Well, the prescribed 2-4 oz of meat is hardly an obsession when the average American is probably eating 8 oz of animal Protein at a meal.
I am 13-years out from gastric bypass and have not eaten red meat for so many years that I have lost count at this point. But the validity of bariatric surgeons telling us to eat animal protein is apparent to me, based on my personal experience. And my experience has been that, I eat wild caught fish and organic raised on pasture eggs and supplement with vegan Protein powder (of which most brands are crap) and collagen. Sometimes I will eat organic free range poultry. I also take lots of supplements including a heavy dose of Iron. All this personal history is given just so that I can tell you that given these high dietary standards, I still struggle with iron deficiency and anemia from time to time. So, I will say that there is legitimacy to the prescribed "up your animal (red meat) protein intake."
Dr. E. E. Mason wrote these gold standards several decades ago and there is a lot of value in them. They are not nutritional guidelines per se and so they don't include things like phytonutrients -- that's my take on it anyway. That said, given what we are now seeing as far as nutritional deficiencies and digestive disorders in long-term bariatric patients, perhaps the ASMBS will publish more comprehensive nutritional guidelines for micronutrients and (one could only hope) phytonutrients. There is some detailed information on the ASMBS website regarding micronutrients, and a European bariatric surgeon that I spoke with recently said this was a big area of discussion at their annual meeting.
When I had my gastric bypass surgery in 2003, I was told that I needed to take one Multivitamin, one Calcium, and one iron tablet a day. That turned out to be a complete fallacy. The quantity of supplements that I take is extreme.
GSleeve822, rather than try to degrade ops with name calling -- ops, who I might add, take precious time out of their busy lives to write articles such as this purely to help bariatric patients -- why not add to the conversation with information from authoritative sources that support your point of view rather than issue complaints that show your lack of gratitude and decorum in a public forum?
As always, my information is cited from the authoritative sources from which they are taken, and shared here for informational purposes. You should always check with your healthcare provider, as well as trust your gut instinct... if something doesn't feel right to you then by all means exercise your right to not believe it.