Article content

As early as April, a new obesity treatment could be approved in the U.S. (and soon after in Canada) that allows users to “aspirate,” or drain, 30 per cent of the food they eat from their stomachs, before their bodies can absorb the calories.

The procedure involves implanting a skinny tube into the upper part of the stomach and connecting it to a loonie-sized port on the outside of the abdomen. After meals, a small device is attached to the port’s valve, the valve is rotated open and some of the gut’s contents can be emptied into a toilet.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or The shape of the future: Is obesity a crisis or just the latest stage of evolution? Back to video

The device’s makers claim it’s a low-risk, minimally invasive and totally reversible way to lose weight, although it sounds suspiciously like engineered bulimia. But then, our hunger for something – anything – to make us thinner knows no bounds.

On any given day, 10 million Canadians are on a diet. We’re wading through the tens of thousands of books on Amazon with “weight loss” in the title, and tuning into reality shows like A&E’s new Fit to Fat to Fit, where personal trainers gain globs of weight so they can lose it with their clients.