Gastric bypass diet: What to eat after weight-loss surgery

The gastric bypass diet outlines what you can eat and how much after gastric bypass surgery. Find out ways to establish new eating habits for successful weight loss.

What you eat, how you eat and how much you eat changes after gastric bypass surgery – surgery that alters the anatomy of your digestive system to promote weight loss.

With your stomach pouch reduced to the size of a walnut or small egg and portions of your small intestine bypassed, you’ll need to follow a specific diet after gastric bypass surgery. A registered dietitian can assist you in creating this gastric bypass diet, which includes what type and how much food to eat with each meal and the required consistency and texture of the food. Closely following your gastric bypass diet promotes healthier weight loss and better nutrition.

After surgery: The first three months

You won’t be allowed to eat for one to two days after the surgery. Then you consume specific foods according to a diet progression. The purpose of the gastric bypass diet progression is to help in the healing process, minimize stress on surgical sites and allow time for your body to adapt to the new eating patterns.

The following are common phases in the gastric bypass diet progression:

• Liquids - foods and fluids that are liquid or semiliquid at room temperature and contain mostly water, such as broth, juice, milk, strained cream soup and cooked cereal. In most cases, you stay on a liquid diet for one to two days.
• Pureed foods - foods with a consistency of a smooth paste or a thick liquid. Pureed foods contain no distinct pieces. The pureed diet is generally followed for three to four weeks, or as recommended by your dietitian or doctor.
• Soft foods - foods that are tender and easy to chew, such as ground or finely diced meats, canned or soft, fresh fruit, and cooked vegetables. You usually eat soft foods for eight weeks before progressing to eating foods of regular consistency with firmer texture as recommended by your dietitian or doctor.

During the diet progression, you eat many small meals a day and sip liquids slowly throughout the day (not with meals). You might first start with six small meals a day, then progress to four meals and finally, when following a regular diet, decrease to three meals a day. Typically, each meal includes protein-rich foods, such as lean meat, low-fat dairy products (yogurt, cheese) or eggs. Protein is important for maintaining and repairing your body after surgery.

How quickly you move from one step to the next depends on how fast your body adjusts to the change in eating patterns and the texture and consistency of food. People usually start eating regular foods with a firmer texture three months after surgery, but it can occur sooner.

Lifelong changes: New eating habits

The changes in your digestive system restrict how much you can eat and drink with each meal. To avoid problems and to ensure you’re getting nutrients you need, closely follow these guidelines:

• Eat small amounts. Just after surgery, your stomach holds only about 1 ounce of food. Though your stomach stretches over time to hold more food, by the end of three months, you may be able to eat 1 to 1 1/2 cups of food with each meal. Eating too much food not only adds more calories than you need but also may cause pain, nausea and vomiting. Make sure you eat only the recommended amounts and stop eating before you feel full.
• Eat and drink slowly. Eating or drinking too quickly may cause dumping syndrome – when foods and liquids enter your small intestine rapidly and in larger amounts than normal, causing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness and sweating. To prevent dumping syndrome, choose foods and liquids low in fat and sugar, eat and drink slowly, and wait 30 minutes before or after each meal to drink liquids. Take at least 30 minutes to eat your meals and 30 to 60 minutes to drink 1 cup of liquid. Avoid foods high in fat and sugar, such as regular soda, candy and candy bars, and ice cream.
• Chew food thoroughly. The new opening that leads from your stomach into your intestine is very small, and larger pieces of food can block the opening. Blockages prevent food from leaving your stomach and could cause vomiting, nausea and abdominal pain. Take small bites of food and chew them to a pureed consistency before swallowing. If you can’t chew the food thoroughly, don’t swallow it.
• Drink liquids between meals. Drinking liquids with your meals can cause pain, nausea and vomiting as well as dumping syndrome. Also, drinking too much liquid at or around mealtime can leave you feeling overly full and prevent you from eating enough nutrient-rich foods. Expect to drink at least 6 to 8 cups (48 to 64 ounces) of fluids a day to prevent dehydration.
• Try new foods one at a time. After surgery, certain foods may cause nausea, pain, vomiting or may block the opening of the stomach. The ability to tolerate foods varies from person to person. Try one new food at a time and chew thoroughly before swallowing. If a food causes discomfort, don’t eat it. As time passes, you may be able to eat this food. Foods and liquids that commonly cause discomfort include meat, bread, pasta, rice, raw vegetables, milk and carbonated beverages. Food textures not tolerated well include dry, sticky or stringy foods.
• Take recommended vitamin and mineral supplements. After surgery, your body has difficulty absorbing certain nutrients because most of your stomach and part of your small intestine are bypassed. To prevent a vitamin or mineral deficiency, take vitamin and mineral supplements regularly. These generally include a multivitamin-multimineral, calcium, iron, vitamin B-12 and vitamin D. Talk to your health care provider about recommended vitamin and mineral supplements following gastric bypass surgery.

Weight loss and weight gain

Within the first two years following surgery, you can expect to lose 50 percent to 60 percent of your excess weight, if you follow the dietary and exercise recommendations. If you continue to follow these recommendations, you can keep most of that weight off long term.

People who regain weight after gastric bypass surgery usually are consuming too many high-calorie foods and beverages and don’t exercise enough. And rather than eating three meals a day and perhaps a planned healthy snack, some people engage in a grazing-type eating pattern – eating food all day long. Grazing often leads to consuming too many calories, which causes weight gain.

• Successful weight management requires the following healthy habits:
• Limit or avoid high-sugar, high-fat foods, which provide many calories but few nutrients.
• Minimize unplanned snacking or frequent grazing, which increases calorie intake.
• Exercise regularly.
• Take the recommended vitamin and mineral supplements.
• Attend regular follow-up appointments with your health care provider to review your symptoms and progress and to make sure you don’t have any vitamin or mineral deficiencies.

If you aren’t losing weight or are regaining weight after surgery, see your doctor. He or she can help assess your eating behaviors and exercise habits and help you confront and overcome any weight-loss obstacles.

Though weight-loss surgery helps you shed the pounds, its success depends on your willingness to adopt lifelong healthy-eating and exercise habits. What you eat and how you eat changes after surgery, but the benefits of weight loss and your improved health are well worth these efforts.

What could a single anise flavored beverage contain that would cause so much controversy and outrage that the public would demand it be made illegal? While most believed the active ingredient Artemisia Absinthium, also called wormwood, was to blame, the true fact of the matter was that the extremely high alcohol content, as high as 90% by volume, was the reason Van Gogh cut his ear off! Drunk people do dumb things, and Absinthe simply allowed drinkers to get inebriated much faster than other alcoholic beverages.

The History of Absinthe

To get a better understanding of how “The Green Fairy” evolved, a brief bullet point history will bring you up to speed.

1792 French Doctor Pierre Ordinaire develops the first Absinthe recipe in Couvert, Switzerland.

1805 Commercial distillation of Absinthe begins in Pontalier, France. Demand for Absinthe quickly rises from 16 liters a day to over 30,000.

1840 In an effort to ward off disease, the French Foreign Legion was prescribed Absinthe while fighting in Algeria. Upon their return to France, Soldiers demanded “The Green Fairy” in saloons and cafes from Paris to Rouen and throughout the country.

1870 The French wine industry is decimated by Phylloxera making both red and white wines extremely scarce. This causes a boom to the Absinthe industry which last almost 30 years.

1888 On Christmas Eve, an Absinthe inebriated, mentally anguished artist named Vincent Van Gogh cuts his ear off. While not a significant moment at the time, the act was one of many poor choices exercised by Absinthe drinkers across Europe.

1890 The Moulin Rouge in Paris is in its prime and Absinthe is imbibed by millions all across Europe.

1906 Belgium and Brazil ban Absinthe due to concerns of public safety.

1908 Switzerland bans Absinthe because of public outrage due to the Lanfray-affair. A day before Jean Lanfray, a Swiss peasant, murdered his pregnant wife and two daughters, he had drunktwo glasses of Absinthe, but he had no recollection of committing the horrendous crimes. At the same time, estimated consumption in France reached 36 million liters annually.

1912 Absinthe is banned in the United States.

1915 As the scapegoat for alcoholic beverages and due to the political machinations of wine producers, Absinthe is banned in France. A similar tasting non-wormwood containing beverages called Pastis quickly replaces “The Green Fairy.”

1998 Sale of Absinthe is once again legalized in the European Union.

2000 George Rowley and Marie-Claude Delahaye distil the original recipe Absinthe in France for the first time since the 1915 ban.

2007 After extensive research, Absinthe is deemed legal in the US by the FDA

How to Drink Absinthe

Today, “The Green Fairy” is enjoyed in mixed drinks and cocktails, with literally hundreds of recipes popping up each year. For purists, there is really one way to drink Absinthe, and that is in the ritualistic ceremony known as La Louche. To participate in this experience, you’ll need a glass, a slotted spoon, some cold water and sugar cubes. A bastardized version of La Louche made popular in the Czech Republic makes for a dramatic presentation using fire… but Absinthe snobs frown upon it.

La Louche Style

1. Pour one ounce of Absinthe into a glass.

2. Place a slotted spoon on top of the glass.

3. Place one or two sugar cubes on the slotted spoon.

4. Slowly pour four to six ounces of cold water over the sugar cubes.

5. Using the slotted spoon, stir the cloudy green beverage to dissolve the remaining sugar.

6. Enjoy!

If you would like to try the fire variation, pour the Absinthe over the sugar cube on the slotted spoon and light the cube on fire, which will invariably set your Absinthe on fire. To douse the flames, pour in the cold water and stir.

However you decide to drink Absinthe, one thing is very clear: “The Green Fairy” is back and consumption is rapidly growing around the Western World. While current levels of demand are not readily available, it is only a matter of time before sales eclipse the volume of Absinthe consumed during the Golden Age of “The Green Fairy.”