Some people will go to any length to reduce their weight. There are various diets, diet pills, exercise programmes, even surgery marketed to help you achieve your goals. Bariatric surgery, the fitting of a lap band around the stomach, is the latest in a long line of unhealthy ways to lose weight. Luckily it is beyond the financial scope of most people, as it is fraught with dangers.
Let’s examine some of them.
For a start, any surgery carries many not insignificant risks. Blot clots can result. Bowel perforations are not uncommon. Because surgery knocks your immune system for six for a time, you are more vulnerable than normal to infection. Any infections can affect you, even serious ones such as pneumonia. Even death is a threat for those undergoing surgery and there have been several of these in bariatric surgery.
So it is sensible to limit surgery to when it seems to be absolutely necessary, rather than as an ‘easy’ way to lose weight.
At least 26% of those who undergo bariatric surgery suffer with complications. These can be from problems with the band itself, such as discomfort, movement of the band, band leakage or infection. Food can get trapped, leading to a very painful episode.
But having the band fitted can also lead to other complications. These include the development of reflux, of gallstones and of hiatus hernias. GI problems are common such as indigestion, distention, nausea, vomiting and bowel dysfunction. You can become intolerant to certain foods. Aneamia can result. You can experience difficulty in swallowing. You can become seriously depleted in essential vitamins and minerals, leading to a host of never ending illnesses.
It is estimated that there is as much as a 10% increase in suicide.
And, sadly, the promised benefits aren’t always delivered. The band can stretch which means that you are no longer physically limited in your intake of food.
As with so many things in life, the ones who benefit from a procedure are rarely the ones who seek it. The beneficiaries are those who perform the procedures or who supply the products used in the procedure. They always benefit.
The fact is, in the majority of cases, the reason you carry excess weight is your eating habits. When you change this, you can shed the pounds. And you don’t have to buy any expensive equipment. You don’t have to starve yourself. You don’t have to pay for special meals or the services of a nutritionalist. All you need is to know which foods are healthy and which are unhealthy.
Eating healthy foods for weight loss is guaranteed to have a profound effect on you. Not only can you lose a lot of excess weight, your health will improve so much into the bargain.
Only you are in control of your life. You decide whether you want an ‘easy’ solution, one fraught with difficulties and dangers or a tougher one, one which demands you change your thought patterns, but one which can make permanent and healthy changes to you.
Healthy eating for weight loss is the only healthy way to lose weight.
