Via a Marsha Hudnall tweet comes this LA Times op-ed Why we diet. A section that resonated with me (emphasis mine):
In one of the more interesting polls I’ve seen, more than three-fourths of the 231 dieters surveyed said that they would take a pill that would guarantee they would achieve or maintain their desired weight even if it would lower their life expectancy. On average, they were willing to give up 5.7 years. … This was a small sample, but it is consistent with other research. For instance, a book published just last year showed that the desire to fit in or be “normal” — rather than improving health — is the primary motivation for many people who undergo weight-loss surgery.
These findings may seem puzzling, but they are not so surprising when you consider weight-loss attempts for what they really are: efforts to protect against weight-based discrimination. The fact is, fear and loathing of fat are real, and American attitudes about fat may be more dangerous to public health than obesity itself.
We are very quick to attribute mortality and morbidity to excess weight. I strongly feel that this is premature. I do not think that fat tissue is benign, but I do believe that it is impossible to tease out how much of what’s attributed to fat is actually a result of our inflammatory diet or other lifestyle factors and how much is as a result of weight stigma.
It’s in this frame of mind that I find the following idea really, really horrifying:
It’s a stomach-turning idea - but an invention detailed in a US patent application published by Aspire Bariatrics of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, nevertheless holds out the hope of a treatment for morbid obesity without the invasive surgery and drawbacks of a gastric bypass.
The idea is to let patients eat and drink as much as they like - but they then drain their stomach some 20 minutes after a meal by connecting a pump to a valve surgically installed on their abdominal wall.
Boggles the mind that medically supported bulimia is the next thing in the war on obesity.
Update 1/7: My bad, I should have credited this very thoughtful post on this medical cluster-eff.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health & food policy. And cats! 
I am speechless re the second quote!
I might have thought it was a hoax, except they mentioned the Segway inventor is involved. Could still be a hoax … hoping so!
Actually, the inventor of the Segway died falling off a cliff while riding on a Segway…
Actually, the inventor of the Segway is still alive. It’s the owner of the company who bought the Segway from Kamen who died.
Oops.
The company’s name—Aspire Bariatrics—gives me pause. Aspire is a root word for, of course, aspiration—which, medically, has at least two dichotomous yet interrelated meanings; one meaning includes pulmonary aspiration, which involves the inhalation of non-gaseous detritus (e.g., bits of swallowed food, stomach contents in liquid form, body fluids [often blood], meconium in newborns…) and is thus a potentially harmful or fatal event that may result in serious consequences (e.g., pneumonia, infection, or immediate respiratory failure and death). The other meaning refers to a usually-benign or helpful and/or life-saving medical procedure (gentle suctioning with a special pump) often used in clinical settings (e.g., patient rooms, ERs or surgical suites)—usually to avoid the harmful consequences of pulmonary aspiration. Until now, I was sure that the most horrifying example of both meanings was witnessed by me on my very first day as a student nurse in a clinical setting (hospital room) when I was told to suction aspirated gastric contents that had the odor, color and consistency of sh*t.
Welcome to the world of nursing (the cleaned up version of what I thought at the time.)
As awful as that experience was for a nurse wannabe, this newly reported *medical* procedure strikes me as soooo much worse. Please, please let it prove to be a hoax!