Ozempic as a Status Signifier

Wellness has long been a major industry, but companies have increasingly commercialized a concept that once simply promoted a healthy lifestyle. In doing so, it often overlooks environmental, socioeconomic and systemic factors that shape health. More concerningly, it can equate being fit with moral virtue, implying that those with “unhealthy” lifestyles have committed a sin.

The pursuit of wellness has also led to the rise of surveillance technology, including apps, smartwatches and fitness trackers. While these tools are often positive motivation — such as closing all the activity rings on an Apple Watch — they also introduce new ways for people to monitor and compare themselves to others. What begins as self-improvement can quickly become performance, where health is measured, displayed and judged. 

Diet culture has remained a constant presence for decades. The 1990s and early 2000s were defined by the idolization of extremely thin bodies, while the 2010s emphasized foods like kale salads, avocado toast and quinoa as markers of health. In the 2020s, the focus has shifted again — this time to protein. While it started out as an emphasis on eating protein-rich meals, the wave has spread to protein-packed chips, cookies, bars and more. While it is an important nutrient, focusing on getting 200g of protein rather than a balanced meal once again turns health into a competition. 

Along with that, the emergence of GLP-1 medications, notably Ozempic, has made weight loss more accessible and faster. As thinness has become easier to “manufacture,” the cultural zeitgeist shifts once again. Now, strength has become the new ideal. It has become the new sign of discipline and health, and protein-packed foods are all the rage. 

But why should this be a problem? Surely, everyone should aspire to be the healthiest, fittest versions of themselves? But the reality is more complex. A muscle-centered ideal could be just as restrictive as one focused on thinness. Even with the health-favoring focus, there is still pressure about which bodies are best and which habits are morally superior. 

There are also practical barriers. Building muscle requires time and money. Protein snacks and “healthier” alternatives are often priced higher than their regular counterparts. Healthy alternatives have historically been more expensive and harder to access than processed foods. 

This creates a new kind of exclusion, where wellness is treated less as a personal goal and more as a social standard — one that not everyone can meet. Those with limited resources may not have the time, money or access required to keep up. The higher price point of protein-rich alternatives reveals how wellness operates as a trend more than a stable health practice. Wellness has, in many ways, become fashionable — an aspirational identity shaped by branding and consumer behavior. 

This cycle highlights how quickly wellness trends shift, fade and reinvent themselves. This results in a constant cycle of replacement, with one health buzzword becoming dominant until the culture moves on to the next. A protein bar or yogurt is not just priced by the ingredients it contains, but also by its image and cultural value. Their pricing reflects that shift, as companies capitalize on the visibility and desirability of health as both an image and a commodity.