Fat_D

During the dark days of snowed-in winter - and to be frank, when mindless munching beckons - I have taken to watching the Fat Doctor series of episodes on You Tube. It is an English show, over many seasons, where each tells the story of morbidly obese individuals undergoing bariatric surgery. And as the intro invariably says, "Beware of graphic scenes..." Performing surgery requires strong individuals, physically and morally.

This is not the first show introducing us to the lives of the terribly obese. I remember being utterly shocked when the first bed-bound individual made headlines (1 000 pounds, in the late 1970s?) How could such a state of affairs even be possible. Today it is commonplace to find people weighing over 14 stone (14 x 14 = 200) or 200 pounds, and at 22 (300 pounds) serious mobility restrictions set in.

Where earlier series often emphasize how it happens, and delight us with graphic eating scenes and recitations of daily intake -( Delightful because it is akin to a fairy tale moment where the protagonist scores his heart's desire, irrespective of the constraints of reality.) - this show zooms in on repetance. I love me food; Of course, my portions are too big. It is like crack cocaine to me...

The medical team is also quite likeable: these people need to be helped because things have reached a point where even the best intentions could not bring them back to normality. It is a world of large livers, distended stomachs, gorged fat aprons: a physical intervention to restrict intake seems to make sense. Does it really?

Dr Somers comments at one point how bariatric surgery has taken over his career. He is a highly trained 'gut' surgeon, after all. Indeed, the idea of bariatric surgery arose as an accident, when it was noticed that certain procedures left patients with a much reduced appetite. So what is the feedback we are getting here: no one really needs ulcer surgery anymore - ulcers happen to executives too driven to eat - but an aging population exposes record numbers of out-of-control fat-engorged bodies. Surely a new look at this phenomenon is possible.