Type 2 diabetes is caused primarily by excessive calorie intake and fat storage, so it certainly makes sense that anything that reduces calorie intake and promotes the loss of body fat will reverse insulin resistance and lower blood sugar levels in those with pre- or Type 2 diabetes but why have your digestive tract mutilated and risk multiple long-term complications from the surgery, including nutritional deficiencies, when you can just follow a healthy eating and lifestyle plan?

To be sure, a commitment to lifestyle changes is no small task. But surgery is no easy solution either. After surgery, doctors routinely advise patients to make a complete change in lifestyle. Foods to be avoided include sugary foods, red meat, high-fat foods, high-fibre foods, and milk because they commonly provoke nausea, cramping, diarrhoea, overall weakness and other nasty side effects. Just what you would need to do to avoid the surgery in the first place and reduce your weight naturally.

And because most forms of weight-loss surgery leave patients with a stomach the size of an egg, post-surgery life means very small meals, eaten very slowly and chewed thoroughly, for the rest of one’s life. Overeating may cause vomiting, expansion of the stomach pouch, weight gain or even rupture of the stomach.

The fact is, the lifestyle changes required after weight-loss surgery are far more rigorous than a healthy diet that will allow you to enjoy a wide variety of food.