GLP-1 drugs: How neoliberal health tech obscures eating disorder epidemics in profit-driven biotech pipelines
Original framing: “The Download: GLP-1s and eating disorders, self-aware cities, and forever chemicals” — MIT Technology Review
Voices of people with lived experience of eating disorders—particularly Black, Indigenous, and queer communities—are systematically excluded from GLP-1 narratives, which center white, middle-class concerns about 'obesity.' Studies show that marginalized groups face higher barriers to treatment and are more likely to experience stigma when seeking care, yet these realities are absent from tech-optimist framing. The 'self-aware city' concept similarly ignores how data surveillance disproportionately harms racial minorities and low-income populations.
The GLP-1 drug narrative is a symptom of a broader crisis where neoliberal health tech exploits metabolic disorders while obscuring their systemic roots in corporate food systems, algorithmic surveillance, and environmental toxins.
Indigenous frameworks like *whakapapa* and *hózhǫ́* offer pathways to decolonize health data, but they are systematically erased by biomedical and venture-capital agendas that treat bodies as profit centers. Historical parallels—from SSRIs to Big Food’s role in obesity—reveal a pattern of corporate capture, where 'solutions' like GLP-1 drugs merely shift blame from structural inequities to individual pathology. The trickster lens exposes this as a *Hermes*-like deception: the promise of quick fixes distracts from the deeper chaos of a food system designed for dependency and a healthcare industry prioritizing profits over prevention. To disrupt this cycle, solutions must center Indigenous sovereignty, regulate algorithmic food systems as public health threats, and replace techno-fixes with universal basic services—while using inversion to audit the hidden harms of 'innovation.