The worldwide obesity rate has boomed in almost every region of the world over the past decade, and so does the demand for obesity (bariatric) surgery. Frustrated with orthodox means of weight loss, many obese patients are now increasingly turning to surgical ways to deal with the problem of being overweight.
Obesity – a Grave Health Concern
Around the world, obesity is fast spreading as a wild forest fire, and in many American, Australian, and European regions this phenomenon has reached epidemic levels.
Obesity currently affects nearly 64.5 percent or about 127 million adults in the United States, with approximately 5 to 10 million of them diagnosed as morbidly obese. The Geneva-based World Health Organization predicts that an estimated 2.3 billion adult population will be overweight and over 700 million people will be considered obese by 2015.
Obesity has been linked to several health hazards and social disabilities. The more overweight an individual is, the more likely he or she would develop serious health diseases and problems such as fatty liver disease, high blood pressure, asthma, heart disease, gall bladder disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis (degenerative joint disease), high cholesterol, and cancer.
Bariatric Surgery
The worldwide obesity rate explosion has led to a parallel growth of bariatric or obesity surgery. This surgical intervention has emerged as a sure-shot treatment for severe obesity.
The popularity of bariatric surgery can be determined from a report by the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), as per which an estimated 177,600 surgeries for the treatment of morbid obesity were performed in the United States, and the number jumped to a whopping 220,000 surgeries in 2009.
The ASMBS report also says that obesity surgery is no longer just for weight loss, it also deals with the associated metabolic diseases and conditions.
The surgical treatment for obesity works by significantly changing the anatomy of your digestive system to help you achieve massive weight loss. Adjustable gastric banding, gastric sleeve, gastric bypass, vertical sleeve gastrectomy, gastric plication, and duodenal switch are different surgical ways of combating obesity. Using either restrictive or malabsorptive or both surgery techniques, these obesity surgery procedures make you consume a lesser amount of food by shrinking the size of your stomach or/and by bypassing the initial segment of the small intestine.
What and What Not To Eat After Obesity Surgery
Obesity surgery may help you get rid of a significant amount of excess flab but for successful weight loss and keeping it off, you must adhere to lifelong changes in your eating and eating and lifestyle habits.
Obesity surgery causes significant changes in how your body absorbs food. The newly created small stomach pouch can hold a lesser amount of food at one time. Therefore, eating large meals can cause problems like fatigue, depression, uneasiness, vomiting, and dumping syndrome. For more easy-to-understand information about diet supplements, you can visit their page for more info.
You are, therefore, advised to eat small frequent meals to avoid feeling hungry.
Beginning after surgery for the first 4-6 weeks you should start with foods that are soft, mushy, and/or pureed consistencies such as baby foods, fruitless yogurt, cottage cheese, chopped-up ground meats, scrambled eggs, and egg whites. Solid foods of all kinds should be completely avoided during this period.