“I am absolutely, utterly and totally appalled that it was approved,” says Florida endocrinologist and diabetologist Joseph Gutman, quoted on TheVerge.com. “This is mechanized bulimia. It’s a device that makes bulimia okay.” Gutman says he’s rounding up physicians to jointly sue the FDA to take the device off the market.

The FDA approval said that the machine is intended for obese people who have been unable to lose weight by other methods and that it should not be used by anyone with an eating disorder.

Friedhoff, though he notes the initial skepticism, takes a thoughtful approach, saying it’s too soon to judge what AspireAssist can and should do. So far, he says, the data is “very interesting” — though he warns that it is not data from peer-reviewed published studies, just from the manufacturer’s presentation.