According to ancient Greek mythology, there was once a man named Procrustes who was the world’s worst host. He had an inn by the side of a road, and he offered hospitality to passing strangers. Unfortunately, if you were too short to fit his iron guest bed, he would stretch you to make you fit. If you were too tall, he’d chop your feet off. Obviously, a better solution would be to find a bed that fits the guest.
Whenever I hear about someone getting their stomach stapled, I think of Procrustes. Are people obese because their stomach is too large? I doubt it. Maybe the solution to obesity isn’t to surgically reduce the size of the stomach, but to reduce the calorie density of the food. If people ate as much as they want of low-fat, high-fiber, plant-based foods, they can control their weight naturally without counting calories or feeling hungry. In other words, they could go ape, go wild, and eat plants instead of submitting to expensive and dangerous surgery. Here are a bunch of people who have done just that!