Dean Kamen Invents Stomach Pump For Dieters 483
You may soon have another option to lose weight other than dieting and exercise thanks to Dean Kamen. The inventor has designed a pump that can suck the cheeseburgers out of your stomach and replace it with water. From the article: "The pump was invented by Dean Kamen, the same man who brought you the Segway, and perhaps more fittingly, a breakthrough dialysis machine. This pump works by routing a tube directly into the user's stomach and then sucking out some of the gooey, masticated goodness. The user then squeezes a little plastic bag to replace that volume of stomach-stew with water. Sounds great, right? There are some catches though. It hasn't been approved by the FDA yet, and some of the users in the tests had problems with certain foods like 'cauliflower, broccoli, Chinese food, stir fry, snow peas, pretzels, chips, and steak.' Oh, also there's a tube going into your stomach that you use to pump unpuked vomit into the toilet. Participants in trial studies did manage to lose about half of their excess weight this way, around 45 pounds on average, so apparently it works."
Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Insightful)
Or at least a marketable, respectable form of bulimia.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, it is. At least, it's bulimia. I don't see anything respectable at all about surgically altering yourself so you can gorge and still lose weight, and I guess time will tell if it's marketable (although I doubt it'll be even as successful as lap band surgery), but yeah, it's definitely mechanical barfing.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, it is. At least, it's bulimia. I don't see anything respectable at all about surgically altering yourself so you can gorge and still lose weight, and I guess time will tell if it's marketable (although I doubt it'll be even as successful as lap band surgery), but yeah, it's definitely mechanical barfing.
Depends on the size of the target market. How many people are there in the US who love eating but don't want to be fat? Probably not many I guess.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wrong question. How many people love eating, don't want to be fat, and think that this could possibly be a good or healthy idea? And want to deal with the disposal and cleanup of the pumped material? I love eating and it would be great to lose 100 pounds, but I know that this isn't safe and is actually counter-productive.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know about you, but I deal with disposal of some pretty nasty material from my body at least once a day already...
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Funny)
You really should have that head wound looked at by a doctor...
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:4, Funny)
"Unpuked vomit"?
Dude, gross!
Your blurb totally made me lose my appetite... for my 7th bowl of corn flakes.
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This is limited intake alone.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Informative)
This is limited intake alone.
The research i've read says that you grow additional fat cells when your intake exceeds your expenditure, and your fat cells empty when your expenditure exceeds your intake. Empty fat cells scream at your brain to eat to fill them up again, making it easy to lose a bit of weight but difficult to keep it off. The article I read wasn't clear on how long empty fat cells stay empty before they are eliminated, but i don't think it was particularly fast.
I'm not sure if the article (can't find it anymore) was quackery or actually backed by proper research but it seemed a reasonable explanation for why surgery (cutting out fat from the body) becomes the only option for really obese people. Obviously if they had the self control to lose weight they probably wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.
Stomach stapling would reduce the ability to eat but leave the person in the hell of wanting to eat without being able to. This new invention might be a better solution, although I think that the act of eating primes the body for the nutrients about to be delivered, and messing with that (eg removing the foot before it hits the intestines) might not be a particularly good long term solution...
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:4, Insightful)
In my experience, electric dog collars don't work with truly big, mean, motivated dogs. The big dogs just sit on the periphery taking in the tolerable threshold of pain, all the time going grrrrr, grrrrr, grrrr, until the batteries in the collar fail and the big dogs are then free to chase and maul unimpeded.
This is kind of the thing isn't it?
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horrible... If your body needs the calories to fill the cells, then it needs the calories. Eating may make your head think that you have the needed intake, but then the calories wont arrive and the cells start screaming. This is going to train people's brains to have some very unbalanced desires.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Informative)
Agreed, though, that people are still going to feel hungry after eating an entire McDonalds and then barfing it up again.
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Not quite.
We've evolved to fatten up to a limited extent when food is plentiful, and to adapt our metabolism to a wide extent whether that supply remains plentiful or shortens up. That's what gives reproductive advantage. For hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years our ancestors lived a life of plenty as hunter-gatherers (see "Stone-age economics, by Marshall Sahlins) and "when food is scarce" was a rare oc
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It WANTS them because we've evolved to fatten up when food is plentiful so that we don't starve when food is scarce.
Really? Says who? I love the presumption that we know what "cavemen" ate and why. Studies of contemporary hunter gatherer around the globe don't show this. In areas that haven't been wildly altered by the introduction of agriculture, these societies spend LESS time getting food than more "advanced" groups. When well meaning first worlders try to talk the Kalihari(sp) bushmen into growing stuff, they responded with incredulity asking why anyone would want to work that h
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:4, Interesting)
That might be a little high. I mean, not everyone "loves eating". Some of us eat because we are hungry. Some of us don't even eat every time we get hungry, but put it off for awhile. Some of us get up, and leave the dinner table before we feel "full".
In my own personal slice of the world, far less than half of the people I know are "fat". Far fewer are "obese". Many of us could stand to lose 20 to 50 pounds, but that is merely "overweight". At a guess, most of those who are either physically fit, or a little bit overweight don't exactly "love eating". We just eat to stay healthy, for the most part.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Informative)
How many people are there in the US who love eating but don't want to be fat? Probably not many I guess.
Not many? More like just about everyone.
Sarcasm is implied unless indicated otherwise.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Informative)
Weight loss surgery is not about wanting to lose weight with no effort or eat as much as you like. That is a common misconception that is hard to explain to people who don't struggle to control their weight.
Willpower is not enough for a lot of people. Personally I suffer from both arthritis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I am just about managing to keep my current weight, but could stand to loose 20kg or more. It isn't a case of being lazy, or weak, or stuffing my face with McShit all day. I'm way off the point where I would qualify for surgery but I can completely understand why it is necessary for some people.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:4, Funny)
Personally, I suffer from eating too much food and not wanting to move very much.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:4, Insightful)
I presume that's what you're talking about when you refer to the surgically altering yourself so you can gorge. I have since learned some interesting things, for instance: she can't more than 3oz of anything at a time for the rest of her life. This includes water so she gets 3oz of sustenance every 3 or 4 hours (I don't remember the time period) to the point that she has been suffering migraines from dehydration because the small amount she's intaking is simply not allowing for enough water and food, if she has more water rather than food she finds herself feeling very weak from malnourishment (the doctors tell her both the dehydration and weakness are completely common as her body adjusts).
Just sharing this because from what I've learned, it turns out this surgery doesn't allow one to just gorge themselves and is anything but an easy weight loss solution, effective but definitely not easy. Plus she had to diet even more and exercise for 6 or 9 months leading up to the surgery before they would even do it, where the result is a permanent diet for the rest of her life. It'll be worth it for her and her family to have her healthier but as I said, this is no miracle cure with no consequences.
Re:Immaculate bulimia (Score:4, Interesting)
renewable bulimia (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, and energy should somehow be extracted from it and fed back into the grid
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No use for compost. Too acidic. Acid and protease though... once you strain out the chunky bits, it'd make a great drain unclogger.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Insightful)
The tube should ameliorate some of the dangerous effects of repeated exposure to gastric acids by the sensitive tissues and teeth of the mouth and throat, so there is that...
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The tube should ameliorate some of the dangerous effects of repeated exposure to gastric acids by the sensitive tissues and teeth of the mouth and throat, so there is that...
I figured that was a good reason until I got to this part:
The user then squeezes a little plastic bag to replace that volume of stomach-stew with water.
...wait, what's wrong with the original tube they've been cramming cheeseburgers down before hand? Going number four is OK for these people as they try to lose weight, but drinking water is still too hard a road towards health?
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Interesting)
You seem to think that the plastic bag is inside the stomach. Not true. The water is just injected into the stomach through the tube that was being used to pump the juices out. It probably also acts as a cleaning agent so the tube does not become clogged.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:4, Interesting)
The tube should ameliorate some of the dangerous effects of repeated exposure to gastric acids by the sensitive tissues and teeth of the mouth and throat, so there is that...
Sure, but the same benefits can be achieved via do-it-yourself nasogastric intubation, using a length of latex tubing and a hand-pump from the hardware store. No surgery, no inter-abdominal infection vector, no awkward situations in the bedroom or airport, and a total investment equivalent to a plateful of cheeseburgers.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Informative)
I assume you have never been intubated (even by a real doctor) before? They do it for most surgeries (to the trachea, not stomach) and most people have a minor sore throat afterwards. Do that yourself (all the way down to your stomach, even worse) every day and you will mess up your esophagus, larynx, of some other structure in your throat a lot faster than gastric acids would.
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http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/flaming+lips/she+dont+use+jelly_20054118.html [lyricsfreak.com]
That song is stupid and irritating - but it could solve the problem with personal intubation.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:4, Insightful)
no awkward situations in the bedroom or airport
You're kidding, right?
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:4, Informative)
The difference is that bulimia is a mental disorder first and foremost. People go in cycles of bulimia and anorexia, they often aren't actually fat, and they'll usually have binges of eating before vomiting. On top of that, they'll rarely actually say anything to anyone.
I can't see this not being supervised by a doctor, considering the tubes going in your body and all that. It's not the kind of thing you can do in your kitchen. It'll come with restrictions attached and a strict diet, if anything, so that people can get the tubes removed as soon as possible.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Informative)
Not true. I've had bulimia for many years and not told anyone about it. I'm overweight by about 15Kg and tubby but not your typical fatty. I've certainly never had anorexia or even been close.
Yes I know it's ironic, "Hi internet." The geek psyche is weird isn't it? It seems less concerning to me to disclose publicly what I guess is a fucked medical problem in a public forum than it is to let someone make an incorrect comment on slashdot. I think XKCD nailed it with : http://xkcd.com/386/
Simple, vomitting is bad (Score:3)
Vomiting is REALLY bad for you. The acid in your stomach ruins your throat, your teeth and the heaving itself is also not that good for you I have heard (bad for teeth/soft tissue is medical fact, the heaving is hearsay). Also, if acid goes down the wrong way, you damage your lungs.
This spares the throat and teeth.
I still can't think this is a good idea. Just the change of leakage alone is worrying, your stomach contents are designed to stay in your stomach. Not slosh around in your stomach cavity if a le
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The replicants in Blade Runner [wikipedia.org] were of the Nexus-6 series. I'm assuming UID 2919 has been engineered to live a little longer (given the low UID, he must be older than four).
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Depends what you mean by "bulimia", I guess. Like anorexia, I thought the disease was characterised by its psychological components (ie: binging, guilt, desire for an unattainable ideal, etc) more than the physical means used in response to those drives. For instance, binging followed by taking laxatives, or binging followed by an extreme diet are considered examples of bulimia - but not all people who go an an extreme diet or take laxatives are bulimic.
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you don't get acid-etched teeth and terrible breath either.
but a tube in the stomach seems like an unnecessary infection vector, and the whole contraption is just a dangerous, painful and expensive replacement for just eating less and drinking more water.
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:5, Funny)
the problem is it takes will power out of the equation
That's OK, most people are bad at math.
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That's the idea. Will power alone isn't always enough - that's why we have a obesity crisis in most of the developed world now. It's hard for people to lose weight when a few million years of natural selection is screaming 'load up on fat and sugar while you can, winter is coming and the hunting will be poor!'
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe if we stopped subsidized farming, the price of food would go up, and we wouldn't have so many people gorging themselves?
Face it, as taxpayers, we are paying farmers to produce cheap foods so that more people can afford to be fat, so that we can pay MORE in taxes to take care of our diabetic, heart diseased, obese population.
To make things worse, in spite of all that cheap food, the food processors replace cheap food stuffs with even cheaper junk like sugar, salt, preservatives, etc, to aggravate our health problems.
Maybe we need to take a long hard look at the entire food economy.
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BINGO!
Here is Switzerland meat is expensive, and I mean REALLY expensive. Take for example lean ground beef, which costs around 10 USD per pound. In the US it costs maybe 3 USD per pound? We eat quite a bit less meat here. It does not bother me as I don't eat that much meat in the first place. BUT it bothers my wife who likes her meat. So whenever she goes home to Canada she gorges herself on meat. The point is that because food costs more here, you naturally do eat less food.
I also completely agree with yo
Re:Isn't this just bulimia? (Score:4, Insightful)
If we must make a machine or a pill to solve the problem of obesity then make a pill to increase willpower (or perhaps a magic ring? jk). Even without pills or magic, willpower can be improved upon. I argue that we rephrase the discussion: Willpower is enough to solve this problem, how can we each obtain the willpower to overcome it?
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That was my thoughts exactly - it's bulimia without the tooth enamel damage.
As someone who has struggled with involuntary vomiting most of my life (apparently I have mild gastroparesis - where the stomach doesn't empty itself into the intestines properly), I can tell you that in and of itself, vomiting is not a good way to lose weight, but is a great way to screw with your metabolism.
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Or at least a marketable, respectable form of bulimia.
Only if you stick a vacuum cleaner hose down your throat to suck the Hagen Daz out.
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It could help morbidly obese patients get back to a weight where they can excercise without excessive pain or joint problems. I imagine if you're over 500, regular excercise is not an option.
The Roman Way (Score:2)
I'd rather do it the Roman way - stuff myself silly and drink until dawn, than just vomit it all up...
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You can't vomit regularly; you get ulcers, it becomes extremely painful, and it destroys your esophagus and your teeth.
It's as if nature were trying to tell us something...
Re:The Roman Way (Score:4, Funny)
He said Roman, not Greek.
Name: (Score:4, Funny)
BULI - O-MATIC
Did You Think, Maybe... (Score:5, Insightful)
why are people driven to eat too much? (Score:5, Informative)
A pithy answer like "Eat less and exercise" obviously doesn't cut it. That's like the joke about how to put a giraffe in a refrigerator. You open the refrigerator, put the giraffe in, and close the door.
Some findings and facts that have received some publicity lately:
There are a bunch of other lifestyle factors that can cause weight problems: too much sitting, pollution, artificial lighting, stress, and disease. The obesity epidemic is not going to be solved with a "Just Say No" campaign to cheeseburgers.
Re:why are people driven to eat too much? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm reading a lot of excuses in your post. It's gut bacteria it's pollution, it's Big Corn, it's stress. I'm not reading anything about taking personal responsibility. Losing weight means running a calorie deficit. This will make you feel bad. The only way to get though that is to get off the notion that you should feel good all the time and volutarily put yourself in a situation where you're hungry and feeling bad. that feeling will pass in a couple of weeks and it will strengthen your willpower.
Re:why are people driven to eat too much? (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems to me a general truth that people who focus so much on "personal responsibility" and "willpower" are people who are much less interested in solving problems, and much more interested in making themselves feel superior by way of their own good fortune. The line your advocating is equivalent to "Just say no to drugs" or abstinence-only sex education. You're burying your head in the sand.
It's not like people who are thin and in good shape aren't generally walking around hungry, feeling bad. People who are thin and healthy aren't starving themselves, or at least they shouldn't be. If you're walking around hungry and feeling bad, you're doing it wrong.
And aside from the list of factors that bzipitidoo gave, your talk about willpower ignored a pretty important factor: the phenomenon of "willpower" is a biological activity that has its limits. There have been a few studies that suggest that your decision-making process and ability to exercise self-control is dependent on blood sugar levels, which creates a nice little catch-22 for dieters. You don't eat, your blood sugar drops, your self-control weakens. I good way to reinforce your self-control is to have a snack to boost your blood sugar levels, but then you'd be breaking your diet.
Anyway, it's not about making excuses. It's about understanding the nature of the problem. I'm skinny, but it's not a function of discipline, self-control, or moral superiority. I eat whatever I want, as much as I want, and somehow I'm still skinny. Lucky me. I don't go around trying to pretend I'm some kind of hero, and I don't belittle people who are less lucky, who want to understand why.
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It seems to me a general truth that people who focus so much on "personal responsibility" and "willpower" are people who are much less interested in solving problems, and much more interested in making themselves feel superior by way of their own good fortune. The line your advocating is equivalent to "Just say no to drugs" or abstinence-only sex education.
Then this will probably be a real mindfuck then:
I'm a rather hardcore liberal, and I believe that the focus should in fact be on "personal responsibility" and "willpower".
Further, we should work on teaching not only how to apply those concepts, but the best ways to do so as part of public health education and (in schools) home ec. and PE (you know, those things that we've slowly worked on purging in favor of bland, guaranteed-not-to-anger-parents "replacements".)
Yes, you can't teach "willpower", but you can
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starvation mode is remarkably efficient if you stop eating completely.
of course, this wont guarantee the weight stays off.
so... how about seeing a doctor, nutritionist and figuring out just what diet (and exercise regimen) is likely to work?
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Did You Think, Maybe... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh please, the body is not some kind of magic entity that can ignore the laws of physics. Your body needs energy to function and the calories you consume are that energy. Your metabolism can slow down to some extent, but it's not as drastic as you say. "Starvation mode" is simply what the people who binge in secret tell you. Adjust your caloric intake to under or just at your base metabolism and you will lose weight, your body won't magically start running on hopes and dreams while it stores calories.
The opposite is true, your body doesn't "burn the extra calories" either, it stores them. That's how you gain weight. The plain fact is, the only way to lose weight is to consume less calories than you burn. No magic hocus pocus, no "starvation mode", no nothing. The more you consume, the more you need to burn. And aside from a few big name athletes, exercise will burn less than your base metabolism anyhow (my base metabolism is at about 1700-1750 calories/day last time I had it measured).
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Because they have no clue either? And further when you're fooling yourself, you can fool your doctor or nutritionist just as easily. (Well, they might not believe you, but contradicting you won't help).
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Oh, so that's why everyone in Auschwitz was so plump and chunky! They were all in "starvation mode" and eating like birds! Now it makes sense! I thought maybe they were just big boned!
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And then there are people too stupid to realize that there is a limit to how efficient your body can be and that the idea of "starvation mode" is a myth. The body can make use of calories with some greater efficiency, but not to any sort of order of magnitude. Starvation diets do work. At least for a while. They don't stop working because the body has become more efficient at deriving energy from food. They stop working because the people on them just can't take them anymore. The most weight I've ever lost
Re:Did You Think, Maybe... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes exactly. People use this "starvation mode" thing as an excuse. When I'm having trouble losing weight, I go back to first principles: If I don't put calories into my body, I will lose weight. Works every time.
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It's not an option for some people. The lack of energy and distraction from hunger impacts their work. A long term controlled diet is usually a better bet, and more likely to keep the weight down.
Re:Did You Think, Maybe... (Score:5, Interesting)
There are many reasons for people to be fat but the ONLY mechanism is cramming your face with calories. Regardless of glands, mental health or family history you body cant just pull mass out of fat air, it needs to be fed. An intelligent diet and exercise are the cheapest and best solution to America's weight problem. Unless the person is not in charge of their own diet then there is no one to blame for their 300lb ass but themselves.
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Did anyone do a body fat percentage baseline before you started?(They usually use calipers in a couple of places) Muscle weighs more than fat so if you're lifting and building muscle through exercise then the scale is terrible measure of success. Even if you haven't lost in your waistline you've probably lost more than 2.3lbs of fat and just replaced it with muscle.
If nothing has changed then I too would question the efficacy, but if you are at all stronger, faster, or have better stamina then you are healt
so apparently it works (Score:2)
so do tapeworms, and not eating so much crap food!!
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so do tapeworms,
Careful [wikipedia.org] with those.
revolutionary! (Score:5, Funny)
This is going to revolutionize nutrition and eating, just like the Ginger/Segway has revolutionized transportation in our cities.
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This is going to revolutionize nutrition and eating, just like the Ginger/Segway has revolutionized transportation in our cities.
If the Segway was not so damn expensive, more people might use them.
I'm tempted to agree... (Score:4, Informative)
Except, well... while I do own a Segway -- employees get what comes to a 50% discount, and in November of '08, it really, really looked like they were about to go belly-up; figured I'd get one while I still could -- I admit that the bike argument is a decent one. I really do enjoy riding Segways (or "PT's" -- personal transporters -- since Segway(tm) refers to the company, and not their product), but there are many drawbacks. Personally, I think they are freaking ideal for sightseeing. The best thing ever. As someone who'd ridden them for years, it wasn't until I'd gone on a sightseeing trip that I realized how awesome they can be, when used for their intended niche. Outside of that niche? Maybe not so much...
Oh. And Dean likely didn't "invent" the pump, no more than he "invented" the Segway. (The insulin pump is all his, though.) What Dean truly excels at is putting a bunch of relatively inexpensive engineers in a big mill building, and then promoting himself on what they produce.
Re:revolutionary! (Score:5, Funny)
How very shallow. How old are you? 16?
Coming from the guy whose username is 'Frosty Piss', priceless!
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And a bike still beats a Segway hands down
Of course, you're doing it wrong.
Broccoli? Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yeah I don't think we're getting fat on Broccoli. Maybe if it can suck the ranch dressing or cheese off the broccoli we can call it a deal.
Soylent orange... (Score:4, Funny)
... It's made of what eventually would have been people!
How lazy do you have to be (Score:2)
to get this installed?
My Reaction (Score:4, Insightful)
Eeewww.
Seriously, EEEWWW.
Hard To Prepare Foods = The Win (Score:5, Interesting)
Several studies have show obese people prefer easily accessible food.
Stock up on hard-to-prepare food: eggs, flour, potatoes, etc.
These foods also happen to be inexpensive. And cuts down on all types of "impulse eating" as you ask yourself "Do I really want to spend 15 minutes on a snack or can I wait?" Of course, this practical advice doesn't make a guy on TV any money and doesn't make a mega-corp any money and doesn't sell books on a talk show ...
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i'm almost convinced that eating whole grains works for weight loss simply because it doesn't taste as good as white flour.
the fiber has other benefits, of course.
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Of course, this practical advice doesn't make a guy on TV any money and doesn't make a mega-corp any money and doesn't sell books on a talk show
Sure it does. Jamie Oliver for one has about three different shows running on the free view channels here, and a squizillion books.
Re:Hard To Prepare Foods = The Win (Score:5, Funny)
i love that guy, he's all about good tastes and how just fucking learning to cook can give your mouth a better time than jamming it full of lard
That's not comforting coming from someone with the username "kiddygrinder." In fact, please never comment on culinary matters again.
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I still remember the show he ran here in America where he tried to reform a school system's cafeteria food. Things like eliminating chocolate and strawberry milk which were served because "kids won't drink milk if we don't dump a ton of sugar in it" and increasing the number of veggies in the meal (during which he was told that a serving of french fries counts as veggies). The most memorable experiment was when he got a group of kids to watch him prepare chicken nuggets as they are classically made. He g
The Cloaca Machine (Score:2)
Reminds me of food waste statistics (Score:2, Insightful)
"Recent estimates suggest that 16 per cent of the energy consumed in the US is used to produce food. Yet at least 25 per cent of food is wasted each year..." [newscientist.com]
"There are nearly a billion malnourished people in the world, but all of them could be lifted out of hunger with less than a quarter of the food wasted in Europe and North America. In a globalised food system, where we are all buying food in the same international market place, that means we're taking food out of the mouths of the poor." [guardian.co.uk]
In this context,
Re:Reminds me of food waste statistics (Score:5, Insightful)
"There are nearly a billion malnourished people in the world, but all of them could be lifted out of hunger with less than a quarter of the food wasted in Europe and North America"
No, they couldn't, not unless that food could be transported to them and distributed before it became inedible. In countries with good infrastructure, that's not a problem, but those billion malnourished generally don't live in a place with good air freight service, well-maintained highways, and refrigerated trucking.
Any solution to global poverty is going to have to largely rely on bootstrapping local production. Despite importing a lot of food, most western nations export a whole lot more - they have sufficient capacity to feed themselves, and trade for variety/seasonality. Getting developing nations to the point of self sufficiency is key - anything else leaves them dependant on the developed world, which will screw them over when a drought/famine/whatever hits, and we have less excess to give.
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It's not a production problem, it hasn't been a production problem since the Middle Ages (if even then), it's always been a distribution problem. Not just with the infrastructure, but also with the fact that the people in those areas don't have the money to make shipping to them economically worthwhile. make no mistake, if they had the money to pay for the food the infrastructure issues would be worked around quickly.
Re:Reminds me of food waste statistics (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed, but many of those places have transportation (where it exists) that is configured to remove produce and resources onto boats headed for regions like Europe, North America and increasingly China. As you pointed out, that can also work in reverse WRT food... but I don't believe that is the case for all materials in general.
As I see it, any country that is not heavily bought-up by globalist Wall St. banks and aligned with NATO would inevitably appear as a threat to the West if they reconfigured their infrastructure to be self-sufficient and more self-serving. Self-sufficiency for an emerging region would necessarily have to stonewall the influences of the global banking system, because the system has a record of opportunistically creating crises which put the land and resources of so many developing countries on sale to Western corporations at fire sale prices. When the financial empire convulses because of mismanagement at its center, its the fringes that are most quickly abandoned because of a lack of familiarity or personal involvement by wealthy investors-- then they are lined up for 'austerity' programs which have much more to do with rent seeking by foreign actors than with self-sufficiency.
Pumping your own stomach, hmmm? (Score:2)
Medical Device Testing illegally??? (Score:2, Informative)
:>(
And I agree with those who wrote earlier that this is a "mechanical barf-o-matic" without sticking your finger down your throat. So what is he claiming for the benefits??
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bene 1: no acid reflux uppa your egophagus?
bene 2: no acid stains on your teeth and palate?
bene 3: barf yourself without the unpleasant taste coming through your mouth?
bene 4: no need to stick a finger down your throat
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Re: (Score:3)
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Yes, but even the good guys can have bad ideas. Inserting a device that allows the end-user to do the stomach-pumping as a caloric-intake-control measure is, in my humble opinion, a very bad idea. Devices that can be abused by the end-user tend to very often actually be abused by the end-user. The kinds of problems that come from these excesses need a larger medical approach, not a simplistic "binge-and-purge" and "hell go ahead and binge and purge, because I mad
Clearly dieting and exercise are passe. (Score:2, Insightful)
Dieting and exercise? For suckers. Bring on the pump.
Dean Kamen inventions (Score:2, Interesting)
Let's go (Score:2)
...dancing in a dioxin dump...
Couldn't people just eat less? (Score:5, Insightful)
This looks to me to be the single most disgusting invention I've ever seen. Surely it's easier to just eat smaller meals rather than gorge, then pump partially digested food out through a pipe through your gut. I guess it tops the Segway as stupidest invention ever.
But... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
so I will spend $60 in a glorious dinner. then this tube will puke it for me. sounds stupid
Sure. If you needed the nutrition provided by your $60 dinner then puking through a tube would indeed be stupid. Obviously you haven't taken a few seconds to consider the target market for this product.
For fatties who don't need the food but love eating this is the perfect solution. I imagine version 2 will attach directly into your stomach through your chest and do away with all that hassle of sticking a tube down your throat. Then restaurants will be able to have an all-you-can-eat icecream bar that never
Re: (Score:2)
smoking?
Re: (Score:3)
Yea, because that way you totally don't waste the food......
Re: (Score:2)
Given that without using this device, you'll put on fat you'll likely never need, and excrete the rest, the food was probably being wasted anyhow.
Re: (Score:2)
fuck are you talking about, fool?
only segways i've seen are for hire in touristy cities for walking tours (or, rather, segway tours), or at big convention centres.
cops on segways? i should take up petty theft, though i wouldn't want to get run over by a fat cop on a segway.
Re:Or you could just eat less (Score:4, Interesting)