Is The Gastric Bypass A Response To a Manmade Problem?

Obesity is as old as time itself and for many people the condition is the result of medical or genetic problems. At present, however, the horrifying rise in the rate of obesity is very much a man-made problem, fueled in part by the availability, and popularity, of the gastric bypass.

Advances in surgical techniques, not least the introduction of laparoscopic procedures, have made the gastric bypass a far easier and more acceptable solution to the problem of obesity. In addition, the profile of the gastric bypass has been raised very much in recent years aided in no small way by the number of celebrities opting for this form of weight loss.

The list of celebrities following this route is long and includes the actress, writer, comedian and talk show host Roseanne Barr, the TV presenter and meteorologist on NBC’s Today Show Al Roker, the singer and TV host Carnie Wilson and the best selling author Anne Rice to name just a few.

But just why is obesity increasing and is it truly a problem of our own making?

Despite the fact that there was a slight rise in the rate of obesity in the years following the Second World War, the last twenty five years have seen a significant growth in obesity, particularly in the United States. The exact reason for this is a mystery and there is quite wide disagreement on the cause, but here are just a few reasons over which there is general agreement.

1. The past twenty five years have seen big changes in the workforce with significantly fewer people employed today on manual work and with a gaining number of us sitting back and letting machines do the work which we once did or are sitting all day at a computer or behind a desk.
2. A number of trade subsidies introduced over the past twenty five years have considerably brought down the relative cost of foodstuffs, not least that of sugar and sugar syrup. In turn this means that we are now eating much more than we previously did.
3. We are far less active as a society preferring to watch our favorite sport in preference to getting out and playing the game ourselves and this is the majority of true for people who are overweight. perhaps of greater interest, if you reduce the calorie intake for overweight people they do not become more active and if you increase the calorie intake for slim people they do not become less active. Weight loss, or gain, has little effect on a person’s level of activity, but that person’s level of activity does affect his weight.
4. We are now very much a nation of two income households which means that people are doing far less cooking at home. The number of people choosing home delivered meals, opting for fast food take out or frequenting their local restaurant has grown drastically in recent years.
5. In spite of the present discussion over oil prices, the car is no longer considered a luxury and the two car family is becoming commonplace. We don’t think twice today about taking the car for even the shortest of journeys and many people would not even consider walking down to the corner shop.
6. Strangest of all perhaps is the effect that the craze for exercise and diet has had on the increase in obesity. We have become obsessed with dieting and many people diet as frequently as they change their underwear. However it’s the case that most diets fail and, after a diet, it is common for your weight to rise to a level even higher than it was before the diet. This pattern of falling and rising weight over time often results in a steady underlying increase in weight towards obesity.

Each one of the factors observed here not only add to the rise in obesity but is also patently made-made.

Now certainly gastric bypass provides one solution. However, even though the procedure is much simpler than it used to be and is growing in popularity, it remains far from a pleasant experience and is not without its risks.

For those people who are suffering from obesity today gastric bypass represents an excellent solution to their problem. For our children and grandchildren however perhaps the answer is to be found in preventing obesity rather than sitting back and waiting for the problem to arrive before resorting to gastric bypass surgery.