Al Roker NDZ/Star Max/GC Images
Al Roker has no judgment for people using medications like Ozempic for weight loss.
“I’m not gonna judge anybody,” the Today show host, 70, told the Daily Mail in an interview published on Saturday, November 9, while promoting his new cookbook Al Roker’s Recipes to Live By: Easy, Memory-Making Family Dishes for Every Occasion. “Listen, it’s unlike any other addiction or dependence. You can live without alcohol, you can live without cigarettes, whatever that drug of choice is, but you’ve got to eat, and so for some people, it’s just difficult.”
He added, “If this is what works for them, I mean, who are we to say, ‘Oh, don’t do that.’ As long as it’s safe and effective, good for you. I think everybody’s journey is their journey.”
Roker has been open about his own weight loss journey, undergoing gastric bypass surgery in 2002 to lose 100 pounds. At the time, his weight had reached 340 pounds. “I guess what I’ve come to [realize with] my relationship with food, which has happened over a period of time, is that I’ve learned about portions,” Roker told the Daily Mail.
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In recent years, an increased number of celebrities have relied on Ozempic, a diabetes medication, to lose weight, among other medications that have the same effect. While Roker went the surgery route, he is hesitant to dole out advice to those also looking to shed some weight and improve their own relationship with food.
Al Roker Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
“I am very loath to give people advice about that because it’s like anything — you have good days and not-so-good days, you still have emotions, things like that,” Roker said. “So I tend not to go down that road because it’s tough and everybody’s got to face that and they’ve got to figure out their path.”
He added, “And if that path is one of these drugs and that works for them, great. And if it helps you, if that’s the thing that gets you over that point where you’re able to be healthier and lead a more active lifestyle, that’s great.”
According to Roker, social media has made it “more difficult” for people to maintain a healthy relationship to food, saying, “When it comes to food, it’s very hard to multitask.”
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He said, “You could finish a plate of food reading and not realize that you ate. Well, today, everybody’s on their phones and doom scrolling and eating or having snacks and so I think the trick is to try to be more present.”
Earlier this year, Roker came to the defense of Kelly Clarkson after she admitted to taking some form of weight-loss medication. She noted that it wasn’t Ozempic, but faced backlash from her fanbase for using medication in the first place.
“There’s too much judgment going on,” Roker said about it on the Today show in May. “People, as long as they’re working with their doctors and being healthy about it, people ought to back off and let them live their lives.”
He added, “It’s not easy, whatever you do, so get off people’s backs.”