Dangerous Diets!

30 July 2014

This is an article from yesterday's New Zealand Herald.  And yes, it sounds dramatic but very restrictive diets are not only uninspiring and a short term fix only, but in addition, can be detrimental on your health!  The main problem with diets (and I'm sure anyone who has been successful with diets will agree) is that they are not sustainable.  This means that when you go off the diet the hard-earned weight that you have lost, comes back... and generally with a few extra kilos as well.  This is one of the most significant upsides to Sleeve Gastrectomy surgery for weight loss - you return to eating a 'normal' diet. This is why weight regain is less of an issue following Bariatric surgery than it is with dieting.  If you want to discuss surgical options more - feel free to ring my rooms for an appointment and I will walk you through Bariatric surgery.  Look forward to hearing from you. 

Regards,

Steph Ulmer

Cutting sugar completely could kill you

With the UN warning sugar could be 'the new tobacco' because of its risks to health through obesity, you might think a diet that cuts it out would get the thumbs up from experts.

But a group of scientists has just consigned a trendy sugar-free anti-ageing plan to a list of fad diets it dismisses as a waste of time and money, and potentially dangerous.

While dieters can forgo sugar in yoghurt, ready meals, dessert and biscuits, for example, having none at all is almost impossible.

"Cutting all sugar from your diet would be very difficult to achieve," said biochemist Leah Fitzsimmons, who even warned that such a drastic approach could be fatal.

"Fruits, vegetables, dairy products and dairy replacements, eggs, alcohol and nuts all contain sugar, which would leave you with little other than meat and fats to eat - definitely not very healthy."

The sugar-free diet was one of five assessed by dieticians, biochemists and other experts for the charity Sense About Science.

They also dismissed the caveman diet, said to be favoured by actor Matthew McConaughey, which holds that because we evolved eating a limited number of foods, we should return to our evolutionary roots and eat berries, vegetables and lean meat, while eschewing modern fare such as cereals, lentils, beans and dairy products.

But archaeologist Erika Nitsch said: "While it is true that fluffy white loaves of sandwich bread won't have been known to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, if you are worried about a healthy diet, have lentil soup, but skip the Mars bar."

Also rejected were diets that claim to selectively slim parts of the body by influencing hormones. For instance, it is said love handles are caused by an insulin imbalance and can be shrunk by eating less sugar.

However, biochemist Madeline Burke said: "There is no evidence linking hormone synchronisation and weight loss."

Read more: You are what you eat: How diet affects mental well-being

Meal-replacement drinks were also found wanting. Rob Hagan, a biomolecular scientist, said we need variety, not least to avoid 'losing your enjoyment of food' and becoming depressed.

The bizarre clay diet was also considered a health risk. Its followers believe a spoon of clay a day detoxifies the body, boosts the immune system and balances acidity levels.

However, dieticians warn it can cause problems from constipation to poisoning and say 'detoxing' is a marketing myth.

Sense About Science, which has created an online quiz on the issue called Spoof Diets, says: "People actually introduce malnutrition through overly restrictive diets... and they lose heart following unsustainable diets."

Catherine Collins, of the British Dietetic Association, said: "Fad diet promoters never let sound nutrition get in the way of persuasive marketing to promote their myths and generate profit."

- Daily Mail

Study proves bariatric surgery improves sex drive

22 July 2014

Sleeve Gastrectomy more effective than Gastric band in terms of excess weight loss and resolution of type 2 diabetes

19 July 2014

This article from China combines 12 studies together to see what the overall results are comparing Sleeve Gastrectomy surgery with Lap Band surgery.  It does show that weight loss is less with the band and, in parallel with this, resolution of co-morbidities is lower for patients who have a Gastric Band as well.  This has been widely published before, but it does highlight the fact that different weight loss operations offer different things for patients and what suits one patient doesn't necessarily suit all patients.  The Gastric Band is still a worthwhile procedure in the right setting and for the right patient.  Anyway, if you are wanting to discuss the options for you with respect to Bariatric surgery then it would be worthwhile calling my Receptionist at BetterLife surgery to make an appointment and I will point you in the right direction!

Regards, Steph Ulmer

LSG more effective than banding in terms of excess weight loss and resolution of type 2 diabetes

Thursday, July 4, 2013 - 12:52

Owen Haskins - Editor in chief, Bariatric News

A meta-analysis has showed that laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is a more effective procedure for morbid obesity than laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB), with a greater effect on excess weight loss EWL and improvement of type 2 diabetes. The study authors from Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, and Subei People’s Hospital of Jiangsu Province, Yangzhou, China, write that the meta-analysis confirms the need for larger, randomised, and long-term follow-up studies to compare the efficacy of LSG, LAGB, and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

The study included 1,004 patients from 11 studies published between 2000 to 2012.

Results

The results (Table 1) showed that Gastric Sleeve surgery had a greater effect than Gastric Banding on weight loss at six and 12 months. For LAGB (Gastric Banding), the mean percentage EWL (% Excess Weight Lost) was 33.9 % after six months from six studies and 37.8 % after 12 months from four studies. In comparison, EWL was 50.6 % after six months and 51.8 % after 12 months from the same studies for LSG (Sleeve Gastrectomy).

Table 1: Main outcomes of the 12 studies included in the meta-analysis T2DM (Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus)

After six and 12 months, the mean percentage EWL was higher for LSG than for LAGB by 33.0 and 27.0 %, respectively, indicating that (at these time points) LSG had a greater effect on weight loss than LAGB.

Resolution of Type 2 Diabetes

LSG was also superior to LAGB in treating type 2 diabetes. In five studies, 42 of 68 (61.8 %) type 2 diabetes patients experienced improvement of their diabetes after LAGB, whereas 66 of 80 (82.5 %) type 2 diabetes patients improved after LSG, an increase of 20.7 %.

“Because LSG is a comparatively new procedure that has become popular in recent years, there is also concern about the long-term results; the follow-up periods in most reports are 6 or 12 months, and the studies analysed here provided relatively short-term findings,” the authors note. “Some studies that reported three-year results were not included in this meta-analysis because of insufficient data, but their numbers are low. There are few reports with a follow-up period of 5 years or more.”