Episode 117: Body Image & Eating Disorders in the age of Ozempic

Mary Anne Cohen, Director of the New York Center for Eating Disorders, coined the term "emotional eating". In this episode, she offers a nuanced perspective on Ozempic acknowledging its potential to provide relief from compulsive eating yet cautions that this benefit is only part of the story: the need to adress the deep emotional wounds at the heart of many eating disorders. She warns that Ozempic can feed dangerous cultural narratives that equate thinness with moral or emotional worthiness—reinforcing stigma around body diversity and compounding shame. Although we are still learning all of the information around weight-loss drugs, Cohen feels that Ozempic must be paired with a comprehensive personal strategy and invites us to think critically