America: Where Quick Solutions Are Always Favored

nakednerd recently posted on Salon's article of teenagers and other young people undergoing gastric bypass surgery to lose weight. Let me just say, "ugh." I have had occasional thoughts about undergoing the knife, but it is the easy way out. If you don't do it yourself, your chance of relapsing is quite high, except in the extreme case of gastric bypass. Gastric bypass, to me, is the shortcut, and the type of thing which Requiem for a Dream warns us about.

The scary thing is despite all of the complications that such surgery can have in both short and long term effects, the doctor insists that nobody has wished that the surgery could be reversed. I find this hard to believe or stomach, but then I don't. The effects include malnutrition, loss of freedom regarding meals, etc.

I agree with Phil, the parents are partially to blame. They are the ones supplying the snacks and the food and not stopping the kids from eating what they do. These are kids who are sedentry and eat 9 pieces of pizza in a sitting on top of snacking and other sorts of things. I'm probably generalizing, but they've probably never touched a piece of fruit in their life. Or, if they have, its been in the form of sugared whatever (see sugared strawberries and raisinets).

But, then, when a girl is having small heart attacks in middle school, it is probably for her health. I just think that I would rather do it myself, and actually have the willpower to stay with it (as I am off and on for the winter of my own attempts).