Perspective · GLP-1 & Wellness

The GLP-1 claims your category wants are already on the nutrition label.

Millions of people are now using GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, and rebuilding their diets around them. Every food and beverage team has a slide on it: which categories are softening, how many people will be on the drugs. It stops exactly where the decision starts. The narrower question that drives action is which products in your category actually deliver what these shoppers want, and how much protein is enough. It turns out three of the top four are printed on the nutrition panel, not written by a brand team.

See your category's claim landscape Read the breakdown

Nutrition Facts

8 servings per container

Serving size1 bottle (340ml)

Calories160

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 3g4%

Sodium 95mg4%

Total Carbohydrate 9g3%

Low carb

Total Sugars 4g

Low sugar

Protein 30g60%

High protein

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

GLP-1
FRIENDLY Badge

The Shift

This is a structural change in how the country eats, not a niche.

A meaningful share of households now includes someone changing how they eat on purpose, and the curve is still climbing. The teams treating this as a fringe segment are already behind the shelf.

27%

of US households have at least one GLP-1 user, up nearly 5 points in a year.

Circana, Q1 2026

~20%

of the population projected as new GLP-1 users by 2028.

Piper Sandler

25%

estimated GLP-1 usage by 2030.

Bernstein

Claim, or measured value?

“High protein” is a claim. The GLP-1 shelf is a measured question.

Ask GLP-1 shoppers what they want on a label and the top answers are high protein, low sugar, and low carb. “GLP-1 friendly” ranks high too. But every one of those is a claim: a market signal, what the market says about a product. A claim tells you a product is positioned as high protein. It does not tell you the grams, and it does not tell you whether those grams clear the bar your category now competes on.

That is the shift GLP-1 forces. The question is no longer whether a product carries the claim. It is whether the product actually clears the threshold, measured. How much protein is enough. How little sugar counts as low. A badge cannot answer a threshold question. A measured value can.

So the 59% reaching for a “GLP-1 friendly” badge are not wrong. They are reaching for a signal the market cannot yet verify. The opportunity is to be the brand whose products clear the bar, and can prove it.

The Claim Landscape

What they want, and what they buy, point to the same place.

Stated preference and real spend both spike on the claims printed on the label. The gap between GLP-1 and non-GLP-1 buyers is widest exactly there.

Most-wanted claims, % of GLP-1 consumers who selected them

High protein63%

GLP-1 friendly59%

Low sugar54%

Low carb51%

On the nutrition label A brand-written badge

The gap is widest on the claims printed on the label, not the badge.

Source: Circana receipt panel (stated) and scan panel (spend index).

Most-wanted claims (Circana receipt panel): high protein 63%, GLP-1 friendly 59%, low sugar 54%, low carb 51%. Spend index, new GLP-1 users vs non-users (Circana scan): low calorie 132 vs 92, low carb 126 vs 95, low sugar 119 vs 96, high protein 113 vs 98. 100 is the category average, so an index of 132 means 32% above average.

What counts as a GLP-1 diet

You don't have to define the GLP-1 diet. Independent experts already did.

The good news for any brand or category team is that you do not have to invent what a GLP-1-ready product looks like, and you should not have to take

Harmonya's word for it either. The definition is converging from independent sources. In May 2025, four clinical bodies, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, the American Society for Nutrition, the Obesity Medicine Association, and The Obesity Society, published a joint advisory on nutrition for GLP-1 therapy. Registered-dietitian guidance through the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics points the same way.

The priorities are consistent: protect lean mass with more protein than a standard diet, keep every calorie nutrient-dense, cut added sugar and refined carbohydrates, and choose foods that still feel good to eat. Three of those four pillars are grams already printed on the nutrition panel.

Protect lean mass

Protein well above a standard diet. The joint advisory points to about 1.5 grams per kilogram of lean body mass, or roughly 80 to 120 grams a day, to hold muscle through rapid weight loss.

On the label: grams of protein

Cut added sugar

Minimize added sugar and sugar-sweetened drinks, which crowd out nutrient density in a much smaller daily intake.

On the label: grams of total & added sugar

Fewer refined carbs

Limit refined grains, flour, and starches in favor of whole, minimally processed sources of carbohydrate.

On the label: grams of carbohydrate

Eat for tolerance

Limit heavy, high-fat, spicy, and acidic foods that can slow gastric emptying and worsen GI side effects.

In the formulation: texture, fat & format

Joint advisory, “Nutritional Priorities to Support GLP-1 Therapy for Obesity” (American College of Lifestyle Medicine, American Society for Nutrition, Obesity Medicine Association, The Obesity Society), 2025, with corroborating registered-dietitian guidance via the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Harmonya's role

The diet is defined, and it is not ours to define. What no guideline can tell you is which products, categories, and shelves actually deliver it. That is the measured question, and it is what Harmonya's Nutrition Intelligence answers. We triangulate the bar from published clinical guidance, expert input, and what GLP-1 shoppers actually buy, then measure every product against it at the UPC level. You do not have to take our word for the threshold. You have to be able to see who clears it.

Measured against your bar25g protein

Product A30gClears

Product B22gBelow

Product C27gClears

Product D14gBelow

From claim to measured value

Survey data tells you they want protein. Nutrition Intelligence tells you which products clear the bar.

Stated preference and panels confirm the demand. They cannot tell you which products in your category already carry the profile, what the real competitive benchmark is, or how much protein is enough to be credible. Those are measured questions, and they need measured data.

This is Nutrition Intelligence: a measured signal built on Harmonya's Attribution engine. You define the thresholds that matter to your category. We populate the actual values across every UPC, the in-profile set lights up, and the benchmark moves as the category moves. An optional insights layer adds the landscape, the whitespace, and the prioritized actions on top.

Tap to replay

Mapping your category

GLP-1 profile

Protein per serving →up to 40g

Vertical axis: less sugar at top, more sugar toward the bottom.

In profile

8of 14 SKUs

Eight products clear the bar today. High protein, low sugar, straight off the label.

Meets the GLP-1 profile Below the bar Protein benchmark

1

Which products in my category carry the high-protein, low-sugar, low-carb profile, and which competitors clear it right now?

2

What is the real protein benchmark in my category, so I know whether 15 grams is competitive or the bar has moved to 25 or 30?

3

Where is the whitespace, the thresholds shoppers want that almost nothing in the category delivers?

4

What are shoppers saying about texture and tolerance, so a reformulation wins repeat and not just trial?

The Second Signal

On GLP-1, food itself changes, and people say so before the data does.

People on GLP-1 medications often describe food changing on them. Not just smaller portions, but a real shift in what feels good to eat. Spicy and acidic foods can get hard to enjoy.

Heavy, dense, high-fat textures can start to sit wrong. People share this in reviews and forums, in their own words, months before it shows up as a sales decline. For a brand, that is the earliest and most honest signal there is.

A product can win the first purchase on its claim and still lose the repeat if the texture does not feel right to the person eating it. Protein wins trial. Texture wins repeat.
‍

Tap to replay

Voice of the consumer

“Everything I eat or drink feels thicker and denser.”

“Liquids and snacks now feel heavy.”

“Acidic foods are a no-go.”

Losing tolerance for spicy acidic heavy dense high-fat

Protein wins trial

→

Texture wins repeat

Proven In Category

From signal to action, at the product level.

Data layer · Attribution

Protein, measured

A leading pet care manufacturer. Client-defined competitive protein attributes, measured and delivered as data the team works with directly.

Insights layer · Demand

GLP-1, through sugar

A major oats and cereal manufacturer. Measured total and added sugar feeding a category landscape by sugar level, with sales, growth, share, whitespace, and prioritized actions.

Category whitespace · Demand

$475M

Plant-Based and Vegan demand theme uncovered where the manufacturer had minimal presence.

40M+

products enriched at the UPC level

17,000+

attributes mapped across channels

103M+

consumer reviews connected to products

See Where You Stand

See what Nutrition Intelligence reveals in your category.

A product-level read on your category: which products clear the bar on the claims that matter, the real protein benchmark, where the whitespace is, and what shoppers say about texture. Mapped to your portfolio and your competitive set.

Request your category analysis