Celebrities Worth Listening To

As a Los Angeles-based health practice, those of us at Dr. Feiz & Associates can hardly be unaware of the impact of a celebrity imprimatur on just about anything. That very definitely applies to our particular specialization of weight loss surgery in Los Angeles and Southern California.

As bariatric surgery is gaining more acceptance, more and more celebrities are taking advantage. That's not very surprising, but what may give some folks pause is the fact that they most of them seem to have a very sensible approach to the surgery and its impact. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, popular comedian Rosie O'Donnell and, most recently reality TV star E.J. Johnson, all seem to be saying the right things.

In the case of people like Ms. O'Donnell and Governor Christie, you might assume that getting as far as they both have in the fields of entertainment and politics usually requires above-average intelligence. E.J. Johnson, however, is part of a newer breed of celebrity whose initial claim to fame, at least, is purely genetic in that he is the son of basketball legend and businessman Magic Johnson.

Yet the 22 year-old NYU fashion student has been quoted saying that "A lot of people think it's the easy way out, but it's not...It's a step in the right direction, just a big push." In other words, while surgery might make it much easier to drastically reduce the amount of food you need, patients still need to learn to do their own healthy eating -- the surgery doesn't actually eat for them.

It would be easy to make generalizations based on this, but probably wrong. The simple fact of the matter is that weight loss surgery is clearly a very intelligent choice for severely obese people to make, so it shouldn't be too surprising when the people who make that choice turn out to be pretty smart.