Health Claims

Some diabetes and weight-loss drugs, like tirzepatide, can help people lose a lot of weight—up to nearly 18% more than a fake treatment over a year and a half—especially in those without diabetes, and they might also improve overall health.

Even if obese women lose weight on a drug called exenatide, their metabolism doesn’t slow down like it usually does when people lose weight from dieting — so this drug might skip the usual 'metabolic slowdown' people hit.

Lots of obese women who aren't diabetic feel nauseous when they start taking a drug called exenatide for weight loss — about 56 out of every 100. But the queasiness usually gets better over time, and how much weight they lose doesn’t seem to depend on how bad the nausea is.

Taking a drug called exenatide for 16 weeks helps obese women who don’t have diabetes lose about 1.7 cm from their waist, even if they don’t change their diet or exercise.

Some women who are obese but don’t have diabetes lose a good amount of weight on a drug called exenatide for 16 weeks, but almost as many actually gain weight — showing it works very differently from person to person.

Taking a drug called exenatide twice a day for about four months helps obese women who don’t have diabetes lose around 2.5 kilograms on average, and they start seeing results in just two weeks.

A lab-made version of a blood sugar-lowering substance, made using bacteria, still works in animals — which means it might be useful even though it's not made in more complex cells.

A substance called Exendin-4 works like a longer-lasting version of a natural hormone in your body that helps control blood sugar, so it might help people with type 2 diabetes manage their glucose levels better.

Scientists can make a useful protein called exendin-4 in bacteria, cut it out cleanly using a special enzyme, and end up with a specific amount of the pure protein from a given amount of bacteria.

Scientists can fish out a special lab-made protein from bacteria using a kind of molecular magnet, so they can turn it into its final form later.

Scientists can use bacteria to make a diabetes drug called exendin-4 by inserting the right instructions into the bacteria's machinery using a special tool.

If you're overweight, eating more saturated fat from dairy — like cheese or butter — for a month probably won't hurt your blood sugar control or cholesterol levels compared to eating less of it.

If you're overweight, eating a lot more protein — especially from whey — for a month won't help your body use insulin better unless you're also losing weight.

In people who are overweight or obese, higher levels of certain amino acids in the blood during diet changes are linked to the body clearing insulin more slowly and releasing more insulin when blood sugar rises — which might mean these amino acids affect insulin in ways not related to how sensitive the body is to it.

If you're overweight and eat a lot of protein—especially from whey—for a month, your blood sugar might go up a bit, but only if you're also eating very little saturated fat. If you eat more saturated fat, that same high-protein diet doesn't seem to affect your blood sugar.

If you're overweight or obese and eat the same number of calories, boosting protein or saturated fat from dairy for a month doesn't seem to hurt your blood sugar control or cholesterol levels.

Eating saturated fat might quickly change how your liver handles fat and how your body controls blood sugar — not just over years, but within a short time.

Giving mice a big dose of saturated fat all at once seems to turn on genes that are tied to fatty liver disease, which might mean even short-term fat intake can kickstart liver damage.

Eating a lot of saturated fat just once might quickly mess with how your liver and body handle sugar and fat, possibly increasing the risk of fatty liver and insulin problems.

Eating certain fats can change your 'bad' cholesterol — saturated fats go up a little, but monounsaturated fats go down, even if you're already healthy.

If you're eating a lot of fat—more than 37% of your daily calories—switching to healthier fats like olive oil might not help your body respond to insulin better. But if your overall fat intake is lower, making that switch could actually help.

Swapping out bad fats (like butter and fatty meats) for good fats (like olive oil and avocados) can help your body use insulin better—even if you're not changing how many calories you eat.

Eating a lot of red and processed meats—like bacon, sausages, and steaks—on a meat-only diet might raise your cancer risk because of harmful chemicals formed when cooking meat and possibly from hormones used in raising animals.

If you cut out fiber by eating only meat, it might mess with your gut bacteria and weaken your gut lining over time.