Doc got your tongue?

If you thought the tube feeding diet brides to be were trying last year was riciculous, here's another extreme method to add to the list.A doctor in Long Beach California is sewing hard plastic mesh patches to women’s tongues for 1 month to prevent them from eating. The practice is quite common in Venezuela where over 800 surgeries have been done in Caracus.Ridiculous? You bet. The $2,000 surgery works by limiting food consumption because it “reminds” a person that eating is painful. The surgery takes about 10 minutes and the patch is placed for about 1 month. Dieters are to follow an 800 calorie, liquid diet which promises an average weight loss of 18-20 lbs. The dieters are also advised to exercise for at least 45 minutes per day.Have we lost our minds? I was under the assumption that eating is pleasurable- not painful! Sure, we all go overboard now and then and overeat. Food is supposed to taste good. And while weight loss is not easy- this treatment seems awfully radical compared to cutting back on calories and increasing physical activity.Sadly, most quick fix, radical diets or procedures don’t work in the long turn. Most dieters end up gaining the weight (and then some) back. Most low calorie, high protein diets results in quick weight loss, but do nothing to change unhealthy dietary habits or lifestyle. Long term weight loss involves relearning to eat healthy food and learning to avoid using food for stress, boredom, anger or other emotions.Interested in losing weight? Use that $2,000 for a gym membership and a few trips to the grocery store for real food. Tongue patch? No thanks. Pain may equal gain later.For more information, check out the story below:http://abcnews.go.com/Health/pain-weight-loss-tongue-patch-diet/story?id=19840923