Health
Thanksgiving on Ozempic: Here’s how to enjoy the meal with a smaller appetite
For the more than 15 million U.S. adults who are currently taking Ozempic or another GLP-1 drug for diabetes or weight loss, Thanksgiving may look a little different than it did prior to starting the medication.
GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) medications reduce appetite by sending signals of fullness to the brain and slowing down emptying of the stomach.
Common side effects include nausea, constipation and reflux.
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“The rate at which the stomach is purged of food (and acid) is slowed significantly, almost to the point of backup,” Dr. Brett Osborn, a Florida neurologist and longevity expert, told Fox News Digital.
“Essentially, they are ‘injectable fullness’ – and sometimes to a fault.”
The Thanksgiving meal this year may look a little different for the more than 15 million U.S. adults who are currently taking Ozempic or another GLP-1 drug for diabetes or weight loss. (iStock)
Osborn often prescribes GLP-1s to his patients as an effective way to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes, but he acknowledged the digestive side effects, recommending that people pay extra attention to the size and macronutrient content of meals.
“With some planning and strategies, you can enjoy the holiday without compromising your health goals.”
“Navigating Thanksgiving while on GLP-1 medications can be a bit different, but with some planning and strategies, you can enjoy the holiday without compromising your health goals,” Dr. Britta Reierson, a family physician and medical director at knownwell in Minneapolis, Minnesota, told Fox News Digital.
The doctors offered the following tips for the upcoming holiday.
Choose foods wisely
“If your appetite is reduced due to GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, focus on smaller portions of nutrient-dense foods,” Osborn said.
“Prioritize lean protein, non-starchy vegetables and fiber-rich sides to meet your nutritional needs without overloading your digestive system.”
“If your appetite is reduced due to GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, focus on smaller portions of nutrient-dense foods,” a doctor advised. (iStock)
Reierson agreed that lean protein and veggies should be the main components of the meal. “Turkey, roasted vegetables and salads are great options,” she said.
It’s wise to limit high-fat, sugary foods, Reierson added.
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“You can still enjoy these foods in moderation, but keep the portion sizes small to minimize any gastrointestinal discomfort,” she said.
“Also avoid fried foods, as they can be harder to digest and may cause or worsen nausea.”
Look for smart swaps
Osborn recommended incorporating healthier versions of traditional foods whenever possible.
“For example, choose roasted vegetables instead of buttery casseroles or opt for turkey breast without gravy to reduce unnecessary fat,” he suggested.
Experts recommend choosing healthier versions of traditional foods whenever possible. (iStock)
“Remember, fat slows gastric emptying – it’s why you feel full when you eat a fatty meal.”
When taking GLP-1 medications, gastric emptying is already slowed, Osborn noted, which means too much fat ingested in one sitting will cause nausea and potential vomiting.
Opt for smaller portions
The experts recommended doling out smaller portions of favorite dishes.
“You can enjoy traditional Thanksgiving dishes, but in much smaller quantities,” Osborn said. “Focus on a few bites of high-calorie dishes rather than full servings.”
Reierson agreed, adding, “You can still enjoy all the variety and bounty of the meal without overeating.”
“Listen to your body, and don’t feel pressured to eat a whole plate if you’re not hungry.”
Eat mindfully
Overindulging while on GLP-1 medications can lead to nausea or discomfort, Osborn warned.
“Listen to your body, and don’t feel pressured to eat a whole plate if you’re not hungry,” he said. “It’s OK to take small bites, chew slowly and savor the flavors.”
“You can still enjoy all the variety and bounty of the meal without overeating,” an expert said. (iStock)
As these medications will help you feel full sooner, it’s important to pay close attention to your body’s signals, he noted.
“Remember, there is a delay between eating and one’s perception of satiety,” Osborn said. “And this can hit you like a tidal wave if you’re not careful.”
He added, “Stop eating as soon as you feel satisfied, not stuffed.”
Plan for leftovers
If you can’t clear your plate in one sitting, simply pack it up and take it home.
“You can enjoy your favorite holiday dishes over several days, so there is no need to overeat during the meal,” Reierson noted.
Stay hydrated
Hydration is important for everyone, but particularly those on GLP-1 medications.
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Since “GLP-1 medications can slow gastric emptying, dehydration can worsen side effects. Drink water throughout the day and shortly after your meals.”
Don’t skip meals
“Avoid the temptation to skip meals earlier in the day to ‘save up’ for the big meal,” Reierson advised.
“This will often backfire and can lead to overeating and discomfort.”
Keep it simple and polite
If someone comments on your small portion size, Osborn recommended keeping it “simple and polite.”
You shouldn’t feel obligated to explain your medication unless you’re comfortable doing so, doctors said. (iStock)
“You could say, ‘I’m not as hungry today, but everything looks amazing,’ or ‘I’m focusing on smaller portions, as big meals make me feel lousy,’” he suggested.
You shouldn’t feel obligated to explain your medication unless you’re comfortable doing so, the doctor added.
“So many people are on GLP-1 agonists nowadays that it has become more widely accepted.”
Don’t be afraid to communicate openly, Reierson said.
If you can’t clear your plate in one sitting, simply pack it up and take it home, experts advised. (iStock)
“Explain that you are on a medication that affects your appetite,” she said.
“If you are not comfortable sharing, it may work well to simply deflect with positivity that you are focusing on healthier eating habits or you aren’t very hungry.”
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Overall, said Reierson, the important thing is to keep it simple.
“With a bit of mindfulness, you can enjoy Thanksgiving without the side effects.”
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A distraught mother who thought she was having a heart attack was instead hospitalized with broken heart syndrome — otherwise known as takotsubo syndrome (TTS) — less than a year after her veteran son tragically took his own life.
Dawn Turner, 57, of the U.K., lost her son in August of last year.
Just last month, the mom of three awoke with “unbearable” chest pains, she said — and called an ambulance, worried she was going into cardiac arrest. But when she arrived at the hospital, doctors told her she was suffering from the effects of grief caused by a broken heart, as news agency SWNS reported.
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TTS is a temporary, reversible heart condition often triggered by extreme emotional or physical stress, such as grief, fear or severe illness, according to experts.
Symptoms usually mimic a heart attack, with sudden and severe chest pain and shortness of breath the most common — and it primarily affects women over the age of 50.
A mom whose soldier son took his own life feared she was suffering cardiac arrest — only to be told by hospital doctors that she was feeling the effects of grief caused by a broken heart. Dawn Turner, mother of deceased soldier Rob Homans, is pictured above, April 2026. (SWNS)
Turner, of Eckington in Worcester, said, “I was [sitting] downstairs earlier that night and thought I had a bit of indigestion. I went to bed and just couldn’t get comfortable — I was breaking out in a sweat and had heart palpitations.
“Then, around midnight, I had pain down my arm and in my jaw. I was still putting it down to indigestion… My partner Paul asked me if I was all right, and I said, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack.’”
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She said she couldn’t catch her breath — “and my heart felt as though it was missing a beat and then [started] thudding again. For those moments, I truly believed I was having a heart attack.”
“Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat,” Turner was told.
She said her partner called emergency services, and an ambulance arrived within five minutes.
“They came in and linked me up to an ECG. They said, ‘Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat, and it’s all over the place,’” she said, as SWNS reported.
Turner was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
Turner is shown with her son in full dress uniform. He worked as an artilleryman and spent 10 years in the U.K.’s Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006. He was battling mental health challenges after his military service, and ultimately took his own life. (SWNS)
In emergency care, Turner was also given blood tests.
She added, “They came back and said I didn’t have the enzymes produced from a heart attack in my blood. But they said there [was] something going on.”
After undergoing more tests and seeing a cardiologist, Turner was told she had takotsubo syndrome.
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“I told [the doctor] that my heart feels broken. I told her about [my son] Rob, and she said it’s exactly that. She said it’s a real thing, and that I’d been under so much stress. The body can only take so much, and the grief and the stress can be quite physical.”
Turner’s son committed suicide in August 2025 after struggling to get help with his mental health.
He spent 10 years in the Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006, when he worked as an artilleryman.
Turner’s son did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said. After he returned to civilian life, he began suffering from a number of health conditions. She’s shown above with a flower-draped memorial to her son. (SWNS)
He did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said, and returned to civilian life in 2016 before suffering several worsening health conditions.
Turner, who is also the CEO of a veterans charity called Stepway, “When he left the army, he got married, and they settled down in London. He walked straight into a job as a delivery driver. But then his health took a downward spiral, and he started having digestive troubles.”
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He was eventually told he had PTSD — but those symptoms may be similar to those of mild traumatic brain injury, Turner said.
“He was deaf in one ear from using the guns,” she said. “He realized he was putting so much pressure on his marriage, so he moved back up with me. He started to build himself up — then COVID hit.”
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Turner said there were unfortunate delays as her son tried to get access to various services and facilities.
“When people lose loved ones, you’re obviously distraught, but you eventually find closure,” she said, per SWNS. “I found peace when I lost my sister in 2015. But with Rob, I can’t find closure because there’s no justice there.”
“I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” said the grieving mom. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack.” (iStock)
Turner is now on the mend and hopes to be fully recovered in a couple of weeks, SWNS reported.
“Until that moment, I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” she shared. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack. It was a warning sign for me, and for anyone. It can change the shape of one of your heart chambers … it can cause some serious damage.”
She added, “The cardiologist told me that thankfully, my heart itself is healthy and there was no damage, but that it will take around two weeks to a month for my heart to reboot itself.”
“Maybe the extra [heart]beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him,” her partner told her.
Turner was told she needed to rest, seek counseling and make lifestyle changes to reduce stress.
“Things have settled down, and I’m taking things easy — I’m pacing myself now, and I feel a lot better. Paul said, ‘Maybe the extra beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him.’”
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Turner said, “That broke me and healed me a little bit all at once.”
Fox News Digital previously reported that broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, as studies have found.
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In an article published in the European Heart Journal in March 2019, Swiss researchers said they found that the syndrome is linked to the way the brain communicates with the heart.
Broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, studies have found. (iStock)
Caused by intense emotional events, TTS is a rare, temporary condition that weakens the left ventricle and disrupts its normal pumping function.
The syndrome causes the heart’s main pumping chamber to change shape and get larger. The heart muscle becomes weaker, and its pumping action loses strength.
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Symptoms include sudden, intense chest pain, pressure or heaviness in the chest, along with shortness of breath.
It is treated with beta blockers and blood-thinning medicine to reduce risks of clots and other flareups.
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Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
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After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
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This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
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Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
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By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
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Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
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