Modern medicine has knocked in a hole in one. It hasn’t completely conquered obesity, but it has made doing so effortless. All you need to do is get yourself a weekly injection.

This promise of no-sweat weight loss has captured the British and American public; the latest Gallup poll estimates 15.5 million US adults – some 6 percent of the entire population – have turned to drugs like Wegovy (semaglutide) and Mounjaro (tirzepatide), and 3 percent of American adults are currently on the drugs at any given time. Sales of Mounjaro alone, which is now preferred over Ozempic and Wegovy, are set to reach $34 billion a year by 2029.

But there’s a catch: instant, effort-free weight loss doesn’t come cheap. In the US, Wegovy and Mounjaro cost $1,000–$1,350 a month for weekly injections. In the UK, the shots, which can only be obtained privately at the moment, will set you back £150 each – or £600 every four weeks.

But Big Pharma is not an industry that overlooks opportunity. The UK government has announced the National Health Service will soon be picking up most of the tab for the shots, making them available as an NHS drug so that the cost plummets to £9.90 a shot.

And the US, NovoCare, a support vehicle of pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, has noted some insurers will cover obesity injections like Wegovy, making the drugs more or less free.

Besides the weight-loss bonanza, Mounjaro and the others have reached the holy grail of pharmaceuticals: the all-purpose drug. The latest claim, no doubt published by ‘friendly’ researchers, is that these drugs don’t just help you shed pounds; they assist your body in killing cancer and preventing dementia, stroke and heart attacks as well.

Of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, or even an expensive empty plate.

What doesn’t usually get reported is that the drugs, Mounjaro in particular, appear to target muscle mass. In one study, about 40 percent of weight lost turned out to be muscle—it’s one reason for that ‘Ozempic face’ celebrities have begun to complain about.

And now come a host of other side effects: gastrointestinal effects, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, plus dangerous effects on appetite, making it difficult to stop eating once you get off the drugs. And then there’s the risk of mental illness and suicide.  The London Times recently reported new cases of people who have suffered panic attacks, heart palpitations and suicidal ideation.

As with most new drugs, it takes a while for the bad news to come to light.

If all this sounds too worrying and expensive a way to lose pounds or tackle type 2 diabetes, there are simpler solutions. Functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner and metabolic health expert Ben Azadi, author of the new book Metabolic Freedom: A 30-Day Guide to Restore Your Metabolism, Heal Hormones & Burn Fat (Hay House) has more than 17 years’ experience helping thousands to reclaim their health.

In the June edition, my magazine What Doctors Don’t Tell You just published Azadi’s top 11 anti-inflammatory supplements that function like natural cheat codes for losing weight and resetting your metabolism—something that weight-loss drugs demonstratively fail to do.

Everyday foods like coffee and apple cider vinegar and supplements like L-carnitine, conjugated linoleic acid, capsaicin, green tea extract, forskolin extract, Garcinia cambogia and African mango can boast results that rival Wegovy on a good day without all the ugly side effects.

Apple cider vinegar has been shown to improve blood glucose levels after a high-carb meal by 34 percent; African mango extract creates an average weight loss of 28 lb after 10 weeks and a 6 in. loss around the waist.

Research into some of the other supplements and foods has shown they help you burn more calories during exercise; boost fat breakdown, often by boosting the production of brown fat; help you shed fat in the abdomen and around the organs; and much more.

The answer to extra weight, as with so much in health, can usually be found in nature. All you have to do is learn to trust it and its extraordinary, finely tuned genius.

(To read our WDDTY article about biohacking weight loss, check it out here: https://www.wddty.com/features/biohack-your-weight-loss-11-supplements-that-help-shed-pounds/)