Honestly, I didn't think you did put anybody down, you asked a question -- a question that more of these idiot stars should ask their doctors, in my opinion. The surgeon who operated on my husband put him through a battery of psycological tests. He told us a lot of obese people use food, especially carbohydrates, as a "drug", and some of his patients went on to develop other addictions (mostly alcohol and drugs) once they couldn't eat as much as they wanted. He sent those folks to shrinks instead of operating on them. The sad thing is some of those patients just went to other, less ethical doctors who gave them the operation anyway. You are right: serious abdominal surgery is NOT something to do because you saw somebody do it on TV! Believe me, after seeing what hubby went through during recovery, I'll stick to diet and excercise, thank you very much!
With all the "bariatric treatment centers" popping up, I gotta believe there are plenty of charlatan doctors like you mentioned looking to make a buck. I can think of two women I know in a scrapbooking group who blew me away and said they had this done. Neither had been obese their whole lives and one never weighed over 300lbs and the other just barely. Some of these places are recommending this surgery to people who weigh 100 lbs over their ideal weight. For someone who is 5'4" that could be about 230 lbs. Seems like an extreme surgery to have done at a weight where one can still easily exercise. I lost about 70lbs from that weight before. You eat a good diet and start exercise slowly until your muscles get stronger and your weight goes down and then you can do more. I have a real problem with the places popping up and putting commercials on the tv for the procedure.