What can’t I eat after sleeve gastrectomy?

One of the most common questions I get from people during the pre-op or early stages after surgery is “What can’t I eat after sleeve gastrectomy?”, and rightly so! They are often surprised when I answer by saying that there isn’t anything that you can’t eat, but there are certain food and drinks that you should be careful with…

A sleeve is the easiest surgery to live with. A study done in NSW looked at this and found that a sleeve gastrectomy lead to the highest food tolerance and the best diet quality when compared to a gastric band and a bypass. A gastric band often means you can’t certain foods due to their texture. Often these foods that aren’t tolerated are healthy foods – things like salad or steak or chicken or a piece of bread. On the other hand, a gastric bypass often leads to intolerance to certain foods, especially sugary foods which can cause dumping syndrome. With a sleeve, we haven’t changed “the plumbing” like a by-pass or put in a foreign body like a band, we’ve just shrunk your stomach from a sack to a pipe

Harder foods to eat

Whilst you should be able to eat most foods, there are some that are a bit harder and require extra concentration:

• Dry meat or chicken
• Fresh bread (toast is easier)
• Rice, especially sushi rice
• Pasta
• Hard or stringy salad vegies (e.g. string beans, celery or rocket)

Make sure you eat these foods really carefully, especially to begin with. Focus on small mouthfuls (thumb-nail-sized), resting between each mouthful and stop if you feel uncomfortable. If you are struggling with meat, alternate you mouthfuls between meat and vegies to make things a little easier as well.

Foods you shouldn’t eat too often

There are foods that you will be able to eat easily, but that you shouldn’t eat too often as they can add lots of calories without satisfying you. Try to eat the following high calorie, “melty” foods in moderation:

• Ice cream,
• Chocolate
• Lollies
• Liquid calories like excess milk, soft drink, alcohol or juice.

A treat every now and then is fine – it’s not going to kill you – but eating these foods regularly can derail your weight loss, especially if you’re eating them for reasons other than hunger (like stress, boredom, habit…). Instead, before you choose to eat or drink one of these foods, check to see if you’re eating it because you’re hungry, or eating it for another reason, then ask yourself if you really feel like it? A great phrase to say to yourself is “I can have it if I want it, but do I really feel like it?” (Thanks to Dr Rick Kausman for this one).

I’d love to hear what you think about this post – does it ring true with you? Or are there certain foods you avoid or can’t eat?

I got asked about alcohol just yesterday, so I will do a more in-depth post on this coming up. Keep your eyes peeled.

Thanks for tuning in!

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