Over the past few years, medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have become household names. Originally developed to help manage type 2 diabetes, these drugs are now widely used for both weight loss and blood-glucose control.
They work by mimicking a hormone your body already produces naturally: GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1).
For many people struggling with blood sugar or weight issues, these medications have delivered impressive results. But as with any pharmaceutical breakthrough, an important question remains:
What happens when we rely on an artificial version of a hormone the body is designed to produce itself? Understanding how GLP-1 works — and how the body naturally regulates it — is a really important part of that conversation.
Your Body Already Has a GLP-1 System
GLP-1 is a hormone produced in the gut, primarily by specialised cells called L-cells which are located in the lower ’back end’ of the small intestine and throughout the large intestine.
When we eat — particularly when food reaches the lower part of the digestive tract — these cells release GLP-1 into the bloodstream. The hormone then performs several important functions:
• stimulates insulin release from the pancreas
• reduces glucagon (which raises blood sugar)
• slows stomach emptying
• signals fullness to the brain
• helps stabilise blood-glucose levels after meals
In simple terms, GLP-1 acts as a metabolic traffic controller, helping the body process food efficiently and preventing large spikes in blood sugar.
This process is part of what scientists call the “incretin system” — a sophisticated communication network between the gut, pancreas, brain and liver.
Importantly, this system evolved to respond to real food, not the highly processed diet so common in the Western world today.
Food Is the Original GLP-1 Stimulator
The gut doesn’t release GLP-1 randomly. It responds to specific signals — particularly the presence of complex carbohydrates and fermentable fibres reaching the lower intestine.
When these fibres are fermented by gut bacteria, they produce compounds called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as butyrate, propionate and acetate. These compounds play a key role in stimulating L-cells to release GLP-1.
In other words:
The right foods naturally activate the body’s own GLP-1 system.
This is one of the reasons diets rich in whole plant foods, resistant starches and complex fibres are consistently associated with better metabolic health and improved blood-sugar regulation.
The body isn’t just absorbing calories from these foods — it’s receiving regulatory signals that help control appetite, insulin response and energy balance.
How GLP-1 Medications Work
Drugs such as Ozempic and similar GLP-1 receptor agonists work by mimicking the effects of the natural hormone.
They bind to the same receptors and produce similar outcomes:
• increased insulin release
• reduced appetite
• slower gastric emptying
• improved blood-sugar control
For people with severe insulin resistance or poorly controlled diabetes, these medications can be extremely helpful in the short term.
It’s worth noting the first GLP-1 receptor agonist approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes was Byetta (exenatide), which received approval, over 20 years ago, in 2005.
Over the next decade, several longer-acting versions were developed, including:
- Victoza (liraglutide) – approved in 2010
- Bydureon – approved in 2012
- Trulicity – approved in 2014
During this period the medications were primarily prescribed for diabetes, and awareness outside medical circles was relatively limited.
The Turning Point: Ozempic (2017)
Things changed significantly when Ozempic (semaglutide) was approved in 2017.
This version had several advantages:
- once-weekly dosing
- stronger blood-glucose control
- noticeable weight loss in many patients
Doctors began prescribing it more widely for people with type 2 diabetes AND obesity, and the medication started gaining attention. The associated weight loss benefits attracted attention and between 2021 -2024 when weight-loss approvals were obtained, media coverage dramatically increased demand. However, they also introduce a new variable into the body’s regulatory system: a constant external signal that overrides the body’s natural hormone cycles.
The Question of Long-Term Use
Because GLP-1 medications are relatively new, scientists are still studying their long-term metabolic effects. One question researchers are exploring is whether prolonged use of GLP-1 receptor agonists could affect the body’s own hormone production after the medication is stopped.
This concern relates to a common physiological principle known as down-regulation, where the body reduces its sensitivity to a hormone when it receives a strong external signal for an extended period.
While the evidence is not yet definitive, some researchers suggest that long-term exposure to GLP-1 drugs could potentially influence the activity of the gut’s L-cells — the cells responsible for producing natural GLP-1 and related hormones such as GLP-2, which helps maintain the integrity of the intestinal lining.
Another practical observation is that many people regain weight once the medication is stopped, suggesting the underlying metabolic drivers may not have been fully addressed. It’s estimated as much as 40% of the weight loss is lean muscle mass, but when weight is put back on it’s almost all fat, so in fact they are actually worse off than when they started.
This doesn’t mean these medications have no place in medicine, but it does highlight an important point:
Supporting the body’s natural metabolic signalling systems remains fundamental for long-term health.
Re-Engaging the Body’s Own GLP-1 System
Rather than artificially replacing the body’s hormonal signals, another approach is to stimulate and support them naturally through food.
This is where dietary patterns rich in complex fibres, protein, micronutrients and fermentable carbohydrates play a crucial role.
When these foods reach the large intestine they feed beneficial gut bacteria, leading to the production of the SCFAs that trigger GLP-1 release.
This approach supports the body’s own regulatory loops, rather than overriding them.
A Food-Based Option: NutriKane™
One of the challenges for many people today is that modern diets contain far less of these complex fibres than traditional diets once did.
The NutriKane™ range was developed with this problem in mind.
Rather than being a single fibre supplement, the NutriKane™ range is made from a combination of natural food ingredients that contain unique fibres along with a range of micronutrients that support metabolic and gut health.
These ingredients help provide the types of fermentable fibres that nourish the microbiome and encourage the production of beneficial short-chain fatty acids — the same compounds known to stimulate the body’s natural GLP-1 signalling.
In this way, the goal is not to replace the body’s hormonal systems, but to support the conditions that allow them to function as they were designed to.
The Bigger Picture
GLP-1 medications have opened an important new chapter in the treatment of metabolic disease, but they also remind us of something equally important.
The body already possesses an extraordinarily sophisticated metabolic control system — one that evolved in response to whole foods, complex fibres and a diverse gut microbiome.
For long-term metabolic resilience, the goal may not simply be to mimic these signals with drugs, but to restore the dietary environment that allows the body to produce them naturally.
And that conversation is only just beginning.
