Weight-loss tongue patch makes eating painful

CHICAGO — The most barbaric weight-loss treatment of the day goes to the "Chugay Tongue Patch," a postage-stamp-sized piece of mesh that is surgically attached to your tongue to make eating painful.

The tongue patch, which is supposedly taking Southern California by storm — 10 people have it — remains in your mouth for a month, a daily reminder that you shouldn't eat.

During that time you can get all your nutrients through a liquid diet "full of vitamins and nutrients," according to the press release.

The tongue-patch inventor is Dr. Nikolas Chugay, the medical director of the Chugay Cosmetic Surgery Clinic, where "genetics don't have to stand in your way."

He says that patients report losing 15 to 30 pounds in a single month.

But would you expect anything else when you're on a liquid diet?

The weight, meanwhile, is sure to return the minute you start eating solid food again.

"I'd say the Chugay tongue patch is a daily reminder of how just because your physician has an MD behind their name it doesn't mean they're bright," said obesity doctor Yoni Freedhoff, author of the Weighty Matters blog.

"That a physician believes that 'doing no harm' involves promoting physical discomfort as the key to helping inspire long-term behavioral change in patients is truly depressing, both for his patients and for the profession."