Teenage Obesity: Gastric Surgery or Behaviour Change?

I watched a TV programme on obese teenagers last night. Both were in the southern USA, both were female and around 13-14 and both had gastric surgery. One was 19 stones and had a gastric band inserted, and the other was 24 stones (I think) and had a gastric bypass. I was horrified that kids are turning so quickly to surgery, and that there was so little apparent emphasis on behaviour and lifestyle change in the programme.

Both girls had to eat pureed food to begin with. Int he case of the bigger girl, on her return home I watched as the family ate KFC. My first comment was, "that's not very supportive; they could at least eat the same thing as her", but then I realised that they were. On her first day home from a gastric bypass she was eating pureed KFC!

It may have been the way that the programme was made but there was no evidence that the girls where learning how to eat well, how to manage portions and calorie intake, or being encouraged to exercise.

I can barely imagine the cost of surgery. But I bet it is a cheaper to assign a counsellor/coach to a small group of obese kids to provide them with the information, challenge and support required to make the behavioural and lifestyle changes that they need in order to live a healthy life. It is also an awful lot less risky and surely not too late!

I'd put money on it being more successful too, with regards to all-round health. Yes, the surgery will work to limit eating, but that's all. Surgery at such a young age is an opt-out, an easy option. This is more true of the 19 stone girl who had the band fitted. She was more than capable of getting around and therefore could have started a gentle exercise programme. The bigger girl, well she slept with a ventilator, but I still believe that they could have addressed her eating first and added in more walking before progressing.

The thing is, if these kids are allowed to take the easy option of surgery, what's going to happen next? Will they make permanent changes to their habits. The evidence on this programme is that they will not. They were eating the same crap eventually, just less of it.

The other sad truth is that too many kids are born without a chance, to ignorant parents who feed them crap and kill them with kindness. They can't face the hard work that will be needed to turn their children's lives around, so how will their kids? They are only kids after all, and what do they know, except what they've learned from their parents?

Surgery may prevent them from ever eating as much as they did, but both of these girls  - and the many other teenagers that are opting for surgery - have a long time ahead of them and there was little evidence that they were going to live genuinely healthy lives.

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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com