Foods to Limit When You're Eating Less, and Where Alcohol Fits

These medications change how much you eat. The advisory cites observed calorie reductions of 16 to 39%, and says that makes it important to get as many nutrients as possible out of less food. It also ties certain foods, meal sizes and alcohol to stomach side effects.

The advisory says people on these medications should be counseled to avoid refined carbohydrates (refined grains, flour, starches and sugars), sugar-sweetened beverages, red and processed meats, and most fast foods, ultraprocessed sweets and savory snacks. It encourages fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, lean proteins, eggs, nuts, seeds and plant oils instead.

How you eat counts too. Its list of things to minimize includes large meals, long periods without eating, and emotional, mindless or nighttime eating. It notes vomiting is more likely with large meals, and suggests smaller, more frequent meals and avoiding fatty or high-fiber foods in the first few days of treatment if nausea hits.

On alcohol, the advisory says it may worsen nausea and reflux on this kind of medication and should be minimized. The Medication Guides for three of the common weekly injections don't address drinking, but two of their warnings are worth knowing alongside it.

• Pancreatitis. The guides say to stop the medicine and call your healthcare provider right away for severe stomach pain that won't go away, with or without vomiting. Separately, the NIH's NIDDK lists heavy alcohol use among the most common causes of pancreatitis.

• Low blood sugar. The guides say the risk may be higher if you also take a sulfonylurea or insulin. NIDDK says drinking too much alcohol without enough food makes blood glucose harder to keep steady, and that alcohol can keep you from feeling the first symptoms of low blood glucose.

More broadly, NIAAA says harms may come with any amount of drinking, and the CDC says drinking less, or not at all, lowers your risks.