not a cornerstone of care.

Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT), delivered by registered dietitian nutritionists, is an evidence-based intervention that helps patients manage and improve chronic conditions—including obesity—by teaching sustainable, personalized strategies for eating well. Despite overwhelming evidence showing its effectiveness, MNT remains underutilized and under covered in Medicare and across our healthcare system.

A systematic review published by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that MNT interventions led to significantly greater weight loss, reductions in BMI and waist circumference, improvements in fasting blood sugar and blood pressure, and likely increased quality of life. One to three contacts per month with a dietitian yielded the greatest improvements.

The power of MNT becomes even clearer when it is paired with other interventions. A 2017 systematic review on bariatric surgery showed that patients who received post-operative MNT from a registered dietitian nutritionist had significantly greater outcomes—including excess weight loss ranging from 60% to 80% and BMI reductions between 5% and 31%--compared to those who did not receive MNT. In other words, nutrition therapy magnifies the impact of high-cost, high-intensity interventions.

The same principle should apply to the newly approved GLP-1 medications for obesity. These drugs offer real promise, and the Academy celebrates their potential to change lives. But if the goal is sustained weight loss, improved health outcomes, and long-term cost savings, they must be paired with MNT.

The economic case is equally strong. A new Avalere Health analysis estimates that expanding Medicare coverage of MNT to include obesity would save the federal government $27.3 million over ten years. This is a rare opportunity to align better health outcomes with budgetary savings.

By contrast, the Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that expanding Medicare coverage of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, commonly known as GLP-1-based anti-obesity medications, would cost $35 billion over the same period. CBO’s modeling does not currently factor in the cost-offsetting potential of MNT—something that lawmakers should urge them to re-evaluate. Incorporating MNT into these models could reveal ways to lower the net cost of expanding access to obesity medications.

As of May 2024, according to a KFF Health Tracking Poll, approximately 6% of adults in the United States reported using GLP-1 medications primarily prescribed for type 2 diabetes and weight management. Given the increasing popularity of these medications, it's plausible that the number of individuals using them has risen even higher. These medications are effective for weight management with up to 25% body weight loss, however the side effects can be serious. The most common side effects range from gastrointestinal issues such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation to headache, fatigue, and loss of muscle mass. These side effects impact how long and whether individuals continue the medications. In a recently published cohort study of over 125,000 individuals starting GLP-1’s, 46.5 % of patients with and 64.8% without type 2 diabetes discontinued taking the medications within the first year.

MNT is a therapeutic, individualized intervention shown to significantly improve outcomes and reduce costs when paired with other obesity treatments. To fully realize the potential of GLP-1s and other anti-obesity tools, Congress must add MNT to the list of covered services. MNT is the foundation that will make these new treatments more effective and potentially reduce the federal cost burden associated with their coverage. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics supports the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA)—bipartisan legislation that expands Medicare coverage for both anti-obesity medications and Intensive Behavioral Therapy (IBT), a valuable service that complements nutrition counseling. However, TROA does not currently authorize Medicare to cover Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) for obesity—a crucial gap.

The future of obesity care is not either/or—it’s both/and. Medication plus MNT. Innovation plus education. The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act is the path forward.

We urge Congress to seize this moment, and pair any coverage expansion for anti-obesity medications with expanded access to Medical Nutrition Therapy.

Dr. Wylecia Wiggs Harris is CEO of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

https://www.realclearhealth.com/articles/2025/07/31/nutrition_therapy_should_anchor_the_fight_against_obesity_1126080.html

Competition Has Already Reduced Prices for Obesity Medicines

 Imagine there is a drug that can save Medicare as much as $245 billion over 10 years, can increase survival and quality of life, and can reduce the risk of chronic conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This is the promise of biopharmaceutical innovation and the potential of obesity drugs today. However, we have yet to reap the full potential of these innovations, not because they do not exist, but because Medicare and most commercial insurance plans will not cover them.

Biopharmaceutical innovators have researched, developed, and gained regulatory approval for multiple obesity medicines, and yet Medicare continues to not cover treatments for weight loss, in the context of the costly chronic disease of obesity. Rather than remove that restriction from the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 to expand patient access to these cost-effective treatments for the serious disease of obesity, the government is moving to price regulation which can disrupt the market dynamics and incentives that are already successfully reducing drug prices.

The frustration in “high” prices for drugs in the U.S. has only intensified. This year alone, we have seen two Presidential Executive Orders focused on lowering drug prices. Twenty-five drugs, many already experiencing sizeable discounts from market dynamics, have already been selected for government price regulation in Medicare. The most recent list of drugs selected includes a drug for weight loss, for people with obesity. The American public is likely unaware of how the U.S. market-based approach works to bring down drug prices over time and uniquely fuels the biopharmaceutical industry.  

Other countries often get lower prices with a single payer model, government price regulation, and through restricting or delaying access. But in the U.S., market competition has already brought down prices of the wildly popular GLP-1 drugs by more than half, while expanding access to an effective treatment for patients. However, even as new evidence continues to support that the current prices are a cost-effective investment in public health, insurance coverage remains limited in the U.S.

Without government price regulation in the U.S., market competition has already worked to reduce prices for obesity medicines. When Wegovy ® (semaglutide) was launched, it cost around $1,300 per month. Estimates of its net price were down to around $717 a month in 2022. Zepbound® (tirzepatide) entered the U.S. market at the end of 2023. With more competition in the market, prices have continued to drop. In 2023, the price for Wegovy was down to around $649 per month.  But still, insurance coverage has remained limited. Lack of coverage for obesity treatments offers a powerful warning indicator of the system’s inability to forecast long-term cost savings and make the investments needed to achieve them.

The manufacturers of the GLP-1 medicines began offering treatments direct-to-consumers at even lower prices. Zepbound direct to consumer price is $499 per month and Wegovy also sells direct to consumer for $499 per month. These direct-to-consumer programs fill a need to increase patient access due to low insurance coverage; however, healthcare is intended to be paid for through healthcare insurance, not out of the pockets of only those who are sick.

We understand the large population that could benefit from these treatments could result in a large budget impact; however, we also believe that the U.S. is capable of identifying a financing mechanism to cover treatments, which are cost-effective at both current health plan and direct-to-consumer discounted prices, with short-term budget impacts that have potentially huge long-term returns.

The U.S. is about to dramatically expand its regulation of drug prices in Medicare, with the number of drugs selected continuing to increase. Prices have already been set for the first 10 drugs, which saw limited additional savings beyond the market-based net prices.  The next set of 15 drugs selected by Medicare includes an obesity medicine. It seems hard to imagine that the only solution we can find is to copy other countries that rely on government price regulation and ignore the dynamics of market-based approaches which have fueled our world-leading biopharmaceutical research industry in the U.S.

Market competition has worked to bring down prices while sustaining investment in development for GLP-1 medicines, for cardiovascular treatments, for Hepatitis C medicines, and for the generic drugs which make up more than 90% of the medicine supply in the U.S. today.

The U.S. can come up with a better solution to manage cost spikes from new treatments than government price regulation and denying coverage. Our future health (fiscal and physical) depends on it.

Dr. Melanie Whittington is an employee of MEDACorp which is an affiliate of Leerink Partners.

Kirsten Axelsen is a non-resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a Policy Advisor to DLA Piper

https://www.realclearhealth.com/articles/2025/08/01/competition_has_already_reduced_prices_for_obesity_medicines_1126420.html

'Trump tariffs spark 'deep concern' among Brazil chemical firms'

 An association representing chemical companies in Brazil, where large U.S. firms like ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical operate, expressed "deep concern" regarding a U.S. executive order raising tariffs on Brazilian exports to 50%.

The Brazilian chemical sector is intrinsically tied with the United States, Abiquim said in a statement on Friday, describing a relationship marked by "integration" and "cross-investments."

"The impact will be significant on Brazilian chemical exports, compromising supply chains, jobs, and investments in Brazil and the U.S.,” Andre Cordeiro, head of Abiquim, said in the statement.

More than 20 chemical companies operating in Brazil are American-owned, Abiquim said.

Together with the American Chemistry Council (ACC), Abiquim said it submitted a joint statement to the governments of Brazil and the United States "requesting actions to prevent damage to the integration and resilience of chemical supply chains, focusing on trade facilitation measures and regulatory cooperation."

Brazil, which exported $2.4 billion of chemical products to the U.S. last year, runs a trade deficit of nearly $8 billion with the U.S. in this sector, according to trade data cited by Abiquim.

President Donald Trump's executive order from July 30 affects about $1.7 billion in annual Brazilian chemical exports to the U.S., while exempting only five products, which represented $697 million in sales to the U.S. in 2024.

In addition to direct exports, Abiquim said more pain will be inflicted on its companies as chemical products have applications in industries including food, furniture, textiles, leather goods, and rubber, some of which are dealing with U.S. order cancellations because of the new tariff.

Before the executive order was published, Abiquim said last week its own sector already faced contract cancellations linked to the threat of Trump's tariffs.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-tariffs-spark-deep-concern-152700795.html

DOJ Official Who OK'd $2M Payouts To Russia Hoax Lovers Now Running Anti-Trump Lawfare Group

 The Biden Justice Department official who greenlit $2 million in taxpayer-funded payouts to disgraced FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page has resurfaced at the helm of a Democrat-aligned group dedicated to suing Donald Trump into oblivion, records show.

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok

According to documents obtained by The Federalist, Brian Netter, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General under Merrick Garland, personally approved the eye-popping settlements. Strzok, who infamously plotted the “insurance policy” against Trump while investigating the Clinton campaign’s Russia collusion hoax, pocketed $1.2 million. His mistress, ex-FBI lawyer Page, scored $800,000 [reeee sexist bribe gap!].

The duo had sued the DOJ, whining that the release of their scandalous, government-resource–written texts violated their privacy. Instead of fighting, the Biden team cut them fat checks - at taxpayer expense.

Now, Netter has taken his talents to Democracy Forward, where he serves as legal director. The left-wing group, proudly launched in 2017 to fight Trump with endless litigation, brags about taking the 45th president to court more than 100 times. The New York Times even hailed them last fall: “Liberal Legal Group Positions Itself as a Top Trump Administration Foe.”

The group’s board reads like a Who’s Who of Democratic Party royalty: Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, Biden’s ex–chief of staff Ron Klain, Vice President Kamala Harris’ sister Maya Harris, and Democratic strategist Mindy Myers. We're sure Podesta is dazzling them with his famous walnut sauce on pasta and whatnot.

At the top sits Marc Elias, the Democratic super-lawyer notorious for bankrolling the Clinton campaign’s Russia collusion scheme through his law firm and masterminding the chaotic 2020 mail-in ballot expansion. Clinton’s campaign was fined just $113,000 for disguising opposition research as “legal services.”

Netter’s ties to Democratic power brokers run even deeper. He’s married to Karen Dunn, a high-powered Democratic lawyer who prepped Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris for presidential debates. The 2009 wedding? Officiated by none other than Merrick Garland.

Dunn, a former Hillary confidante widely floated for White House Counsel if Clinton had won in 2016, co-founded a law firm with Jeannie Rhee, a Mueller probe alum who helped keep the Russia hoax alive. They later hired yet another Mueller hand, Rush Atkinson.

Both Netter and Dunn clerked for liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, while Dunn also clerked for Garland on the D.C. Circuit.

Congressional Republicans had long tried to learn who authorized the cushy settlements for Strzok and Page but were stonewalled by Biden’s DOJ, which claimed it didn’t know.

“The American people are rightly concerned about the Biden Administration’s targeting of conservatives while their political allies were given special treatment,” said James Fitzpatrick, director of the Center to Advance Security in America. “These settlements are a prime example of the outrageous abuse of power endured by the American people under Joe Biden.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doj-official-who-okd-2m-payouts-russia-hoax-lovers-now-running-anti-trump-lawfare-group

JBS’s Batista Brothers Expand Into Steel With Usiminas Deal

 

The billionaire Batista brothers, who control meatpacking giant JBS NV, have expanded into Brazil’s steel industry with the purchase of a minority stake in Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais SA.

Investment firm Globe Investimentos SA on Thursday acquired a 5% interest in Usiminas, as the steelmaker is known. Wesley and Joesley Batista are the controlling shareholders of Globe, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The brothers’ investment was previously reported by local newspaper Valor Economico.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-01/jbs-s-batista-brothers-expand-into-steel-with-usiminas-deal

Goldman Told Clients to Go Long Copper a Day Before Price Plunge

 

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s salespeople were recommending their hedge fund clients bet on a surge in US copper prices just a day before US President Donald Trump’s tariff decision sent the market crashing by the most on record.

In a call with clients on Tuesday, Goldman argued that Trump was likely to go ahead with a 50% tariff on copper, and recommended buying short-dated call options that would pay out if US copper prices surged 11%, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-01/goldman-told-clients-to-go-long-copper-a-day-before-price-plunge

"No One Can Be That Wrong" - Trump Fires Labor Statistics Boss After Weak 'Revised' Jobs Data

 President Trump is pissed...

A dismal jobs print (and dramatically weaker revisions)...

...have prompted the president to fire the woman who 'runs the numbers'... (via Truth Social)

I was just informed that our Country’s “Jobs Numbers” are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory.

This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Growth in March 2024 by approximately 818,000 and, then again, right before the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000.  

These were Records — No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers.

I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY.

She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.

Trump went on:

Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.

McEntarfer said there were only 73,000 Jobs added (a shock!) but, more importantly, that a major mistake was made by them, 258,000 Jobs downward, in the prior two months. Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative.

The Economy is BOOMING under “TRUMP” despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with Interest Rates, where they lowered them twice, and substantially, just before the Presidential Election, I assume in the hopes of getting “Kamala” elected – How did that work out?

Jerome “Too Late” Powell should also be put “out to pasture.”

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

CNBC's Steve Liesman stated unequivocally that there is "no evidence jobs numbers are politicized."

Well, there was the whole 1 million downward job revision in August 2024, three weeks before the Fed cut rates 50bps two months before the 2024 election to get Kamala elected.

But aside from that...

Then Liesman went further, calling it all a conspiracy theory (now where have we heard that before?)

Hey, Steve, did Zee Russians do it?

Meanwhile, cue the lawsuits!

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/no-one-can-be-wrong-trump-fires-labor-statistics-boss-after-weak-revised-jobs-data