Bariatric surgery is better than dieting, says top doctor – so ran the headlines on the front page of The Sunday Times yesterday.
For those that missed it, the feature went something like this:
‘Forget the yo-yo diet and plump for gastric bypass surgery instead’ says one of Britain’s experts on weight-loss. ‘The only answer to Britain’s obesity epidemic is to offer surgery to anyone suffering from severe weight problems’ he says.
Nick Finer, professor of obesity medicine at University College London, has found that the average long-term weight loss achieved by most obese adults who diet is 2-3%, so small as to be almost irrelevant.
‘What these figures show is that dieting is, for most people, completely pointless’, he says.
‘Humans evolved in unpredictable environments where food was scarce and our bodies are programmed to maintain our body weight at all costs.’
‘When people become fat their hormone and nervous systems adapt to the new weight and treat it as normal – so it is very hard for anyone to fight that by cutting their food intake, especially in a world where food is so plentiful. It means we have to look for new answers.’
Finer will set out his findings at this week’s British Science Festival in Birmingham, where he will suggest that the best way for the NHS to tackle the health impact of the obesity epidemic would be to set up a national network of fat clinics to carry out a mass programme of gastric bypass surgery.
He suggests that the clinics should initialy target the 1 million Britons suffering from severe obesity who already put a strain on the NHS because of related health problems.
It will be interesting to see more details about his proposals and the media coverage he gets from this!
Linda says
Carol, this man makes me feel a sense of relief! I hope he can get across his side without being rubbished off as a load of nonsense. And to think the long term results with surgery have an 87% success rate against 2-3% for diets is great news. Thank you….
Carol says
Linda, I so hope, like you, that the Prof has a good hearing. I shall wait to see what comes through the news wires and report back!
Veronica Tubbritt says
At last some sense! We all know that the NHS is creaking under the strain of spending cuts etc, but forward planning and prevention is the only way to successfully finance all that we need from the NHS. Surely even an idiot can see that to offer surgery as he recommends, even with the initial high expenditure, would save the NHS millions in the long run.
Carol says
You would think wouldn’t you? Anyway no response as yet from the media but am anxiously watching. I am going to the National Obesity Forum 10th Anniversary Conference next month when this is likely to be fiercely debated and will be making all the points you have so eloquently voiced Veronica. I will report back!