HEAVEN HELP US

"Experts" are calling for more lap-band surgery to be performed to help fight the obesity epidemic. Of course they would. It puts more money in their pocket.

Lap-band surgery costs approximately $AUD 15,000. That's right, fifteen THOUSAND dollars.

For your money you get a silicone belt implanted FOR LIFE around the top of your stomach. Supposedly you get "full" more quickly and supposedly lose weight.

Sure there are success stories. Every product on the market place has success stories. You seldom read about the disasters.

What lap-band doesn't address is the fact that how a man thinks, he is. So therefore, the thinking on food isn't changed by "the band", the gut is merely tied up: like a hostage.

Nutrition isn't addressed either, 'cause you can eat whatever you want. Lap-band doesn't help you eat any more heathily. You can eat whatever you want. You may shovel in whatever crap you like. With "the band" you just can't shovel in as much crap.

Sensible? Practical? Desirable? We think not.

It's the blight of our society, the notion that there should be a quickfix for everything. Because for every quickfix there's an "expert" out there making a quickbuck. In this instance it's the medicos making $AUD 15,000 for every quickfix.

A report released this week by Access Economics Australia’s premier economic consulting firm, estimates the total cost of obesity for 2008 - just in Australia - at a staggering $AUD 58.2 billion. That's 58.2 million million dollars.

Comparable figures for the USA will reach gargantuan proportions at $AUD 842 billion: eight hundred and forty-two million, million dollars.

Heaven help us!