By Bonnie Sprinkle

Bariatric Surgery, it's a fancy term for the several different ways of making the stomach smaller through surgery for weight loss. It's marketed to people who are severely morbidly obese, meaning that their obesity is life threatening. So life threatening that ANY means of removing the weight is preferable to having the weight, or so say some in the medical community.

In the last 3 years Bariatric surgery has increased by 70%. How can this be? How can we afford it? On a recent news local news show they stated that insurance pays for it for the most part, usually $15,000 to 20,000. Pretty neat don't you think, the hospitals, doctors and insurance companies can clean up, before it is even discovered how destructive this has been for the patient.

The medical community is so busy looking for a solution that the simple answer is overlooked. It all goes back to the belief that the individual has "tried everything" to lose that weight. When everything else fails it seems that it is OK to try any measure to reach someone's idea of success. Well how is it that the other options fail? They fail because most people don't really know how to eat in a way that will allow them to reduce bodyfat and actually return to health. So much media attention has been placed on quick fixes that healthy eating with an appropriate amount of calorie intake of a balance will bring your body fat percentages in line and if that is worked with weight loss will follow. That's the problem, common perception of what is a good diet or way of eating. Everyone you meet is an expert and that is why obesity is quickly overtaking smoking as the #1 cause of preventable deaths in the US today. It has doubled since 1980.

Now think back, when did we become more conscious of our diets? the fat free craze, the low-calorie this and that, weight watchers, the Zone. We've starved ourselves into obesity. Instead of admitting a peron into a bariatric program for $20,000, what if they were sent to a retreat for 2 weeks to a month for a price of $2000 to $6000 and learned how to enjoy food, how to get enough calories intake to keep body fat percentages down, how to return to health through repairing their bodies. There is such a retreat in Poultney Vermont, they have a great success rate and have been there for over 30 years. They will speak with your insurance company and if you are truly obese you will be accepted and get insurance help. They have a full staff of mental health professionals and your day is filled with classes, counseling, cooking classes, and your favorite exercise, from walking, swimming to weights, just a little exercise the eating program is where the success lies.

For true weight loss, return to health success, our perceptions of weight loss must change. It is of no benefit to remove the excess weight yet still carry that high percentage of bodyfat. Removing the weight without understanding healthy eating will still be detrimental to health. The severely morbid obese individual is still severely morbid obese but in a thinner, saggier, less healthy body than when they started. The diets I have seen given for follow up are poor and lead to storage of body fat to compensate for imbalance and starvation tactics. So again you are a thinner obese person. The factors that cause obesity are also are the ones related to arthritis and osteoporosis, so more aches and pains are felt.

Before looking into surgery for yet another quick fix, just one more time try a healthy eating plan that is really a healthy eating plan not just someone's gimmick to make a quick buck on an easy mark.

Remember we are each responsible for our well being, understand what makes your body function and what is needed to support that.

Please e-mail any questions to info@bonniesprinkle.com