My last Musings discussed Angelina Jolie’s (in my mind, ill-advised) decision to have a prophylactic double mastectomy. In this Musings, I stay with the celebrity theme, and question New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s February decision to have Lap-Band surgery to bring his weight down.
It has traditionally been thought that bariatric surgery works because of the diminished size of the stomach. The operation is performed on people who have lost the ability to control their own eating habits. The surgery makes decisions for them, imposing upon them eating habits that are radically different than those they were employing before the surgery: Smaller meals, more frequent meals, less junk and fried foods. (Sweets, for instance, in any volume, make many post-surgery patients sick.) Read more…