http://nofusa.org/news/study-weight-loss-surgery-reduces-sug ar-cravings/

Very interesting, thanks.

It raises questions, though. The study looked at sugar receptors in the duodenum, and bypassing those receptors led to decreased sugar cravings. But only RNY bypasses the duodenum, not VSG. This is just anecdotal, but it doesn't seem like RNYers have less sugar cravings than VSGers. Or maybe they do, but that benefit may be counterbalanced by some other VSG effect. Regardless, it's very interesting.

They still know so little about how WLS works. It really has less to do with having a smaller stomach, and more to do with all these countless chemical changes. I'm still convinced they'll find a way to get the same results without radical changes to our innards. Maybe not in our lifetimes, but in our children's.

Interesting.  I am having my surgery next week and I love sugary sweet things.  I would love not to crave them anymore.  On a lighter note, It must take crazy skills to do bariatric surgery on mice.  

Surgery skills are one thing. Who's doing the psych evals on the little critters?

Okay you made me laugh but it does relate to a question this study raised for me.  I wonder how much our learned behaviour/responses to sugar impact us human subjects.  Can our psychological response override these physical changes? 

Oh, I think it can, for sure. Both ways. If addicts can quit nicotine, alcohol, and heroin, they can quit sugar. And likewise, you can have no actual physical addiction to something, yet still have that psychological addiction to it.

But overall, I think addiction is applied to food too often. I don't think we are addicted, physically, for the most part. I think it's bad habits, and an emotional response to some external stimulus.

The real cure for obesity may lie in rodent research discussed in Big Bang Theory:

"Dopamine in our brain is released across synapses causing pleasure. You stick electrodes in a rat's brain, give him an ****** button and he'll push that thing 'till he starves to death."

Agree, this is interesting info although it seems to apply in the case of the RNY (and possibly the DS), which bypasses the duodenum.  In my case, sugar craving roars back if I indulge, although it doesn't seem to have such an iron grip on me when it does come back, and minor infractions here and there don't trigger the sugar monster.  The only thing keeps it at bay long-term is abstinence from sugar and refined grains, especially white flour.

Wish I could say the same for my thoughts, though.  I bet there isn't a day goes by that I don't think about some sweet treat, set off by various things - a TV commercial, a deep breath walking by the donut shop, the candy display at the grocery store checkout line.  Whatever.  Mostly these are idle thoughts, they have no sense of action behind them like they used to - "I gotta have that RIGHT NOW".  But they're still there.

I agree about the thoughts. I woke up this morning thinking about a local donut shop's products. No need to go and buy one, not really any desire to buy and eat one but the thought was there as I sipped my coffee.

This is my experience, too, and I am a long-term post RNYer. Thinking I could manage sugar and flour in my diet is what led to my regaining some of the weight I had lost. It's an all-or-nothing proposition for me, though, because I never overeat any food at all unless it is something that turns quickly to sugar in my body. Only abstinence works, but my brain still remembers cinnamon buns!