The Weekend Edition is pulled from the daily Stansberry Digest.

Late last year, I was driving around listening to a financial radio show. The host and a commentator were talking about a suddenly popular subject – weight-loss drugs.

Specifically, they were discussing two ways that Mr. Market might react...

They said shares of Hershey (HSY) – which were down about 30% at the time from a previous high – might be hurting because the drugs would lead more people to eat less of the company's chocolate and snacks. That sounded like a reasonable risk to consider.

But then the pair said that commercial airlines might benefit from the adoption of weight-loss drugs, evidently citing a Wall Street analyst's report that at least one airline could save $80 million per year in fuel costs if each passenger lost at least 10 pounds.

I chuckled to myself... But unfortunately, they were serious.

What the program didn't cover was the most important part of the story...

We knew something they didn't...

First, the skyrocketing price of cocoa, unmentioned in the show, played a large role in the performance of Hershey's shares. Earlier this year, the company laid off 5% of its staff, citing historic cocoa prices and inflation.

Second, even in the off chance that every commercial airline passenger wanted to lose 10 pounds, the odds were incredibly low that every would-be passenger could even get access to these weight-loss drugs...

We knew this because Stansberry Venture Technology editor Dave Lashmet has been researching these drugs for years. He has written extensively about them in his newsletter and in the Digest. And as his research shows, this question of access is key for investors.

It has been several months since that radio show. I haven't heard a similar discussion since.

The bullish case for airlines and the bearish case for snack-makers was a popular thought for a week or so in the financial media. Then it went away, as per usual.

That's because if you want to find the true weight-loss-drug winners, you need to look at the supply-and-demand picture...

I first heard Dave talk about the developed world's obesity epidemic in March 2020, just before the pandemic lockdowns...

He had already been following it for years. Clearly, it's a problem.

Back then, Dave shared this chart at one of our editors' conferences, showing the percentage of state populations considered obese in the mid-1990s compared with 2016...

What I didn't fully appreciate at the time was just how deeply rooted the epidemic is – and how long it will take to untangle, if that's even possible.

That became clear when I spoke with Dave later that year. We talked about how diet and cultural influences going back decades played a major role. As he said...

We can use 1986 as an example... We would have less than 1% morbid obesity and somewhere around 6% to 7% BMI over 30. What we've seen today is what was less than 10% is over 40% and what was less than 1% is more than 6%. So it's basically gotten five times more extreme and has exploded like an epidemic. The costs are extraordinary.

One reason costs are extraordinary is, once people hit 65, everyone has to pay their medical care. More than half of Americans hitting 65 are obese. Obesity among seniors is what everyone has to pay for. What's the cost of obesity? More joint damage, more risk of Type 2 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes drugs, dialysis machines, being driven to your dialysis machine appointment, and cardiovascular effects, and the fact that you have to go into managed care or nursing homes quicker.

It's not just an individual burden. It's an individual burden until you're 64. As soon as you're 65, it's a national health crisis.

The conclusion was simple: The "winners" of this health crisis would be the companies providing solutions to the epidemic... drugs that could be the "cure" for obesity.

We've been tracking the story for years at Stansberry Research...

And now, the general public is catching on. U.S. Food and Drug Administration approvals and incredibly promising trial results have brought weight-loss breakthroughs into the media spotlight.

These drugs could help hundreds of millions of people. But the story isn't over.

Here's what most people don't understand: Supply of these weight-loss drugs remains relatively low. Drugmakers can't keep up with growing demand.

For these companies, this is a good problem to have. And it's far more important than people maybe eating less chocolate, or airplanes flying a little lighter at some point in the future.

As Dave told me last year...

There are 100 million obese American adults. There's literally no way to serve that many people... so food demand is not dropping any time soon.

We're still in the early adoption stage. Many people who want the drugs still can't get them.

That means companies like Hershey aren't the ones likely to see immediate impacts. But for the pharmaceutical companies at play, an incredibly powerful road to growth is all but certain.

Of course, some folks are already experiencing the benefits of these treatments...

In fact, Ken Millstone, one of our employees here at Stansberry Research, is sharing his personal story with weight-loss drugs.

Ken says the medicine saved his life. It was well worth the two and a half hours he drove to get it... and the calls he had to make to 10 different pharmacies before he could get a prescription filled... to help him attack the "demon could never slay."

As Ken says, he was finding success in nearly every other area of his life, but he couldn't get over this "constant burden," no matter what he tried.

Ken thinks his experience could be replicated by millions of Americans. However, this market is still misunderstood... making for one of the biggest investing stories, by far, of the next decade or more.

We've shared all the details in a recent video. If you check it out now, you'll not only hear Ken's story... but you'll also learn about what our publisher says are "the two most important investments on Earth for profiting from this revolution" based on Dave's analysis, for free.

You'll also get a chance to access all of Dave's weight-loss-drug research at a steep discount... and learn how Dave finds big winners, consistently.

Dave's research in our elite Stansberry Venture Technology newsletter is unmatched in our company or industry. Trust me, we're only scratching the surface here.

Dave was the first Stansberry Research analyst who our founder Porter Stansberry hired back in 1999. And Dave holds several of the top stock picks in our Hall of Fame... including his buy recommendation of Nvidia back in 2016 when it traded for less than $50 per share.

Since launching Venture Technology in 2014, Dave has recommended more than 30 stocks that have doubled or more. He's also the reason why Ken discovered the medical breakthrough that he says saved his life.

So don't miss this look at what most folks are missing about the weight-loss-drug market... Click here to get the full story now.

Good investing,

Corey McLaughlin

Editor's note: A decades long trend that could change millions of lives for the better is taking hold of the market. But many investors are already giving up on it. They're simply writing it off as a "fad"... when that couldn't be further from the truth. Dave believes this is easily one of the biggest financial stories in the world right now. And it could lead to massive upside for investors... Click here for the details.