Beyond the calorie: what food and pharmaceutical companies can both learn from the online voice of HCPs

Obesity is increasingly recognised by healthcare professionals (HCPs) as a complex, multifactorial disease, according to our latest research. We tracked public social media conversations by verified HCPs posting about obesity, between 1st January 2025 and 30th September 2025.  Our analysis included over 60,000 public social media posts among over 12,000 HCPs talking about obesity, food and nutrition. 

Over that time we saw a relatively consistent volume of online conversation about obesity among HCPs. 

Within these discussions, we learned from HCPs that the obesity conversation is shaped by topics including food quality, socioeconomic conditions, biological factors, and mental health, not simply calorie imbalance.  While obesity is a hot topic in the pharmaceutical industry,  it is clear that the food industry has a vital role to play, too. 

From this simple word cloud, we can see the vast array of different topics being discussed by HCPs in relation to obesity, ranging from disease risk and treatment to preventative behaviours.

Influential perspectives: how HCPs drive the obesity conversation

Dr Jason Fung, a nephrologist based in Toronto, posted that obesity is not all about calories and highlighting the global differences between nations, calories per day and the obesity rate.  

Obesity is ALL about calories? Hardly. Correlation is not strong (0.6). The Irish, eating almost the same as Americans have 28% less obesity. Belgians, eating MORE than Turks have 35% less obesity? Austrians, eating MORE than Germans, have 30% less obesity? Calories is missing… pic.twitter.com/OpcZ1YzsUD

— Dr. Jason Fung (@drjasonfung) February 25, 2025

In CREATION’s DOL Finder for Obesity, we track over 17,000 HCPs globally who are discussing obesity online, ranked by their peer impact. Dr Fung ranks 178th on that list, and is in the 99th percentile for peer trust in obesity conversation.  Based on our methodology, other HCPs appear to trust Dr Fung’s views (to learn more about CREATION DOL Finder for Obesity, register for our on-demand DOL Finder demo webinar).

In contrast, we saw another HCP, Mark Hyman M.D., talking about the role of ‘Big Food’ and the food industry’s role. Mark Hyman M.D., a 15 X NY Times bestselling author, posts about tackling the root causes of chronic illness and what he describes as the “broken food & health system”.  Dr Hyman ranks 105th in the CREATION DOL Finder for Obesity, and has over 340,000 followers on X. 

Big Food has radically changed the way we eat—swapping real, whole ingredients for ultra-processed, chemically engineered formulas designed for shelf life, not human life.

The food industry has pumped billions into making products cheaper to produce and more addictive, replacing… pic.twitter.com/kb4i9KKyCj

— Mark Hyman, M.D. (@drmarkhyman) February 6, 2025

Dr Spencer Nadolsky (@DrNadolsky) is an obesity and lipid specialist physician and ranks 4th in the HCP conversations about obesity (according to our CREATION DOL Finder for Obesity). He posted about the role that pharmaceutical companies and their treatments have to play in the overall solution to obesity, challenging the view that using GLP-1s is “cheating” and comparing their use to the use of statins for cholesterol and even chemotherapy for cancer.

Using chemotherapy for cancer isn’t cheating.

Using SSRIs for depression or anxiety isn’t cheating.

Using statins for cholesterol isn’t cheating.

Using ace inhibitors for blood pressure isn’t cheating.

So why would using GLP-1s for obesity be cheating?

— Dr. Spencer Nadolsky (@DrNadolsky) January 6, 2025

Industry crossroads: aligning food and pharma strategies

Big Food’s role under scrutiny: 

Our research suggests that some HCPs were concerned that fast food companies could be developing additives to counteract GLP-1 drugs, reflecting commercial strategies that may undermine health progress.

For decades, the junk food industry has deliberately engineered foods to be addictive. Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs have helped people break free from this cycle. In response, the industry is now searching for ways to counteract the effects of these medications, aiming to design…

— Ziyad Al-Aly, MD (@zalaly) February 10, 2025

For example, this post by Ziyad Al-Aly, M.D., a Physician-Scientist in the US, and currently ranking 308 in DOL Finder for Obesity, received over 1.1million views online when he added his views and reshared an article from NY Times Magazine talking about the tensions between the food and pharmaceutical industries’ strategies. 

Lifestyle vs diet 

Robert Lufkin, M.D., shared his view that obesity was not a common problem in the 1970s and questioned whether changing diets is the cause. 

Obesity was uncommon before the 1970's.

Then our diets changed
to cut out healthy fats and replace them with
seed oils, refined carbohydrates, sugar, and grains.

Now obesity and diabetes rates are higher than anytime in recorded history.

Could there be causation? pic.twitter.com/jxHQEK1lsc

— Robert Lufkin MD (@robertlufkinmd) April 29, 2025

Dr Lufkin describes himself as a “New York Times bestselling author and Medical School Professor (UCLA & USC) empowering people to take back their health and live life to the fullest.”  He currently ranks 25th in the CREATION DOL Finder for Obesity, and if we look into his profile, we see that over the last year he is more likely to be an originator of posts about obesity than he is to respond or amplify other posts. This, together with his high degree of peer impact, indicates that he is likely to be an originator of ideas or content that impact other HCPs.

More recently, in September 2025, we see Dr Lufkin quoting an article from ScienceDirect where he shares that the type of food consumed matters more than quantity alone as a cause of obesity.

Obesity appears to be driven more by

what we eat

rather than how much we eat. https://t.co/AGF4NlCDuq pic.twitter.com/NI4XuQvsVY

— Robert Lufkin MD (@robertlufkinmd) September 19, 2025

Policy has a part to play

Dr. David Ludwig is an endocrinologist, nutrition researcher and public health advocate as well as a NY Times bestselling author.  He shared his views on an article in the New England Journal of Medicine looking at the Nova system and the concept of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs), offering a new way to think about unhealthy diet and questioning whether policy efforts should focus on well-established dietary risks like refined grains, added sugars, and highly processed carbohydrates.

Should national nutrition policy target "Ultra-Processed Foods" (UPF) as many advocate?

I consider concerns in a @NEJM Perspective

Like 'The Emperor's New Clothes'

👉We're rolling out a red carpet, but the evidence is threadbare!

LINK: https://t.co/iDjaGzdbES

1/21 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/TGtrhTttDg

— Dr. David Ludwig (@davidludwigmd) September 3, 2025

HCPs are shaping public narratives on obesity

The online conversations taking place among healthcare professionals reveal both the complexity of obesity and the interconnected roles of the food and pharma industries in addressing it. With more than 60,000 posts over nine months, HCPs are shaping public narratives, influencing peers, and highlighting where current approaches succeed, or fall short.

For the food industry, these discussions offer a real-time window into how nutritional quality, processing, and marketing are perceived by trusted medical voices. For the pharmaceutical sector, they provide valuable insight into how new therapies are being discussed, challenged, and contextualised within broader lifestyle and policy debates.

Importantly, the conversation is not split neatly between “food vs pharma.” Instead, it reflects an understanding that – in the eyes of healthcare professionals – lasting impact requires both sectors to work together, supported by effective policy and informed public engagement. Whether it’s aligning product innovation with public health goals, responding constructively to HCP concerns, or co-developing strategies that address both prevention and treatment, collaboration is where meaningful change can happen.

By listening to and learning from these online HCP conversations, both industries have a unique opportunity to move beyond calorie counting and contribute to a holistic, multi-stakeholder approach to tackling obesity.