Obesity Surgery 2002; 12: 789-794
Hudson SM, Dixon JB, O'Brian PE. Sweet eating is not a predictor of outcome after Lap-Band placement. Can we finally bury the myth?
It is commonly believed that sweet eaters will do poorly following lap-band surgery, though there is actually scant evidence for this.
In this study, pre-operative and current sweet eating behaviour was assessed in subjects undergoing lap-band surgery to see if this influenced weight loss.
A total of 200 unselected patients who had bands implanted for more than one year completed a questionnaire regarding pre-operative sweet eating behaviour. Results showed that mean excess (%) weight loss for the 100 with the highest pre-operative sweet eating scores was 47% compared with a loss of 48% in those with the lowest scores. Current sweet eating tendency also had no impact on excess weight loss.
The authors conculded that sweet eaters do not have less favourable weight-loss outcomes following lap-band surgery. Therefore, sweet eating should not be a factor in pre-operative selection for bariatric surgery.
