I'm Disturbed....

Diet and Nutrition
1

I am quite disturbed by the increasing numbers of doctors that are recommending gastric bypass to their patients?

Considerng that all it does is make the individual eat less, I would think that less drastic programs can be developed. I think that having something such as a long-term (30 days+) facility that monitors diet and excersize to change people’s habits is less drastic, and more helpful in the long term. I’ve had overweight people call me a ‘food snob’ because I am very careful about what slides down my gullet. Walking past a hot dog stand now makes me want to hurl from the smell, and some people eat that stuff.

Not to be blunt, but I like the way SNL put it many years ago… “Stop eating you fat bastard”

That would never fly today. It’s always not the person’s own fault…

ok… end of my rant.

2

Nothing against a fat person…but when they utter “I’ve tried everything” they find themselves getting roundhoused in the mouth. I find that to be an effective way of cutting the bullshit right at the source. :wink:

3

That’s funny because I just started a similar thread about this. I was reading this article last night:

http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051024/NEWS/510240317/1001

The guy used to weigh half a TON, and now that his stomach’s the size of my palm through gastric bypass, he’s lost over 600 lbs. They’re calling him an “inspirational” story! Uh, take a close look at that picture of him in the article. I swear I think I see empty bags of doritos, McDonald’s and Coke cans all over the place. Inspirational my ass!

Oh, and don’t get me started with the people who are scamming our insurance companies trying to get them to pay for these surgeries. At the end of the day, who really pays for these? The rest of the insurance customers who don’t need surgery, but instead try and eat right and make it to the gym…

Ok, I’m off my soapbox now.

-Davin

4

Saw yours too, this fad really bothers me. The thing is, these folks have to take supplements and vitamins for the rest of their lives because they cannot get the nutrients they need from food. I’d imagine they probably feel pretty weak all the time. In addition, long term (20+ years) effects of the surgery are not known. Children as young as 12 have been given this surgery. I’m sorry, but as far as I’m concerned, it does come down to will power. Getting morbitly obese (200+ pounds overweight) is just as much work as staying healthy. At that weight, everything you do becomes a chore, walking, sitting, breathing, going to the bathroom… etc.

I also contend not all fat people are unhealthy. there are some who are very active despite their weight, and are fairly healthy even though they may be a bit heavier then they should be.

5

[quote]Z-Man wrote:
I am quite disturbed by the increasing numbers of doctors that are recommending gastric bypass to their patients?
[/quote]

Wouldn’t this depend on the specific state of the patient? If someone is obese and literally eating themselves to death, recommending an all out assault at Bally’s Fitness 5 days a week will probably get about as much application as “self control” in that patient’s personal life. You would have to discuss individual cases rather than throw all cases together as if fat people are walking into clinics and this is the first thing thrown at them during an office visit.

I do agree that the surgery may be getting too romanticized by reality tv and pop culture. However, this “microwave myself to beauty” mentality is everywhere, not just in the act of gastric bypass surgery.

6

[quote]davin.gallego wrote:
Uh, take a close look at that picture of him in the article. I swear I think I see empty bags of doritos, McDonald’s and Coke cans all over the place. Inspirational my ass![/quote]

It’s a diet coke. He’s making the effort :slight_smile:

7

[quote]Z-Man wrote:
I also contend not all fat people are unhealthy. there are some who are very active despite their weight, and are fairly healthy even though they may be a bit heavier then they should be.[/quote]

Yeah, look at sumo wrestlers. They may not be able to wipe their arses, but they’re not keeling over and dying. They’re quite nimble too.

8

I am much more interested in the psychology that leads someone to weigh over 1,000lbs. I have a hard time believing that someone in that condition even wants to live. Once you lose the ability to get up and walk, there must a huge mental defect that allows that person to avoid changing their lifestyle. Even if they don’t understand training enough to be certified, there is more than enough available information for anyone to avoid that sort of massive obesity.

9

Score one for the Professor. These people are in deep depression and use their weight to block out certain areas of life until it consumes them and the worse they get the less chance there is of them getting back. They are byproducts of the current society. Not that many of them couldn’t use a good kick in the ass, IMO.

10

I know! Half of them say “I’ve tried everything…for only 3 days a shot”. Lmao. Very few people need it. Half of America is just too lazy to eat clean and workout!!

11

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I am much more interested in the psychology that leads someone to weigh over 1,000lbs. I have a hard time believing that someone in that condition even wants to live. Once you lose the ability to get up and walk, there must a huge mental defect that allows that person to avoid changing their lifestyle. Even if they don’t understand training enough to be certified, there is more than enough available information for anyone to avoid that sort of massive obesity.[/quote]

Hey X. It’s Gothic, using my husband’s account. (Don’t feel like switching accounts at the moment.)

This is an interesting thought process and one I’ve thought of frequently.

My father is morbidly obese. According to him, the last time he went to the hospital for yet ANOTHER procedure he had to be weighed on some heavy duty scale they use for weighing meat. ??? I don’t know, I wasn’t there - I like to avoid hospitals whenever I can. :stuck_out_tongue: But anyway, he weighed something around 400 lbs.

He CHOSE not to get himself to a gym when he was younger. He CHOSE to accept his obesity and not take care of himself. He continued to be depressed and miserable. My perception of this is that he ENJOYS living a miserable life. He does not want to change, he merely enjoys complaining about it. He’s a very negative person.

That’s my opinion of ppl who choose not to make changes. It’s not an inability - it’s a CHOICE they made long ago and they pretend to be fine with themselves.

Ok, I’m done. And thinking maybe I need therapy myself. lol!!

~ Gothic

12

prof z, good points all. Gastric bypass is the last resort for the morbidly obese. These are the people that will die unlesss they get the surgery. Nevermind that they can’t or won’t help themselves by eating sensibly, these folks are gonna eat themselves to death.

Never having been in this predicament, I too am fascinated by the mind of a human being that can do this to themself.

You guys are right that they should not be presented as “heroes” or "miracle " men or women… That is sooooo bogus.

13

[quote]magyar wrote:
these folks are gonna eat themselves to death.[/quote]

I say let them. Why do we have to save the whale when the f%#ker wants to sink in the first place? They should be offered antidepressants and coffee to get moving…and just end it at that. The medical community is such bunch of sellouts for helping the weak-willed instead of setting some borders. Look if you eat like a glutonous behemoth you will die, period.

Why should there even be an incentive to look for ways to treat fat farts who with their own hands fed themselves into jurasic size? Well, we all know but I had to vent…:expressionless:

14

The problem is not that it’s being used in that rare occasion where it needs to be to save a person’s life, it’s that it is now becoming an acceptable weight loss mechanism. Two people on TV that didn’t need it, the guy off of American Idol, and the woman off of The View… and then they get all this praise for losing weight. Gimme a break… people should be saying to them “it’s too bad you had to resort to the surgery”

15

Man, I love America! We’ve gotten used to food that is terrible for us and is way too much, portion wise…Even at McDonald’s one value meal is too big of a portion. We’re just used to over doing it.

I agree that people who get this surgery are not heroes, they’re just people getting help. Yes, in a perfect world they would have the self control to diet and get their weight down. In a perfect world they never would have gotten their weight up there in the first place. But alas, this world is not perfect, (whatever that may look like) and sometimes people need help.

16

warning…rant approaching…
I work with a girl (26yrs old) who is having this surgery done in january.
No health insurance where we work, so the taxpayers of the great state of Tennessee are chucking the bill for this one.
She said her doctor only recommended it as a last resort due to her failure to lose weight by ordinary diets…catch is, her “ordinary diets” consist of half a pizza and a diet coke(gotta giver her some credit) for lunch two or three times a week.
I’m about halfway tempted to call her doctor and tell him just what kind of “diet” she’s been on.
Seems like an ethical doctor would want proof that you have adhered to at least three different strategies for at least a month each.
Some of these people do need help, no doubt about that, but it seems like it would be cheaper, and a helluva lot safer, to hire some college students to follow them around (they can work shifts to cover all hours) and thrash them severely about the head and shoulders with a 1" pvc pipe everytime they put something in their mouth that is not a)green, b)meat or c)water.
Granted some of these people have hormonal imbalances, etc, etc that are beyond their control, but, the procedure does one thing, and one thing only, reduces the stomach size, it will not correct correct thyroid imbalances, it will not make your mommy and daddy love you more, it won’t make all your problems go away, it simply will not allow you to eat, thats all.
So save yourself, and the taxpayers, $30,000, and eat less on your own.
…end of rant…we now return you to your normally scheduled, sensitive to the feelings and needs of others programming.

17

Chances are they didn’t much like getting up and walking around in the first place so they probably didn’t feel like they were losing anything.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I am much more interested in the psychology that leads someone to weigh over 1,000lbs. I have a hard time believing that someone in that condition even wants to live. Once you lose the ability to get up and walk, there must a huge mental defect that allows that person to avoid changing their lifestyle. [/quote]

18

Well, there’s are problems at different levels.

I agree with the professor. People who eat themselves litterally to death, are troubled people. Man is NOT supposed to be this fat. And it’s not like you have to work out 3 times a week and watch your diet like a hawk to avoid this situation. No, these people are simply heading for disaster and they make every effort to stay on that course.

It also amazes me that, allthough they can’t get around by themselves, there’s always some “kind soul” who brings them the food.

That’s one part of the problem.

The other part is in the medical community. We’ve established that these people are sick in the head. But the docter apparantly is the only one not to notice. His advice: diet.

First off, this advice is wrong. It’s as wrong as advising someone having a hart attack to “controll his hartbeat”. If it’s in the peoples mind, they’re not going to pop out of this situation by themselves, you’ll have to coach them. This takes time, expertise, some empathy. Sadly, our doctors are lacking in every of those areas.

That’s 2.

Third: what sort of diets are suggested to these people? My mother is obese. She had to go to the hospital where some pencilneck suggested a 800 cal diet to her. I should have kicked his ass. Anyway, she’s still struggling with her weight of course. And while I have dropped 15kg, she’s convinced I’m eating all wrong. Eating to frequent, to much, to much protein. She knows better. Her doctor told her. Meanwhile she hasn’t lost a single kg. And she couldn’t keep up the 800 cal diet of course.
The ignorance and incompence amongst the “diet professinals” is simply mind blowing.

So, in this situation, with the medical community not being able to help these people, surgery is a very convenient option. Convenient for ALL parties.

And it generates nice cash.

19

May I offer “A Modest Proposal” ? Just no babies…only the extremely obese people…joking aside! The world really is on a down slump in my oppinion. Public views of health is normally near anorexic(nichole kidman, mary kate and ashley, most of the male models today, etc) Which is really sad considering that even though we may be living longer lives now, the quality of life !IMO! is going down. I suppose perhaps, thats a rant for another day.

20

[quote]Z-Man wrote:
Saw yours too, this fad really bothers me. The thing is, these folks have to take supplements and vitamins for the rest of their lives because they cannot get the nutrients they need from food. I’d imagine they probably feel pretty weak all the time. In addition, long term (20+ years) effects of the surgery are not known. Children as young as 12 have been given this surgery. I’m sorry, but as far as I’m concerned, it does come down to will power. Getting morbitly obese (200+ pounds overweight) is just as much work as staying healthy. At that weight, everything you do becomes a chore, walking, sitting, breathing, going to the bathroom… etc.

I also contend not all fat people are unhealthy. there are some who are very active despite their weight, and are fairly healthy even though they may be a bit heavier then they should be.[/quote]

OMG, I can’t believe that they are doing that procedure on 12 year olds!!! That just makes me ill thinking about it.