Heston Blumenthal reveals he's taking weight-loss drug Wegovy
The celebrity chef admitted his use of the drug was a 'paradox' as a restaurateur, and warned that its continued use threatened to topple the food industry.
The father-of-four said he started taking Wegovy to combat the effects of his bipolar medication after he was diagnosed with Type 1 bipolar disorder in 2023. He said the medication had also caused slurred speech, problems with balance and brain fog.
'I've put on so much weight, but it's starting to come off now,' the 59-year-old said, adding that the semaglutide injections had resulted in him losing 8kg so far.
Blumenthal, who has been awarded seven Michelin stars over the course of his three-decade career, also warned the drugs would have an impact on the restaurant industry.
He added: 'Wegovy, Ozempic, Mounjaro – you still enjoy food, but they stop appetite. So what's going to happen is people are going to want smaller portions.'
He told Times Radio it is 'going to get much worse in the next six months' for the restaurant business, adding that supermarkets would also be affected.
The Fat Duck, Blumenthal's three-Michelin starred restaurant, is among the fine dining establishments hit by the decline in appetite, while costs of food, labour and fuel have all increased.
He said he was aiming to 'formulate' a plan that might combat some of the losses from its highly profitable tasting menus, which can feature more than 11 courses.
Blumenthal, who divides his time between Berkshire and France with his wife Melanie, has previously written in The Telegraph about his 'surprise' bipolar diagnosis.
The chef, who presented Channel 4 shows Heston's Fantastical Food and Heston's Feasts, as well as several series of MasterChef in Australia, was sectioned following a manic episode in 2023. He was the subject of BBC documentary Heston: My Life With Bipolar, which was broadcast in June.
Discussing food programmes following the BBC's MasterChef fallout involving the former presenters Gregg Wallace and John Torode, Blumenthal said: 'I don't think food programmes are toxic.
'I think that when you do cooking competition shows, you work with a lot of people, and humans are humans. And that means relationship issues happen.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
9 minutes ago
- The Independent
The Godfather and Apocalypse Now director taken into hospital
Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola has been admitted to an Italian hospital for a scheduled medical procedure. The 86-year-old filmmaker was in Calabria, where he had been screening his latest controversial film, 'Megalopolis'. 'Megalopolis', starring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, and Shia LaBeouf, is a futuristic fable drawing parallels between modern America and the fall of Rome. Coppola has been personally touring the film, stating he prefers it to be seen in cinemas rather than released for home viewing. Critics have been divided on 'Megalopolis', which Coppola self-funded, but he believes it is gaining traction similar to ' Apocalypse Now '.
The Independent
9 minutes ago
- The Independent
Tom Holland waves at fans while filming new Spiderman in Glasgow
waved to delighted Spider-Man fans on the streets of Glasgow during filming. The Hollywood star has been shooting Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which began filming in the Scottish city on Friday, 1 August. Glasgow's city centre has morphed into the bustling streets of New York City for the new movie. Several key locations, including Blythswood Street, Pitt Street, Wellington Street, and Bothwell Street, have been used. American vehicles, notably New York Police Department cars, buses, and food vans, have been spotted near the Scottish Event Campus.
The Independent
9 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ozempic could be hurting your gym gains — with potentially dangerous consequences
The popular weight loss drug Ozempic has been used by millions of Americans for years. Now, researchers warn that the drug has shown some concerning impacts to muscle mass and strength in mice. New findings suggest muscle mass is altered less than expected while taking the diabetes drug, but that muscles may still get weaker over time. Ozempic-induced weight loss decreased lean mass — or muscle mass without fat — by around 10 percent, the University of Utah Health team said. Most of that weight loss was from tissue and the liver; the organ shrunk by nearly half its size. Some skeletal muscles, which are attached to bones and responsible for movement, also shrank, while other muscles remained the same size as before Ozempic. "In clinical trials for Wegovy or Ozempic we did not specifically study the medicine's impact on muscle mass. In a sub-study of 140 patients with a BMI of 40 or less conducted as part of the STEP 1 trial, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) analyses suggested that treatment with Wegovy® was accompanied by reductions in both fat mass and lean body mass, with a greater reduction in fat mass than lean body mass," a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk told The Independent on Tuesday. "We recommend that any patients experiencing side effects while taking Wegovy or Ozempic contact their healthcare provider," they said. Muscle and strength loss in human aging, also known as sarcopenia, can result in trouble with balance and walking, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It's a condition often linked to obesity, osteoporosis, arthritis, and chronic diseases, including cancer. Still, the study was done in mice and not humans. More research needs to be done to understand if similar changes to organ size could happen in humans and if there are any associated health risks. Notably, loss of organ mass, including the liver, is expected as a part of healthy weight loss, without affecting the organs' function. loss of fat can also result in loss of muscle without affecting the overall quality of life, the researchers noted. 'If we want to really help the individuals who may be losing muscle mass, then we need to know that they're actually losing muscle mass,' Dr. Katsu Funai, an associate professor of nutrition and integrative physiology in the University of Utah College of Health, said in a statement. 'We have data in mice that suggest that things are not as straightforward as they might seem.' But, it's not just muscle mass that was affected. In tests of force and strength, some of the mice muscles' strength decreased as they lost weight — even without losing muscle mass. But, in others, strength was unchanged. Why this happens is not yet understood, but in older humans, losing strength while taking Ozempic could be particularly worrisome. 'The loss of physical function is a strong predictor of not just quality of life but longevity,' Funai said. Of course, previous research has found Ozempic to have more beneficial side effects, in addition to helping address the nation's obesity epidemic. A new study linked Ozempic to slower rates of aging, according to New Scientist. That builds on similar research released last year. The drug has also been tied to a reduced risk of dementia in people with type 2 diabetes, and protection against heart disease. Ozempic has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Regardless of their findings, the researchers warned people not to draw hasty and unfounded conclusions. In people, for example, obesity is associated with less physical activity, whereas mice don't become less active. Humans also become overweight for a multitude of factors, including genetics and age. For mice, it was because they ate a diet that was high in fat. 'There remains a significant need for validation in humans, especially concerning muscle strength,' Dr. Takuya Karasawa, a postdoctoral researcher at the university's molecular medicine program, said.
