Blessed are the thin? A Christian response to Ozempic

It is thought that 2.5m people in the UK are now buying weight loss drugs privately – including many Christians. But the Ozempic trend raises huge questions about body image, shame and what it means to be “fearfully and wonderfully made”, says Di Archer

The woman leaned forward, pointed towards her torso and whispered to me: “I’m on the jab!” 

“It’s going OK so far,” she continued. “I’m just not hungry. I don’t have any nasty side effects - but I haven’t told my family. I don’t want them to know…”

We met on a wet and windy day at last summer’s New Wine festival. I was representing tastelife UK, the eating disorder charity, who had a stand there. This lady wasn’t the first to tell us that she was using the new weight loss injections currently sweeping the nation. Like many, she had been so desperate to lose weight that she thought she would try out the jabs. And it seemed to be working.