In his first book, the son of the late Michael Mosley warns people against using Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro as a ‘quick fix’ for obesity. By Sophie Morris
When we speak on Maundy Thursday, Dr Jack Mosley is settling into a family holiday in Dorset. He’s travelled from his home near Manchester, where he works as a GP registrar, for the long weekend. And though one of his two brothers is away travelling, he’ll spend the break with his other brother and his sister, as well as his mother, Dr Clare Bailey Mosley, and some of his wider family.
The significant absence is his father, the popular journalist and broadcaster Michael Mosley who tragically died on the Greek island of Symi during a heatwave in June last year, aged 67.
“The outpouring of grief was incredible,” remembers Jack. “It showed how much of a huge difference he made to so many people’s lives. All the messages, calls and letters helped everyone through such a difficult time.”
Though best known for his work on dieting and fasting, including the 5:2 and Fast 800 diets - both for weight loss and to counter type 2 diabetes - Michael was honest about his love of sweet foods, especially chocolate. He even admitted to stealing his children’s Easter eggs in the past, an anecdote Jack, 32, tells in his book Food Noise: How Weight Loss Medications & Smart Nutrition Can Silence Your Cravings, which is out today.
“It has brought us closer together in certain ways,” he says of his father’s untimely death. “I think that does often happen in grief, but I think that’s also testament to my dad. He would be very, very proud of that, that everyone did pull together.”
Food Noise is Jack’s first book, as well as his first time doing something public in his own name. Is there a sense he grew up in the public eye, as his father drew the family into his entertaining shows and stunts designed to bring awareness to public health issues?
Jack laughs. “We weren’t a reality TV show by any stretch. But we did have camera crews turn up from time to time when we were kids, doing things like filming around the dinner table. We’ve all appeared in cameos in various shows.”
His father’s more notorious stories included eating tapeworms. “They weren’t the ones that could spread to your brain,” Jack clarifies.
Mosley senior was mustardgassed the day he met one son’s inlaws, but Clare put her foot down to waterboarding, and dissuaded him from participating in Strictly Come Dancing.
Does Jack suffer from so-called “food noise”? “I’ve probably inherited my dad’s sweet tooth,” he says. It was munching bags of gummy sweets on his commute to work as a newly qualified doctor in 2018 that contributed to him piling on 15kg in a year. “Once I start, I can’t stop. I thought I couldn’t beat the skinny gene and that I’d be naturally slim my whole life.”
So, what is food noise? How is it different to hunger?
“It’s your cravings,” explains Jack. “It’s your internal food monologue. It’s that voice in your head that tells you to grab that bar of chocolate or that extra slice of dessert.
“A lot of people do want to eat well, but their good intentions can be easily derailed by that nagging voice in their head. We live in a toxic food environment where there is temptation everywhere.
“It ‘s be e n brought to prominence recently because of the weight-loss drugs. One of the key ways they work, as well as reducing your appetite, is to quieten your cravings.”
He uses the analogy of noisecancelling headphones to explain how the drugs work. “You can put them on, go about your life and avoid those temptations and make healthier choices. But ultimately when you take the headphones off, that food noise rushes back with a vengeance.”
He’s not unusual in piling on weight as a junior doctor, and says that the long commute, the stress of the new job, snacks on the wards and unhealthy canteen lunches all played their part. He didn’t count calories to lose the weight, but made a few adjustments such as planning meals more and cutting back on the sweets. He was young and the weight came off, but he says he can imagine fasting if he starts to “pile on the middle-aged pounds”.
His book sets out to help people struggling with longer-term weight problems, such as those who might live with obesity and associated health issues like diabetes - .
Specifically, he’s written it for anyone either tempted to try, or already using, the new wave of wildly popular appetite-suppressing drugs, best known as Ozempic [approved for diabetes, but used off-label for weight loss], Wegovy or Mounjaro. Jack is clear that he supports these drugs only for the intended audience, which is a very small group compared to the large numbers who appear to be accessing the jabs through a “Wild West of online pharmacies”.
Food Noise outlines all the potential pros and cons of weight-loss injectables in sometimes stomachchurning detail, while offering support to anyone taking them with information about how to come off them, and how to eat well during and after.
In her introduction to the book, Jack’s mother Clare, a GP who wrote many of the recipes and meal plans to go with Michael’s diets, explains that while her husband could see the potential benefits of weightloss drugs, he knew they needed to be used carefully, “with some degree of support, and alongside a good-quality lifestyle programme”.
“Like my dad, I advocate a dietand lifestyle-first approach,” says Jack, adding that the new drugs, which mimic our GLP-1 hormones to dramatically reduce appetite, are not meant to be a silver bullet.
“They can be dangerous and need to be managed carefully,” he warns.
The problems come not with the weight loss itself, but with how much muscle our bodies lose in the process of rapidly dropping kilograms, the lack of nutrients when we eat so little, as well as the potential for some terrifying side effects, like developing scurvy. Jack describes it as an affliction of “16thcentury pirates and sailors”, which pop star Robbie Williams says he developed while on Ozempic.
According to Food Noise, it is accepted that after any period of rapid weight loss, brought about by jabs or otherwise, the dieter will eventually return to their pre-diet weight. But while the fat returns, the muscle mostly doesn’t.
“Muscle is so important,” Jack says. “Not just for a long life, but for independence as you get older. It protects you from diabetes and falls, a massive cause of disability and death for over-65s.”
Equally problematic is the high risk of malnutrition, or “malnubesity”, which is when you are overweight but undernourished, due to a poor quality diet.
“Processed junk foods are high in calories but low in nutrients and you’re not getting your essential fibre, fat, protein, complex carbs and micronutrients,” he explains.
One study found that 50 per cent of obese people have some micronutrient deficiency.
The proposition of Food Noise is that whether you’re “on the pen” or trying to lose weight your own way, you must feed your body really well while you’re at it, as well as doing some kind of exercise, like weight training, that will build and protect against muscle depletion.
The accompanying recipes in the book, all written by Clare, are full of fibre, protein and nutrients, from nut butter and banana porridge to salmon and rocket egg muffins,
Greek spinach and feta pie and even grilled cheese.
There are also tips on snacking, such as swapping crisps for nuts and milk chocolate for dark. But Jack is against cutting out snacks altogether, as that increases the risk of bingeing.
“The drugs shouldn’t be used as a quick fix,” he insists. “You need to make lifestyle changes, such as following the Mediterranean diet and incorporating some sort of resistance training at the same time.
“For some people who really feel like they need the drugs, they can use this as an opportunity to live differently, to make these changes and turn them into habits. If their ‘food noise’ is turned up a lot, and they have tried every other avenue, medication could be a benefit.”
‘Food Noise: How Weight Loss Medications and Smart Nutrition Can Silence Your Cravings’ by Dr Jack Mosley is out now (Short Books)
FAST FACTS MUSCLING IN Research led by Washington University School of Medicine found that between 25 and 40 per cent of weight lost using GLP-1 medications (like Ozempic or Wegovy) or extreme calorie restriction is actually lean body mass - primarily muscle. This is particularly concerning for older adults, as muscle is crucial for maintaining strength, metabolic health and preventing falls.
A Review by the University of Navarra in Spain highlighted that many individuals living with obesity suffer from “malnubesity” - a condition where someone is overweight but deficient in key micronutrients. The most common deficiencies include vitamins D and B12, folate, iron and calcium.
According to data from Boston University School of Medicine, scurvy - a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency - is making a minor comeback, especially among people with poor diets or food insecurity.
A 2023 study by the University of São Paulo found that those on long-term low-carbohydrate diets were at risk of magnesium, vitamin C and folate deficiencies. This can impair energy production, immune response and neurological health.
According to a 2023 report from University College London, GLP-1 receptor agonists can reduce overall food intake so much that researchers emphasised the importance of combining the drugs with high-protein diets and resistance training.