A new wedding tradition

According to The New York Times, brides are adding something to the traditional something old, something borrowed, something blue.

Many are getting ready for the wedding by crash dieting, the Times reported in “Bridal Hunger Games: Losing Weight in Time for the Wedding” on April 13, 2012.

Some are even spending $1,500 to have a feeding tube inserted in their nose. The nasogastric tube goes through the nose and down the esophagus into the stomach to provide all nourishment, with no carbohydrates, for 10 days.

The tube diet is still fairly unknown in this country, but it has been popular for years in Italy and Spain.

Crash dieting, of course, is not the healthiest way to weight. “I don’t want to tell a bride she shouldn’t look good for the wedding,” says Dr. Louis Aronne, the director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “But we tell them, ‘You can get to the same place if you started earlier, instead of waiting until the last minute and doing something drastic.”