7 August, 2026

We all know that many fast and ultra-processed foods are associated with significant impacts on our health and the planet, yet we continue to eat them.

This uncomfortable truth was explored by Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of food chain LEON, at Good Business’s 30th anniversary event. He argued that our food system has become a powerful set of feedback loops: companies develop and advertise the foods we find hardest to resist, those products generate profits, and nature, health and long-term resilience remain largely absent from how commercial success is valued.

Government has tried to intervene through regulation around sugar taxes and advertising restrictions, and many businesses have proactively launched more positive solutions or responded constructively to new rules. However, continual pressure on profits means change does not always move quickly enough at an industry-wide scale.

Now, something unexpected may be changing the underlying economics themselves.

GLP-1 drugs such as Mounjaro and Ozempic suppress appetite, and are beginning to affect a food industry historically built around selling us more. Nearly 7% of the UK population have used these medicines, while another 8% have considered them.

Many fast-food chains are already responding to the resulting shift in dietary preferences. Chipotle has introduced smaller, high-protein cups and tacos, Burger King is testing smaller “Whopper Bites”, and we are seeing the growth of fast-food chains positioned around healthier choices – particularly in the US, where healthy food chain Sweetgreen has expanded to 246 locations. There are early signs that competition may be moving away from volume and high-calorie offerings towards protein, simpler ingredients and nutritional value.

The most significant impact of GLP-1s may therefore extend beyond the health outcomes of individual users. By changing how much people eat, and what they look for when they do, they could begin to reshape the incentives operating across the entire food system.

Henry’s wider point was that businesses respond when the economics change. If healthier, smaller and more nutritious options become more commercially advantageous, food companies will have a reason to invest, innovate and compete around them at a much greater scale.

The challenge is ensuring that this innovation leads to genuinely healthier, fairer and more sustainable outcomes, rather than simply a new generation of products marketed as such. For food businesses, the opportunity is not merely to react to a pharmaceutical trend, but to anticipate where appetite, consumer expectations and commercial priorities are heading, and help shape a food system in which better choices are also better business.

By Emma Lindsay