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Orthodox Jews and Lap Banders



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Hi,

I'm a journalist who works at an online Jewish arts/culture/lifestyle/news magazine (Tabletmag.com) and I'm trying to report a story on Orthodox Jews who get lap band surgery and how they handle holiday meals. Specifically, I heard an anecdote that some people have their lap bands unfilled in advance of holidays so they can partake fully in holiday meals. With Passover coming up, my editors and I thought this could make for an interesting piece and so I am looking for people to talk to who have done temporary adjustments or plan to as Passover approaches.

If you fit in this category or know someone who does, I'd love to speak with you. Additionally, if you have a doctor who you see who does fills and unfills to accommodate holiday requirements and desires, I'd love that person's name if you feel comfortable sharing it. If you want to speak with me but do not want to use your name, we can work with that.

Basically right now I am at an early stage of reporting this and so welcome any and all information--whether personal or general. You can reach me on email at sivry@tabletmag.com.

Thanks for reading and for your consideration.

Sara.

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Hi,

I'm a journalist who works at an online Jewish arts/culture/lifestyle/news magazine (Tabletmag.com) and I'm trying to report a story on Orthodox Jews who get lap band surgery and how they handle holiday meals. Specifically, I heard an anecdote that some people have their lap bands unfilled in advance of holidays so they can partake fully in holiday meals. With Passover coming up, my editors and I thought this could make for an interesting piece and so I am looking for people to talk to who have done temporary adjustments or plan to as Passover approaches.

If you fit in this category or know someone who does, I'd love to speak with you. Additionally, if you have a doctor who you see who does fills and unfills to accommodate holiday requirements and desires, I'd love that person's name if you feel comfortable sharing it. If you want to speak with me but do not want to use your name, we can work with that.

Basically right now I am at an early stage of reporting this and so welcome any and all information--whether personal or general. You can reach me on email at sivry@tabletmag.com.

Thanks for reading and for your consideration.

Sara.

Regardless of religion - getting unfilled prior to a holiday &/or vacation defeats the whole purpose of getting banded..

I have a gf who is an orthodox Jew and she has never had her band unfilled for holidays

Our bands are tools to make us full on a smaller amount of food .. It's about eating healthy and a bander should be able to eat holiday foods in small portions - Our bands don't make our food choices we do.. - Holidays are not about the food behind them as much as the meaning of them which is the reason we Celebrate them..

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Hi,

I'm a journalist who works at an online Jewish arts/culture/lifestyle/news magazine (Tabletmag.com) and I'm trying to report a story on Orthodox Jews who get lap band surgery and how they handle holiday meals. Specifically, I heard an anecdote that some people have their lap bands unfilled in advance of holidays so they can partake fully in holiday meals. With Passover coming up, my editors and I thought this could make for an interesting piece and so I am looking for people to talk to who have done temporary adjustments or plan to as Passover approaches.

If you fit in this category or know someone who does, I'd love to speak with you. Additionally, if you have a doctor who you see who does fills and unfills to accommodate holiday requirements and desires, I'd love that person's name if you feel comfortable sharing it. If you want to speak with me but do not want to use your name, we can work with that.

Basically right now I am at an early stage of reporting this and so welcome any and all information--whether personal or general. You can reach me on email at sivry@tabletmag.com.

Thanks for reading and for your consideration.

Sara.

I'm an observant Jew and I cannot fathom to what you might be referring when you say that someone would get unfilled for Passover. There is no Hallachic reason to gorge oneself during the holiday. The only thing I can think of is the eating of matzoh during the Passover Seder. There are Hallachic laws that govern health, so that the requirement to finish the matzah before the meal, would most likely be covered. While there is a lot of food served during the holiday meal, there is no other law that says it has to be eaten in any quantity. So anybody with a band can eat the way they normally would eat in any other situation. I have no problem getting the amount of Protein I need during Passover, so that is not an issue,and since many breadstuffs are disallowed, who cares? Less carbs. If there is anything else you were thinking in terms of, I'd love to be Enlightened, since I cannot think of any other reason one would need to be unfilled.

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Actually, I think this is very interesting. At the pre-surgucal seminar, the Dr. I heard actually said that he does get a lot of requests for unfils from his Jewish patients for Pesach. He did indicate that he loosens the band before the holiday and fills it again after. I was not quite sure if it was because people wanted to eat more or because they could not eat the matzah easily although I thought he meant the latter. But he said it was a very common request, especially from the orthodox community. No one else has heard this?

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