A store in George Town may appear to be filled with chocolate shakes, cookies, beef stews, lasagnas, fruit drinks, snacks and sweets, but this is no ordinary grocery store.
The Bariatric Healthy Living shop in Rankin Plaza delivers just what the name on the door implies – it caters for patients who have undergone, or are about to undergo, stomach reducing surgery.
Owners Sabrina Fennell and Dr. Ruthlyn Pomares, who have both had bariatric surgery, opened the store when it became apparent that the types of foods and supplements needed to help the burgeoning number of bariatric patients in Grand Cayman stay on the dietary straight and narrow were not easily available here.
Ms Fennell, who also runs an immigration consultancy business, said she realised she needed to open a storefront premises when her cubicle at work was doubling as a storage space for all the food orders she was bringing with her from the United States for other people.
“I started bringing in glass bottles of drinks. I’d bring $400 or $500 worth of protein drinks so I’d have a three-month supply. It was all stuff you couldn’t get here. People would ask me where I got it and I’d bring some back for them. It just grew and grew.
“The demand drew us here,” said Ms Fennell, indicating the shelves of high-protein, low-carb food surrounding her.
She has lost 140 pounds since having the surgery at Florida Medical Centre two and a half years ago. Her business partner Dr. Pomares, who underwent the surgery three and a half years ago, has lost more than 100 pounds.
They opened the store in September 2011 and since then bariatric patients, as well as diabetics and people who simply want to lose weight, have been finding out about the shop through word of mouth.
Ms Fennell said she sees many people who have undergone a bariatric procedure pile the pounds back on and some who never reach their target weight because they continue with the same bad eating habits they had before the surgery. She hopes the store will give them more options and help them resist the temptation to fall back on those bad habits.
Specialty foods for bariatric patients or diabetics can be more expensive than “normal” foods, but Ms Fennell indicates a box of microwaveable beef pot roast and says: “That’s $4.50. You’ll pay more than that for a frozen dinner that’s nowhere near as healthy for you.”
Such foodstuffs also get charged the same import duty as most other food that’s imported into the Cayman Islands, so that adds to the price. Ms Fennell ironically points out: “Did you know there’s no import duty on lard?”
Although she and her business partner have seen successful results weight-wise following their surgeries, it’s because they’re eating right, have taken their multi-vitamins and stuck to a protein-laden diet.
“The bariatric procedure is not a cure. It’s a guide. It is a cure for certain diseases like diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure and for fibromyalgia in some cases, but it’s not a cure for bad habits. If you’re a ‘junkified’ person, it’s not going to cure that,” said Ms Fennell.
She underwent the surgery when she hit 280 pounds on the scales and was told by her doctor she was pre-diabetic.
Two weeks ago, she jogged for the first time and now runs along Seven Mile Beach nearly every day. Her weight loss so far has been all due to the surgery and entirely changing her eating habits. Now she is adding exercise to the mix.
She’s happy to help out and advise anyone who comes into the store, directing them toward the foods they’ll like and those that will help them achieve the goal they’re reaching for.
“There is no quick fix, no getting Barbie’s body overnight,” she says, but by sticking to an eating plan and avoiding junk food, drinking plenty of water and taking the correct multi-vitamins and supplements, it can be done.
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