an FDA-approved eating disorder.

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Dear Reader,

Just when I thought I'd seen every wacky, dangerous thing the FDA could throw at us, I was proven wrong.

Because this week the agency officially OK'd bulimia as a way to lose weight.

Not. Kidding.

Or, as late-night host Stephen Colbert called it, "abdominal vomiting."

It's a device that allows you to basically throw up from your stomach through a system of tubes, ports and valves. And do so on demand.

The AspireAssist, as it's been named, is being called a simple and quick way to drop those pounds -- with no foods being "off limits."

But in reality, it's an insane and risky way to lose weight, one that should have been stopped at the get-go.

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The 'bulimia machine'
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Before the AspireAssist device came along, the only time you would want to have your stomach pumped was if you swallowed something poisonous.

Now, you can do it yourself morning, noon and night. Eat anything you want and then pump all those calories away.

You could call it an FDA-approved eating disorder.

It works by having a tube inserted in your stomach during a short surgical procedure. A valve sits on the outside of your body and is connected to it. Then, 20 minutes after every meal, you attach the "external connector" to your port valve and "drain the contents."

Put in simpler terms, you're pumping a large amount of your stomach contents out and down the toilet. Or, as the manufacturer prefers to say, in the "privacy of the restroom."

You need to wait that 20 minutes so that your brain will believe you're full, and then get that food out before it's digested.

AspireAssist has been called "disgusting," a "terrifying invention" a "bulimia machine," and very aptly, more of an "enabling device" than something that will help you control your appetite.

And that's exactly what it is. Come on, you and I both know that once someone has gotten over the horror of seeing what they just ate being pumped out of their stomach, they're not going to want to go back to counting every morsel of food.

As Albert Einstein College of Medicine nutritionist Keith Ayoob said, sooner or later someone was going to come up with something that will let them "just eat and make the calories go away."

Plus that, people aren't going to want this magic calorie wand to disappear, so "they're never going to want it taken out," he added

And that seems to be the case with some of the early users of the device.

Eric Wilcoxon, who had the AspireAssist implanted in his belly during one of the early clinical trials three years ago, said he plans to keep on pumping out his stomach three times a day "indefinitely."

But aside from all the things you can say about this device, from the ick factor to the absurdity, it's also an incredibly dangerous way to lose weight.

Experts warn about dehydration, stomach-lining irritation, and acute electrolyte imbalances, as well as infections, leaks, anemia, hypoglycemia and even depression and suicide.

And even the FDA says it can cause constipation, diarrhea and vomiting.

There's also the little issue of getting pieces of food that haven't been chewed enough stuck in the tubing. Sort of like when you don't clean off the dishes before you put them in the sink.

Look, any way you pick this thing apart it's a horror show.

But then again, maybe there is a way the AspireAssist can help us drop some pounds.

Because just thinking about it is enough to make anyone lose their appetite!

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson