Keren Hod

Identifying eating and lifestyle behaviors prior to bariatric surgery may assist in better selecting and preparing patients and might lead to improved success rate. The current study aimed to assess eating behaviors and lifestyle trends among laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) candidates and to compare those trends between genders. This descriptive study was conducted in the bariatric clinic at the Haifa Assuta Medical Center. Data was gathered from medical records of LSG candidates that were evaluated before surgery in our institution between 2008 and 2011. The data included demographics, comorbidities, anthropometrics, weight management history, and lifestyle parameters. Eating pattern and eating habits were determined by eating habits questionnaires. A total of 266 LSG surgery candidates (71.4 % female) with an average age of 40.7 ± 10.9 years and pre-surgery BMI of 42.4 ± 4.8 kg/m(2) were studied. More than half of the patients have family history of obesity and their onset of obesity was before the age of 18 years (54.5 and 57.9 %, respectively). Most of the patients reported on poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyle: 65.1 % do not eat regular meals, 70.3 % skip over breakfast, 61.9 % presented loss of control eating, 45 % frequently consume sweets, and 80.1 % were classified as none active. There were no differences in eating patterns or lifestyle parameters between genders. High occurrence of unhealthy eating habits and a non-active lifestyle were detected in morbid obese candidates for LSG surgery. More efforts should be directed towards nutritional and lifestyle education prior to the surgery.

Introduction Data on vegetarianism and bariatric surgery (BS) are scarce. We herein describe the health and nutritional status of vegetarian patients who plan to undergo BS and propose combined recommendations for vegetarian patients who undergo BS, based on our clinical experience and current scientific literature in both nutrition fields. Methods Cross-sectional analysis of a prospectively maintained database of all primary laparoscopic sleeve gastrecto-mies (LSG) performed at a bariatric center of excellence between January 2014 and November 2016 was carried out querying patients who declared a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle before surgery. Preoperative data collected included demographics, anthropometrics, dietary patterns, supplemen-tation use, physical activity, smoking habits, co-morbidities, and blood tests. Each vegetarian was matched to five different omnivores based on age, gender, and BMI. Results During the study period, 1470 patients underwent primary LSG surgery (63.7% females). Twenty-one declared a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle (1.4%) pre-surgery. Most were classified as lacto-ovo (57.1%) and were driven from ethical reasons (85.7%). No differences were found between vegetarian and omnivore LSG candidates regarding co-morbidities and nutritional deficiencies, except for lower prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (14.3 vs. 47.1%;P = 0.007), lower ferritin levels (54.3 ± 50.5 vs. 96.8 ± 121.8 ng/ml;