Here is a link to this new “fad” - women wanting to lose weight for their weddings undergo a “minor” medical procedure so they get their daily calories shot through their nose instead of eating like a sane, normal human being.
Am I the only one appalled by this?
These women really can’t simply cut back on food in general for a couple months prior to the wedding? They can’t deal with the fact they might need a size 16 dress instead of a 12 or 8 or whatever?
This strikes me insane.
Several years ago I was on a 400-800 calories a day due to real medical issues, but it wasn’t through a tube, it was through eating very small amounts of real, actual food. The lack of energy was awful (I didn’t have constipation due to my gastrointestinal tract being so inflamed). I lost muscle mass and strength. Somewhere to 1/3 to 1/2 my hair fell out. My finger and toenails became brittle. It was terrible.
So… they’ll be thin, but they might need hair extensions/wig, they’ll need to have their fingernails glued back together, and they’ll be weak and tottering down the aisle, but that’s OK because they’ll be thin!
Alright, maybe not that bad, as it’s only for 10 days and an otherwise healthy human should be able to withstand severe caloric restriction for that length of time even if it’s unpleasant and not at all fun. I can’t help but think some of these women will suffer side effects.
I don’t see the big deal. 8 to 10 days of protein and no carbs under medical supervision so their wedding dress looks fab. It’s not for the long term and I doubt the weight loss lasts, but for a one time solution for your wedding day? Not a problem.
At least it lets the groom know what kinda woman he is getting beforehand. Shallow, obssesd with trivial shit, no willpower, and willing to do crazy shit for crazy reasons.
The tube is so they can’t eat more through their mouth. All the calories and nutrition they’ll get for the duration will come through the tube.
Brides are going to do stupid shit for their weddings no matter what; there are countless websites devoted to poking fun at these women. Modern wedding culture is a lot like modern pregnancy culture in that there is one and only one correct way to do it, and anything that deviates from that one correct way is going ruin the experience for everyone. So if this means that the bride has to starve herself in order to fit into the approved dress size for the approved dream dress, that’s what she’ll do, and she’ll be happy to do it. Of course, there is the risk of refeeding syndrome and rebound weight gain, but as long as the bride looks good on her wedding day, that’s all that matters. :rolleyes:
Perhaps these women should have considered purchasing a wedding dress that looks fab without their having to snort all of their calories for a week and a half prior to wearing it.
I’m sure these brides will have a lovely time (and great photos!) at their rehearsal dinner the night before with the feeding tube still in place. Better wait until the last minute or else she won’t be able to zip the dress the next morning. I think some of them even then risk bursting a seam during the reception what with the sudden influx of food and alcohol.
Usually I’d be snarking on this, but today it just makes me feel sad. These aren’t grossly overweight women; they’re losing about 20 pounds. What kind of self image do you have when 20 pounds makes you feel so bad about yourself you’d do this? It sounds like body dysmorphic disorder. It feels like a canary in a coal mine to me; what kind of society do we have that this is happening, even if it is fringe?
I just read about this yesterday, too, and my response was the same - this is fucked up in so many ways. I like to watch some wedding reality tv shows, and there is a lot of dysfunction going on with them; this seems like an extension of the unrealistic, misguided attitude of, “It’s MY day, so everything is going to be perfect, and everything is going to be the way I want it.”
I don’t think it represents a major trend, just the most extreme manifestation of something that’s been going on for quite a while. Extreme things get news coverage, and it doesn’t get more extreme than having a tube shoved up your nose.
That said, I have been exposed to the modern wedding culture and very little of it is pretty. If you thumb through a magazine like Modern Bride or The Knot, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to how to have the perfect wedding. Everything has a checklist so you don’t leave anything out, and if you do decide to skip a step for whatever reason, the entire thing will be wrecked and no one will ever love you. It’s not even “your special day” anymore; it’s the “special day” the Modern Wedding Hivemind wants you to have. And if you have to starve yourself to fit into the gown that the magazine or website tells you you want, you’ll do it because that’s what you’re supposed to do.
But…it doesn’t prevent eating. And that’s the part that has me really scratching my head over this. Isn’t it just an NG tube? You *can *eat around an NG tube. So WTF?
Also, don’t let them blame we American fatties for this one, okay? “While the tube diet is fairly unknown in this country, it has been popular for years in Italy and Spain, where it is used casually to lose weight before a big event, as well as for more significant weight loss. In England, where it has been offered for the past year as the KEN (or ketogenic enteral nutrition) diet, The Daily Mail asked if it was “the most extreme diet ever,” before adding that a National Health Service doctor was offering it.”
(And, totally not related to the thread, but the article: there’s no paprika in The Master Cleanse. That should be cayenne pepper.)
I’d really like to see their cites for Spain, cos the Ministry of Health should be on something like that like stink on shit, and if something like this was going on, you bet there would be both ads and articles to be found - and I can’t find any.
It took me maybe 15 seconds of googling. EPN Nutrition is a company that provides this and appears to operate exclusively in Spain and Italy. They have ten clinics in Spain (11 if you count the Canary Islands)
When I got married everyone along the way always said “but what about _____?! it’s tradition!” and when I said “whose tradition?” they were all so horrified. Everything was how I wanted it, although I do recall my wife’s dress was taken in waay too small. She’s thin and good looking and had weighed the same since high school, but when she bought the dress they said they would take it in several sizes too small and assured her she was going to lose a lot of weight to have a perfect day, because everyone does. She said no, she wasn’t, she was going to eat whatever she wanted and not gain or lose an ounce and the seamstress gave her a look and still took it in so small she could barely fit into the thing. The whole day she couldn’t eat and when she had to sit down for toasts she was in immense pain. She took it off the second we pulled out of the parking lot and we had the driver hit a drive thru to get some calories in her.