Lap-Band = Bad Plan?

Double-take, or three.  I didn't catch it at first.  This looks just like some of those California band billboards.  (I photographed some when I was out there.)

SF Weekly -

"I had a bad dream the other night. In the dream world, it was forbidden to publicly oppose stomach binding (aka lap band surgery). I was under house arrest, waiting for my punishment: mandatory leg removal. I had failed to use my legs for the approved activity of running on treadmills to lose weight and had instead enjoyed walking, dancing, swimming, bicycling, doing yoga, gardening, having sex, and sitting cross-legged -- none of which made me thin. So I didn't deserve my lower extremities.

I don't think my dream was all that different from our current reality, where people of lesser and lesser weights (mostly women) are encouraged to sign up for surgeries to correct such problems as normal absorption of nutrients and failure to routinely regurgitate. It's the Victorian era all over again -- "Lie back and think of England (with every bite)."

In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved lap band surgery for average-height women who weigh as little as 174 pounds (206 pounds for average-height men), prompting get-thin-now billboards to spread across Bay Area scenery. Compare that with the average weight of American women (164 pounds) and men (191 pounds) according to a study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services."

This is part one of a two part series "Life After Lap-Band Surgery: It's Complicated."  I know many banders who'd agree with her, and countless who will want to rip her head off.  I sit here with my gastric bypass, in a body that's nearly big enough for a gastric band and laugh that I almost qualify for ANOTHER WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY at a normal body weight, after losing 160+ pounds.

As opposed to the idiot I posted yesterday -- this woman has brains and is replying to her commenters at the newspapers' website.