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Reader question: BBC Horizons, Junk Food, and the GB

Last night, after I posted about the BBC Horizons program on obesity, I got an email from a reader who needed help understanding the gastric bypass surgery and what it might be able to do for her.  She had been emotionally overeating for thirteen years, since suffering a devastating loss, and she wanted to know if the GB could really change her desires for junk food, as the BBC program suggested.  In case anyone else wants a more detailed response on this, I've posted my response here:

Hi,

I've found that the gastric bypass has altered my desire for crap food, but I would say it mostly has to do with behavioral conditioning – every time I eat something very rich or sweet, I get really sick, and after a while I started feeling sick just smelling certain things.  Kind of like when someone gets really drunk on rum and never touches it again.  So it's effective, but not very nice, and I have to admit there are always going to be times when your desire for a food is stronger than your knowledge that it will make you sick (my dad is sick all the time as a result of this – he had the surgery too).

As for the emotional eating, I think this is one area where a surgery like gastric bypass has the potential to harm rather than help.  They told us when we went in for the operation that some people had to have it reversed because they couldn't handle the fact that their bodies wouldn't let them eat everything they wanted, and they were really hurting themselves.  I would say, go to your GP and tell her everything you've told me: that you want the surgery to help you stop gaining weight and lose the weight you've already gained, but that much of your overeating is linked to emotional problems.  I think if you do have the surgery, you should make absolutely sure that you stay in therapy for the emotional eating after the operation.  It could really hurt you to stuff yourself for emotional reasons when your body is altered to be unstuffable – you might even do serious damage to your insides.

I totally understand your feelings about losing your grip on reality.  There is so much information out there, and so much of it is conflicting.  From my experience with gastric bypass, I'll tell you this: the surgery was a serious kick in the pants to start eating better, because it severely limited my intake and made sure that fats/sugars made me sick.  But once my body healed and I started gaining back a bit of control over my eating habits, I found I was able to overeat sometimes, or eat sugar without getting sick – I found ways around the restrictions.  This is one reason (alongside my concern over your emotional eating causing physical damage post-surgery) that I strongly suggest staying in therapy even if you do decide to have the gastric bypass.

I hope this has helped clear things up for you a bit, and I'm happy to answer any more questions you might have. 

All best,
Anne
Please note that I'm always happy to receive emails with questions or concerns, even very personal ones.  Where the concern is something that seems broadly applicable, I might post my response on the blog, but I will never identify you or post your email without your consent.  If you'd like to make sure I don't even post my own response, please let me know in the original email.  I know that the decision to have weight loss surgery can be fraught with fears and concerns and excitement, and that sometimes it feels like all the information out there just leads to more questions.  I'm here to answer questions, yes, but also just to be a support for people who feel totally alone in their decision-making process (or even the recovery process).  It's what I wished I'd had: a friend who'd been through it all.  That's what I want to be for anyone who needs it.


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