Out of Sight, Not Completely Out of Mind

At Dr. Feiz & Associates, we do a lot of thinking about the root causes of obesity. After all, it helps to understand what lies behind an issue like America's massive weight problem in order to do our small part in trying to defeat it. Also, if bariatric surgery is to work as well as it should, the medical professionals behind it need to understand exactly how it attacks the problem of severe obesity.

One idea that we've happened upon is that, for people battling obesity, our senses seem almost hardwired to encourage us to eat. Just today, we had a news items about a recent study which shows that the items people place on their kitchen counters actually play a role in their weight. Turns out, it appears to be helpful to keep healthy, low calorie foods like fruits and vegetables in plain site, while it's better to keep the sugary sodas and cereals and the like in a cupboard (assuming you want them in the house at all).

This is just another sign of how hardwired we all are to eat in excess, at least to some degree. After all, historically speaking, it wasn't all that terribly long ago when most of humanity rarely knew exactly where it's next meal was coming from. If we see food, smell food, or maybe even just hear about food, we're likely to want to eat it and, sadly, that's even more the case for those of us who are struggling with severe obesity.

The good news for people with serious weight issues, of course, is that the gastric sleeve and other procedures really can reduce those incessant food cravings and can make permanent weight loss much more possible. It might never be possible to keep fattening foods forever out of sight, but we can make them a lot easier to resist when we do see them.