A comment left by Barbra Streisand on an Instagram post shared by Melissa McCarthy has started a conversation about weight, embarrassment, and the increasingly widespread use of medications for weight loss.
McCarthy, 53, shared two photos of herself with director Adam Shankman attending an event in Los Angeles over the weekend on her Instagram page on Sunday.
In the comments section, Streisand, 82, responded to McCarthy’s photos, writing, “Him my regards,” referring to Shankman, before adding, “Did you take Ozempic?”
Streisand’s comment, which has now been deleted, was captured by the Instagram account Comments By Celebs, which posted a screengrab of the comment to its Instagram page, writing, “Babes!!”
In a follow-up post on her Instagram Story hours later, Streisand publicly addressed the comment, writing, “OMG – I went on Instagram to see the pictures of the beautiful flowers we received for my birthday. Posted it! Below that was a picture of my friend Melissa McCarthy who I sang with on my encore album. I just wanted to compliment her, I forgot the world was reading it!”
McCarthy and Streisand have worked together before, including a duet performance in 2016.
ABC News has contacted McCarthy’s representative for comment.
Streisand’s comment, which was left from her verified Instagram account, started a debate on social media about drugs used for weight loss, including Ozempic.
One commenter wrote, “Why is it that people who don’t have a problem with obesity care so much about obesity – what does it matter Barbara? If she has it or doesn’t have it it’s none of your concern,” one commenter wrote. One commenter wrote, “And even if it had to be a DM – still rude!”
“Accept Ozempic or shut up!!” another commenter wrote. “In every article written around the world no celebrity has admitted to losing more than the magic number of 40 pounds. No one wants to admit that they have been on medication for a year and have lost 6 sizes And just trying to lose 40 pounds. Total bullshit.”
Over the past two years, weight loss drugs, including Ozempic as well as Zepbound, Vegovi, and Monjaro, have become more widely available and have skyrocketed in popularity.
Ozempic and Monjaro are both approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat type 2 diabetes, but few doctors prescribe the drug “off-label” for weight loss, as permitted by the FDA.
Vegovy and Zepbound, which contain the same active ingredients as Ozempic and Monjaro, respectively, are each FDA-approved as weight loss management treatments for people who are obese, or who have at least one associated underlying condition, such as high blood pressure. Being overweight is accompanied by pressure.
As the landscape of obesity medicine has changed over the past two years, the public perception of obesity as a chronic medical condition has struggled to keep pace.
People who take medications for weight loss, including Oprah Winfrey, have spoken publicly about feeling ashamed for taking what some have termed an “easy way out” for weight loss. Is.
Winfrey was the first to say, “The fact that there is a medically approved prescription for controlling weight and being healthy in my lifetime feels like a relief, like a redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and “Once again, nothing to scoff at.” Publicly confirmed that she was using a medication to help maintain her weight.
While McCarthy has spoken publicly in the past about her weight journey and her experiences with body shaming, she has not spoken publicly about Ozempic or other medications for weight loss.
In a 2016 interview, the “Bridesmaids” actress said she never wanted weight to be “the most interesting thing” about her.
“I’ll be up, I’ll be down, probably for the rest of my life,” she told Refinery29 about her weight. “The thing is, if it’s the most interesting thing about me, I have to go to a lavender farm in Minnesota and give it up.”
McCarthy continued, “There has to be something else. There are a lot of interesting things about women beyond their butts or their this or that. It may not be the first question every time, or may not be a question at all. “
What do doctors say about weight and shaming?
Obesity medical experts say the reason the topic of weight has such a hold on society probably stems from the fact that it is so universal and so visible that people can see weight loss or gain.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity is a medical condition that affects approximately 42% of people in the US. Obesity is linked to conditions such as stroke and heart attack, high blood pressure, breathing difficulties, sleep apnea and increased risk of early death.
“The reality is that, yes, obesity is a disease, but unlike other diseases, you can see it. That’s part of the issue,” said Dr. Caroline Apovian, endocrinologist and co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness . Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told ABC News. “And this is not a disease that affects one in a million. It affects 42% of adult Americans.”
Apovian said the fact that obesity affects so many people may make it more accessible to talk about, even though it’s a medical condition that affords privacy.
“There are a lot of people who are famous who talk about their battles with breast cancer or ovarian cancer or heart disease and obesity,” he said. “But in this example, there’s a nuance here, because you might never think of commenting on someone’s photo and saying, ‘Hey, I see you don’t have breast cancer. Did you have chemo?’ ‘”
Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician scientist and educator at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, echoed Apovian’s comments on obesity being a “visible” medical condition.
Stanford argues that it is not “appropriate” for people to ask questions or make decisions about how someone treats their medical condition, even if it is a condition that the public can see.
“We should not be able to judge whether a person has chosen to deal with this disease, whether they have chosen lifestyle or behavior modification, whether they have chosen medications or whether they have chosen metabolic or bariatric surgery, For many of my patients, all of the above,” Stanford told ABC News. “Individuals who choose these strategies do not owe anyone an explanation as to how, why, or when they chose to use the strategies to cope with their chronic disease of obesity.”
Stanford said some of society’s acceptance of talking about people’s weight may be linked to misconceptions about the condition of obesity, which she described as a chronic, recurring disease. which are the result of a person’s genetic makeup.
Similarly, according to Stanford, drugs used for weight loss are often misinterpreted as the “easy way out” because they can be misinterpreted.
The drugs work by mimicking a hormone, glucagon-like peptide-1, known as GLP-1, which is made by the small intestine and helps signal satiety in the body.
Tiragepetide, the active ingredient in Monjaro and Zepbound, works by activating two hormone receptors: GLP-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, or GIP.
In Ozempic and Vegovy, the active ingredient, semaglutide, works only by activating the GLP-1 receptor.
“I think what a lot of people don’t know is that every single human being who has ever been born and lived has GLP-1 in their body,” Stanford said. “Those of us who have leaner bodies as a baseline have more GLP-1 at baseline. Those of us who were not born with that privilege need more of it, and maybe they Get it in the form of a medicine.”
Stanford said it is wrong to criticize or question people who use drugs for weight loss because that would lead to them being blamed for “some dysfunction in their physiology.”
“I don’t care whether you’re a celebrity or an average patient without celebrity status, I don’t think we should judge people based on what they are or aren’t taking,” Stanford said. ” “Some of us don’t have the privilege of having the same fully functioning bodies as others, so let’s give others a fair chance.”
