Content note: surgery, complications, fat-hate
Because completely coincidentally, a number of surgeons who perform bariatric surgery (“stomach stapling” to your unmedical layperson) are suddenly in the media clamouring for public funding of their “craft”:
People are misled about the extent and severity of the health risks associated with being fat and told that bariatric surgery is a solution. It’s not. It would be more appropriately labeled high-risk disease-inducing cosmetic surgery than a health-enhancing procedure. And unlike a diet, you usually can’t abandon it when you realize you made a mistake.
– Linda Bacon, Health at Every Size (pdf)
Junkfood Science have an excellent series of posts on the realities of weight-loss surgery, linked on their homepage; here’s their post about the real risks of weight-loss surgery vs. the risks of dying from fatness.
Stephanie Rodgers 