Suyk, who is quick to point out that he is no doctor, says he has been dealing with obese patients for the last 10 years in his capacity as a healthcare consultant across Europe. He is in the city along with his wife Rita van der Wyden to interact with patients at the Ruby Hall Obesity Centre.

“Twenty years ago it was a struggle to encourage patients to undergo surgery in Europe,” said Suyk, pointing out that bariatric surgery was an option to fight obesity. Severe obesity is also associated with many problems ranging from medical, physical and psychological, added Rita van der Wyden.

"We understand that it can be difficult for people with full time jobs to change their lifestyle and we try to counsel them on this. Last year, there were at least one lakh bariatric surgeries in the USA," said Suyk.

Having taken it upon himself as a mission to give counseling about the importance of bariatric surgery, Suyk reels off statistics on how 40 million people in Europe are obese. He expressed surprise about the fact that morbid obesity has reached epidemic proportions in India too with five per cent of the population suffering from the disease.

According to Dr Shashank Shah, Director of the Obesity Centre at Ruby Hall Clinic, who has examined over 5,000 obese patients in Pune in the last five years, at least 10 patients enquire about the surgery every day. He said that a study published a couple of years ago had indicated that after Chandigarh and Ahmedabad, Pune figures third in the list of high number of female obese patients.