Remembering that two thirds of the world’s people cannot get enough to eat, I felt a lump in my throat when I came
across this story in an Australian newspaper. It’s all about the rise in gastric banding for weight-loss in Aussie teens.(Gastric banding is the insertion of a ring around your upper stomach that limits your food intake and gives you a sensation of being full).

Why is this so?
Because these teens are obese, and seem unable to lose their excess weight in any other way!

Apparently numbers of obese young Australians undergoing gastric banding surgery have almost doubled in the past two years, and parents of children as young as twelve are asking for the weight-loss operation. According to Medicare, the number of morbidly obese 15 to 24-year-old teens operated on were 426 in 2006-07 and rose to 821 in the past year.

But many medical professionals and researchers say surgeons are talking up the weight-loss benefits and playing down the surgery’s negative effects, including nausea, vomiting and malnutrition.
According to the report Dr Rick Kausman, a weight management expert, sees many of the patients for whom gastric banding surgery has failed.
”People will say, ‘I can’t go out to eat any more … I don’t know what’s going to happen – from the first mouthful I might start to vomit’,” he said.
”If an adult is given all the information and weighs up the pros and cons, well, that’s the adult’s choice. But that is way different from imposing something like this on a child.”

I couldn’t agree more. For their weight-loss teens need support from parents, doctors, and those around them, and the surgeon’s scalpel should appear only as a last resort.
Society has failed these teens, and governments must address the obesity problem as a matter of urgency, with weight-loss support programs across a wide range of life skills. To our shame, we are failing our children.
In the main, it’s common knowledge what causes children and teens to put on weight. Poor choice of food, lack of exercise, and stress/unhappiness.
We know also that obesity is a downward spiral!
Fat breeds more fat.

Dr Kausman said cultural, social and biological factors along with domestic issues often contributed to obesity in children. ”We’re missing the point if we think this (gastric banding) is actually going to help kids and adults become healthier if we’re not addressing the reasons why they’ve risen above their most healthy weight,” he said.
In a nutshell, make sure children are fed properly, exercised adequately and kept happy.
How do we achieve this? Well… keep watching this space!

One of the worst aspects of this story is the sense that some surgeons are pushing gastric banding on young children and teens. They are also unashamedly lobbying government to subsidise the operations (subsidy that comes out of your taxes).
Whatever happened to the doctors’ Hippocratic Oath, “Above all, do no harm”?
Shame on them.

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