[People Met Through Books] Is Taking Medicine for Dieting Cheating? ... An Era Where Anyone Can Practice 'Sosik' May Be Coming

Consume 25% Less Than Recommended Amount
Intermittent Fasting More Practical Than Constantly Reducing Portions
New Diet Drug Emerges to Reduce Side Effects
Balanced Eating Provides Sufficient Impact

After graduating from pharmacy school and attending graduate school, I immigrated to Canada in the late 1990s and stayed there for 10 years. Because I like new experiences, I indulged in exotic new foods, and my weight, which had been maintained in the 70 kg range at a height of 183 cm, soon approached 100 kg. Koreans say they live on the strength of rice. Foreign food made me hungry quickly, and no matter what I ate outside, I always had to finish with rice at home. It was like eating rice one more time. Perhaps this is universal, as locals called the hunger after eating Chinese food 'Chinese hunger.' Thinking, "Anyway, it's already wrong. Let's go all the way," I kept eating until my knee joints started to suffer. I had no choice but to lose weight, and from then on, I became interested in small meals. After returning to Korea in 2008, I ran a pharmacy while working as a food writer, but now I am a full-time food writer. I have appeared on various media, including the podcast 'Maebul Show,' which I have participated in for four years, and I write about food. I asked pharmacist Jaehoon Jeong (pictured), author of the book The Science of Small Meals Everyone Knows but No One Understands (Dongasia), about small meals, emphasizing that how you eat is more important than what you eat.

- I am curious about what made you seriously interested in small meals.

▲ I went down from 100 kg to 75 kg, but then while working as a food writer, I gained back up to 85 kg. I ate a lot while writing about food. Over three years, I visited more than 100 Michelin-starred restaurants in France, Italy, Spain, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and more. You might think that high-end restaurants introduced in Michelin would have moderate portions and quality that wouldn't burden the body, but in reality, that's not the case. The portions are large, and you gain a lot of weight. That's when I became interested in small meals.

- Was that interest the motivation for publishing your recent book?

▲ Yes. In fact, I had published books related to food before, but this is the first time I focused on small meals. In my previous books, I said that humans are omnivores and just need to eat a balanced diet, and that there are no strictly good or bad foods, which received a good response. Usually, certain foods are called 'superfoods,' claiming that eating only those will improve health, like 'changes after eating seaweed soup or peaches for a month.' I wanted to move beyond that and explain why small meals are necessary for modern people.

- Is there a standard for small meals?

▲ It means eating 25% less than the recommended intake. But this is not easy. It's cumbersome to reduce every meal by 25%, and the environmental cost of leaving food uneaten is significant. In such cases, intermittent fasting helps. It's a practical way to reduce environmental costs. Skipping dinner is best, but since we have social lives, meet people, and attend gatherings, it's not easy. In that case, skipping breakfast is better. The key is to maintain a fasting state for more than 12 hours. At least that much is needed for the body to enter conservation mode.

- I understand you recently lost about 10 kg again. How did you do it?

▲ I practiced intermittent fasting by maintaining a fast from after dinner until lunch the next day. However, I did not completely skip breakfast but ate a simple meal. I had a spoonful of Greek yogurt with a little olive oil and coffee. This was better than skipping breakfast entirely. I felt less hungry throughout the day, and my blood sugar stayed within normal ranges. Naturally, the chance of binge eating at the next meal was lower. To find a personalized optimal method, using a continuous glucose monitor attached to the arm is helpful. It checks blood sugar changes in real time depending on what you eat. Nowadays, there are many good tools, so you can try them yourself. You don't need to be swayed by media saying 'it's good if you do this' or 'it's good if you eat that.' You can quantify your body condition by combining small meals and exercise. Exercise can be measured with a smartwatch.

- Is it okay for health not to keep three meals a day?

▲ Meals are a social agreement. Whether you eat breakfast or not, the lunch hour for office workers is fixed at 12 o'clock. It's more of a social consensus than considering physical balance. In fact, the standardization of three meals a day became possible after the Industrial Revolution in the West and only in modern times in Korea. Of course, age groups should be distinguished. Growing children should eat enough, but adults don't necessarily have to. The claim that breakfast is good has some research backing for adolescents, but the evidence weakens for adults. It's not that you must eat three meals a day, but you should eat regularly. Having a consistent pattern is important. Meals should be a small pleasure, not a festival every time. However, nowadays, regardless of wealth or age, people eat foods that used to be reserved for festivals almost every day.

- Diet drugs always attract great interest, but recently it seems especially so.

▲ Ozempic and Wegovy have been approved domestically but are not yet on the market. They are extremely popular overseas. So many people seek Ozempic, a diabetes medication, that there are stories about diabetic patients not having access to their medicine. Side effects have also significantly decreased compared to the past. Of course, there are critical voices about losing weight with drugs. In the past, so-called 'butterfly pills' had severe side effects, and there is still a stigma that losing weight with drugs is cheating. Fierce debates are happening overseas. When articles about diet drugs appear in places like The New York Times (NYT), thousands of comments are posted. If someone criticizes 'losing weight with drugs is cheating,' those who have tried the drugs respond with many comments like 'I have diabetes, overweight, and hypertension, and after trying it, those conditions improved. Shouldn't you try it before judging?'

- Have side effects really decreased a lot?

▲ Existing diet drugs helped with weight loss but negatively affected health, so they had to be used only short-term. However, recent drugs have many health benefits, leading to discussions about changing perspectives. Users say the feeling of satiety is different. Even when eating as usual, they feel 'this is enough.' Food cravings and even alcohol cravings decrease, and various studies are ongoing to understand why. Known side effects so far are mild nausea or vomiting, and stronger drugs are being developed. Overseas, they are called 'game changers.' Although the drug costs about 1 to 2 million KRW per month, there are prospects to reduce it to 50,000 KRW. In Turkey, it is already traded at around 100,000 KRW. When patents expire and biosimilars appear in about 10 years, significant changes are expected.

- Demand must be huge, so why is the market release delayed after domestic approval?

▲ Currently, supply in the U.S. cannot keep up with demand. Pharmaceutical companies have even stopped advertising. From the pharmaceutical company's perspective, there is no need to rush. It was approved in China last April and is already in use in Japan. It will enter Korea soon.

- Overcoming the pleasure of eating requires strong willpower. Is there a way to increase willpower?

▲ Losing weight while eating a lot is impossible. Doing small meals solely for health is also difficult. In such cases, it's necessary to have the perspective that it is for future generations. The negative impact of excessive food production on the global environment is at a level that cannot be ignored. Small meals are important not only for oneself but also for the environment. Many diet plans consider the environment. According to them, meat consumption should be reduced to one-third of the current level. Then, much of the feed corn for cattle will also decrease accordingly. Just as the habit of using tumblers is spreading for environmental reasons, it is time to adopt small meal habits for the environment.

- Eating less might raise concerns about nutritional imbalance. Is it okay not to take supplements?

▲ There is no need to take supplements compulsively. If you eat a balanced diet, there is no problem. You should consume carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in balance and eat plenty of vegetables and fruits. You might take vitamin B for severe menstrual pain or magnesium for frequent cramps, but deficiency marketing is too excessive.

- However, it is not easy to properly know and adjust nutritional balance. While you can get diet plans for weight loss at fitness centers, places that provide personalized health diet plans are rare.

▲ It is very important to look into health status through diet. If you practice small meals, nutritional counseling is necessary, and clinical dietitians help with that. Since blood tests cannot reveal everything, additional diet analysis is needed. Ideally, clinical nutrition centers should be opened everywhere like local clinics for counseling. However, in Korea, clinical dietitians still find it difficult to work independently.

- I heard you are preparing a body profile.

▲ Among those who say you can maintain health by eating moderately and evenly, many secretly neglect their health. I want to show that middle-aged bodies can also be healthy rather than muscular physiques. I plan to show a good appearance within this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.