Heston Blumenthal on Wegovy: Concerns for Food Industry Impact

Heston Blumenthal has revealed he’s taking the weight-loss drug Wegovy.

The celebrity chef, 59, told how he’s been taking the slimming aid to help combat the effects of his bipolar medication, having been diagnosed with type 1 bipolar in 2023.

Heston also expressed his fears that the rise in popularity of weight loss jabs could pose a threat to the food industry.

Speaking to Times Radio, Heston explained: ‘I’ve put on so much weight, but it’s starting to come off now’, before adding that his use of the drug is a ‘paradox’ given the fact he’s a restaurateur.

The TV personality remarked how he’d lost ‘eight kilos’ on Wegovy so far, however, he has also dealt with side effects including brain fog, slurred speech and problems with balance.

The drugs contain semaglutide, an amino acid, which suppresses appetite by mimicking a hormone telling the brain you are full up. 

Heston Blumenthal has revealed he’s taking the weight-loss drug Wegovy

In a new interview, the celebrity chef, 59, told how he’s been taking the slimming aid to help combat the effects of his bipolar medication, having been diagnosed with type 1 bipolar back in 2023 [Boxes of Wegovy pictured]

Heston issued a warning to the food industry, remarking how the continued use of the popular slimming jabs could have a detrimental affect on it.

He explained: ‘Wegovy, Ozempic, Mounjaro – you still enjoy food, but it stops appetite, so what’s going to happen is people are going to want smaller portions.’

Heston added that things were ‘going to get much worse in the next six months’ for restaurants, before expressing that supermarkets would also be affected.

However, the food writer noted that he’s ‘formulating a plan’ in a bid to help the food industry. 

Elsewhere, last month, Heston revealed he ‘had thought about different ways of ending [his life]’ before eventually receiving treatment for bipolar disorder. 

The London-born celebrity chef, who holds a total of seven Michelin stars across his restaurants, was diagnosed with type 1 bipolar after being sectioned – on the insistence of his wife, French entrepreneur Melanie Ceysson – in November 2023.

Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder which causes unusual and often sudden changes in mood and energy levels. 

Heston explained: ‘I’ve put on so much weight, but it’s starting to come off now’, before going on to add that his use of the drug is a ‘paradox’ given the fact he’s a restaurateur

The TV personality remarked how he’d lost ‘eight kilos’ on Wegovy so far, however, the drug had also caused brain fog, slurred speech and problems with balance and brain fog [pictured with wife Melanie Ceysson]

Meanwhile, Heston issued a warning to the food industry, remarking how the continued use of the popular slimming jabs will have a detrimental affect on it [pictured in 2020]

He spent two weeks heavily medicated in a psychiatric hospital and a further six weeks in a clinic, where he continued with intensive treatment and practised walking meditation.

Yet, four years previously, he had already hit rock bottom and was contemplating the method he would use to take his own life. 

Looking back to filming the cookery show Crazy Delicious in 2019, Heston told The Times: ‘I remember lying on the sofa the night before I was due to go to do the show – I didn’t want to do it, because of the condition I was in – and I had thought about different ways of finishing [my life].

‘I went through a list: knife? No, can’t do that. Gun? Don’t have one. Rope? I don’t think I could do that; wouldn’t know how. It would probably slip off or whatever.

‘And there was no train station anywhere near to jump in front of a train.’

The father-of-four, whose first eatery, The Fat Duck, was named the best restaurant in the world in 2005, added that he didn’t perceive that he was in a depressive state – even when he ‘was talking about suicide or death’. 

He told the publication: ‘I must have been in a mixed state [a period of rapid highs and lows], because I was excited about planning my funeral, planning my wake. What music I wanted, who I wanted there – I got quite excited about that.’