The truth about natural GLP-1 boosters

About this episode

886. Put "GLP-1" on a label and you can sell almost anything right now: supplements, snacks, drink powders, even a gadget that sits next to your toilet. Some of these products are designed for people taking GLP-1 medications, who can have real nutritional needs. Others promise to boost your body's own GLP-1 as a path to weight loss. That second pitch is a lot shakier, and the reason comes down to what these medications are and how they work. Monica separates the science from the marketing: • What GLP-1 is, and what this gut hormone does after you eat • Why semaglutide, tirzepatide, and retatrutide aren't technically "GLP-1s," and what receptor agonists, dual agonists, and triple agonists are • The more accurate names the medical community has proposed for this drug class, and why none of them has stuck • How fermentable soluble fiber feeds your gut microbiome, produces short-chain fatty acids, and raises natural GLP-1 • Why nobody was talking about boosting natural GLP-1 until these medications took off • A bathroom device that estimates your fiber intake from the air around your toilet, and why it doesn't measure GLP-1 at all • Why these medications don't treat a GLP-1 deficien