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By Dr. Michael Bilof In case you missed it, October 6th was “National PA Day”! If you are not in the medical field you might reasonably ask… What is a PA? (Hint: It’s not a State) Well, if you are a patient of Garden State Bariatrics you already know one PA and perhaps two. First off, “PA” means Physician’s Assistant, and we have (in my humble opinion 😊) two of the best on our team — Bella Baum (mostly in our Millburn office) and Michael Caromano (mostly in Toms River and Deborah). What Does a PA do? If you have

Let’s Talk About (NOT) Drinking Calories! Perhaps you’ve seen the ad below in your travels around the internet. It’s the fall after all and one must have the proper beverage at all times! Hate to be the guy who rains on the parade, but you definitely want to avoid all these types of beverages. If you want to see what you will be subjecting your body to if you drink one of these follow this link: https://www.starbucks.ie/nutrition and then click on the “Download Beverage Nutritional PDF” and then go to page 7 of that PDF: the “Autumn 22 Promo Beverages”.

Do you, or someone you know, have a Lap Band? If so, there are a few things to know about on-going management needs for Lap Bands. I personally stopped doing Lap Bands 8-10 years ago but there are quite a few folks who had them back in the day. If you did have a Lap Band you are probably in one of two categories: either you did well with the band, lost a fair amount of weight and have kept it off. If that is you, Congratulations! Not many patients were successful with the band but if you were there

Way back, on July 2nd, 2007, Garden State Bariatrics was born! On that day it was me, Dominga and my lovely bride, Kara. Keisha joined us several weeks later so she still kind of gets credit as an OG.... ‘Original Gangsta’. It was an exciting (and challenging!) time, and a lot of fun. As I think back over the last 15 years, the thing that initially motivated me to start GSB is still what motivates me (and the team!) today, which is that bariatrics is the ultimate ‘happy medicine’. With Bariatric Surgery, a single surgery solves, or dramatically improves, many

If you’re like most people, before you make a big decision you check on-line to see what other people have done in your situation. When the decision is a medical decision we have a term in the office for that… consulting ‘Dr. Google’. It’s not a problem necessarily, we all do it and I seriously doubt it will stop anytime soon. There is simply so much information on the internet, how could you not? The problem isn’t the amount (quantity) of the information, it's the quality of it. To be sure, there is high quality information but there is also

Last month we talked about the importance of muscle mass and how to increase your body’s muscle mass. This month we will do a deeper dive on what that means precisely and how we can measure muscle mass. You may have heard the term body composition before. I am simplifying a bit here, but basically body composition means how much of your body is fat and how much of your body is everything else. The ‘everything else’ refers to water, organs, bones and muscle… of those, the only one we can really change in any significant way is muscle and

Is Strength training important? In a word—yes! By the way, strength training is important for everyone, regardless of gender… in other words it’s not just for guys. At Garden State Bariatrics in New Jersey, we often advise patients to add strength training to their weight loss and wellness plan. Why is Strength Training Important? Imagine for a moment you are fortunate enough to live to 90 years of age. Here is something you will NEVER say “I wish I had less muscle mass”. Think of people you know in their 70’s and 80’s, and chances are that most of them

You might reasonably ask, “Don’t I eat real food?”. Actually, if you’re a typical American eating the typical American diet - chances are this concept is being challenged. Most Americans eat highly processed ‘food’ that all too often is loaded with added sugar, fat, salt and artificial ingredients. What most of us eat could be more accurately described as “Edible food-like substances." How do you know if what you are eating is “real food?" Here is a simple test...read the ingredient label. There are many whole food options that contain only real ingredients. Hint - most packaged goods in the

Those of you who are religious (and even those who are not) may have learned in the past that the Devil comes in many guises and has many names, presumably to more easily tempt fallible human beings. Well, the intentions of this blog are far more down-to-earth…nutrition, exercise and health. In our world there is also a “devil” and boy-oh-boy does he have many names. The devil of our world is….sugar. To be a little more precise, added sugar. One of the advantages of ‘real food’ is there is very little or no added sugar. If you look at the

Anytime is a good time to establish new habits but in our culture, January seems to be the most popular time to do so. So let's talk about the ‘R word’ (Resolutation). Since our beat around here is health, nutrition and diet I will confine my remarks to those topics. We all know most ‘diets’ don’t work whether you start it in January or any other time of year. Why is that? Might I suggest it’s because most diets are impossible to maintain. Anyone remember the cabbage soup diet? Are you really going to eat cabbage soup for your entire