Nutrition is the cornerstone of health and wellness. The human body is a machine. It needs proper nutritional support to function correctly. Through the process of digestion, our bodies absorb vitamins, minerals, trace elements, food and water. Each of these is necessary on a routine basis, but in different amounts. We need to keep our food intake as varied as possible in order to expose our digestive tract to the opportunities to remove what our bodies need to keep us healthy. Too little of any of these items makes the body function inefficiently and can be the cause of specific diseases. Morbidly obese patients, although not skinny, are often described as “malnourished” because of their vitamin and mineral deficiencies. That’s right, despite the extra weight, you can be malnourished.
The NJ Bariatric Institute understands the disease of Obesity. We offer nutritional guidance as well as specialized nutritional replacement programs. We know that the human body functions best when it has access to the right nutrition. We have arranged it so you can be individually tested and treated to maximize your function. Many patients live their daily lives with deficiencies which are easily reversible. The consequences of long term deficiencies can be severe, especially later in life with bone, nerve, and brain and skeletal issues. We offer full nutritional testing and replacement. In patients who plan to have surgery, we prefer to replace all items prior to any planned procedure so you have the maximal chance of safe, rapid healing and recovery. In post-operative patients, we ask that patients take vitamins and supplements due to their rapid weight loss and dietary changes. We continue to monitor your nutrition over time with testing. When abnormalities arise, we can fix them quickly avoiding trouble and keeping you healthy.