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Clinton Hall\u2019s \u201cTeeny Weeny Mini Meal\u201d \u2014 a mini burger, fries and beer \u2014 is shown beside a regular-sized combo. (AFP pic)
\nNEW YORK: A self-described foodie, social butterfly and New Yorker for 20 years, Lina Axmacher has long loved exploring the city\u2019s famed restaurant culture.<\/p>\n
Then she started Ozempic, a medication to reduce hunger.<\/p>\n
She lost her appetite \u2014 \u201cmy desire for cocktails and desserts and anything sweet\u201d \u2014 and also more than 20 pounds (9.1 kilograms) in less than two months.<\/p>\n
But \u201cI still wanted to maintain my social lifestyle, and I still wanted to be included in dinners,\u201d the Swedish 41-year-old who works in the tequila industry told AFP.<\/p>\n
One of her favorite restaurants, Manhattan\u2019s Le Petit Village, made that easier: it\u2019s among the dining establishments in the city offering smaller portions at lower prices, as the prevalence of medications that reduce hunger like Ozempic grows.<\/p>\n
The West Village restaurant decided to shrink a corner of its brunch menu, including French toast and a smoked salmon tartine, not least to accommodate diners on GLP-1s who want to go out but can\u2019t eat much.<\/p>\n
Approximately one in eight American adults are currently taking drugs from the class of GLP-1 agonists that are increasingly popular for weight loss, according to a November poll by the non-profit health policy tracker KFF.<\/p>\n
And one in five say they\u2019ve taken the medications whose brand names include Ozempic and Wegovy \u2014 which are also prescribed to manage chronic conditions like diabetes \u2014 at some point.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk announced US authorities had approved Wegovy to be administered in pill form for weight loss, potentially making it even more accessible.<\/p>\n
Some in the restaurant industry are taking note.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going out and seeing people eat a lot less and take one bite of their food and one sip of their drink and that was it,\u201d said Aristotle Hatzigeorgiou, who owns Clinton Hall, which has five locations across New York.<\/p>\n
And on top of that, much of the dishes his kitchens prepared ended up in the trash \u2014 \u201ca mass amount of waste,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
So he developed the \u201cteeny-weeny mini meal\u201d \u2014 for US$8, diners get a bite-sized burger, a small portion of fries and their choice of a 3-oz beer, martini or glass of wine.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a stark contrast to some of the beer hall\u2019s other offerings, which include a \u201cdoughnut grilled cheese\u201d and a \u201cfondue burger\u201d (they are what they sound like.)<\/p>\n
But the mini-meal has proven a hit, Hatzigeorgiou said, not only for those dropping weight but for those cutting costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people are definitely strapped with rents going up and inflation,\u201d said the restaurant owner.<\/p>\n
Offering \u201ca cheaper option to come out,\u201d he said, has \u201cbeen working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vast human experiment<\/strong><\/p>\n For now, GLP-1s for weight loss purposes remain too expensive for many Americans.<\/p>\n But experts expect that will shift; even US President Donald Trump has promised affordable options.<\/p>\n And researchers are starting to examine how wider GLP-1 use is shaking cultural connections to food.<\/p>\n \u201cFood is your enemy, instead of your great pleasure in life? I mean, that\u2019s very different,\u201d Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition at New York University, told AFP in an interview. \u201cI think the jury is out on all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Side effects of GLP-1s can include unpleasant gastrointestinal issues, but for some people, Nestle said, the medications have proven \u201cmiraculous.\u201d<\/p>\n The nutritionist said it\u2019s far too soon to have a grasp on long-term impact, physiologically or socioculturally: \u201cIt\u2019s a vast human experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n Axmacher told AFP she\u2019s taken Ozempic on and off.<\/p>\n When she first decided to take a break, \u201cI was ready to feel like I could enjoy life a little bit more again.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI do enjoy the sense of hunger and satisfaction when I get to eat something I\u2019m in the mood for,\u201d she said, adding that on Ozempic, \u201cI missed that.\u201d<\/p>\n But using the medication also helped her develop positive and sustainable habits, she said: Axmacher cut down on alcohol, exercised more, and focused on eating enough protein.<\/p>\n Ozempic or not, a trend of smaller restaurant dishes in the wake of America\u2019s 1990s-2000s Super Size Era can only be positive, Nestle said.<\/p>\n Le Petit Village management told AFP they\u2019re considering expanding their menu of half-sized portions to dinner service, and Clinton Hall is working on developing a mini-meal featuring chicken.<\/p>\n Some customers, Hatzigeorgiou said, have noted that \u201cthis is what meals used to look like.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe think it\u2019s something different, but maybe it\u2019s not so different,\u201d he said with a chuckle. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s the right-sized meal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clinton Hall\u2019s \u201cTeeny Weeny Mini Meal\u201d \u2014 a mini burger, fries and beer \u2014 is shown beside a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[199063,535,1203,105,4326,370,2599,16,15,978],"class_list":{"0":"post-650321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-axmacher","9":"tag-drugs","10":"tag-food","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-medication","13":"tag-ozempic","14":"tag-restaurant","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115768811656034929","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}