Grace Parkin still remembers the moment a pint of beer suddenly lost its appeal.
It happened in the summer of 2024, when the then 32-year-old manager was at one of her favourite pubs in Sheffield, watching the European football championship with friends.
On a typical night out, she would have had no trouble getting through several pints of lager. This time, however, something felt different.
‘I ordered a beer out of instinct,’ said Ms Parkin, who is from Sheffield.
‘But I couldn’t even get a third of the way down. I tried to drink it all but I remember thinking, “oh god, this is not for me”.
‘It didn’t have the same effect it used to. It didn’t taste nice at all and made me feel bloated.’
Ms Parkin, a mother of one, later realised she was experiencing an unusual but increasingly discussed side effect linked to the popular weight-loss injection Mounjaro.
After losing six stone over 18 months on the jabs, she said her appetite for alcohol had changed more broadly, with wine and her usual spirit-and-mixer also becoming far less tempting.
Grace Parkin, 34, found that Mounjaro had a positive effect on all of her impulsive behaviours
Prior to starting the so-called ‘blockbuster’ injections in May 2024, Ms Parkin would sometimes get through ‘up to 10 vodka, lime and lemonades’ on her weekly Saturday nights out.
These days, she’s switched to wine – but only on occasion.
‘Sometimes I have to force myself [to finish a glass of wine],’ she said. ‘I’d probably say I’m drinking once a month as oppose to once a week. I’m not interested in it whatsoever.’
A growing body of research suggests that the medications, called GLP1-agonists, have an additional benefit of curbing cravings for a number of substances.
Studies show that using the drug can cut the risk of developing alcoholism by 18 per cent, and cocaine addiction by 20 per cent.
Meanwhile, US trials have found GLP-1s can reduce cravings for booze in moderate drinkers too.
Experts believe the hormone triggered by the drugs may influence the brain’s reward system, which plays a role in addictive behaviours.
The manager shed six stone on the jabs and has no plan to come off them any time soon
Studies have previously found that GLP-1 agonists reduce cravings and addictive behaviours
Ms Parkin has struggled with her weight since her teenage years, and underwent a gastric balloon in 2009, when she reached a weight of around 19 stone.
But the operation resulted in a weight loss of just three stone – and she didn’t find it helped with her eating habits.
She was never a ‘big eater’ but would find herself gorging on weekends.
She would often go out drinking on a Friday or a Saturday, eat a pizza on her way home and mop her hangover the next day with a bacon sandwich and a takeaway.
‘By Monday I’d hate myself and be back to the diet,’ she said.
While she managed to get her weight down to just under 18 stone by May 2024, she was hunting for options to speed up her transformation.
She spotted a post about Mounjaro on Facebook, and decided to try it.
The hunger pangs vanished almost instantly – and it wasn’t just her appetite for food that saw a dramatic change.
Previously she would spend her disposable income without so much of a second thought – splashing out on clothes, holidays, eating out and alcohol.
Ms Parkin said she’d often go through 10 vodkas on an average night out before Mounjaro
‘I’d be just buying shoes – trainers, Uggs, boots,’ she said.
‘Then it will be buying a load of jumpers or holiday clothes when I’d not even booked a holiday.
‘I’d get an idea in my head, like I need some new sunglasses. And if I was bored on an evening I’d buy from any brands that did plus sized clothes. I could spend anything from £50 to £200 to £300 a night.’
Ms Parkin was also visiting her local shopping centre at least twice a week.
‘I was void filling,’ she says, ‘looking for that adrenaline. If I could spend money and it could give that rush – I’d do it.’
But since Mounjaro, she only buys what she needs – and credits the control the drug has given her.
She came off the drug in February, in preparation for a cosmetic breast lift procedure, but recently started using it again.
‘I’m 11 stone 10 now and I want to maintain my weight’ she said. ‘I’m not planning on losing any more.’
The ‘lack of food noise’ she experiences when using the injections is a benefit she doesn’t wish to give up.
‘It’s been incredible,’ she said. ‘I’m never coming off the medication.’
