Juices?

Hey guys, getting really excited and scared for my surgery on the 28th of October.  Starting to get a ton of questions, so what better place to ask than the experts.

Are we allowed/can we tolerate juices after RNY?  I'm interested in Cranberry, Orange, Grapefruit, Pineapple ect.  I certainly don't want to think that I'll be stuck drinking water for the rest of my life.

Also have a question about the sipping of water.  How long inbetween sips do you wait.  I mean can I take a sip, and then another 5 seconds later and another 5 seconds later or do I have to take a sip, wait 5 minutes and then take another sip 5 minutes later?

Thanks,
Todd

At first you won't want to eat or drink anything, sipping water will be a chore.  Apple juice can be used fairly early, and V8 juice is a great way to get in some veggies ( I drank a 7oz can every day).  Don't stock up on anything before your surgery, your tastes will be changing often the first 2 months.  Any sugar will be your enemy at first, after a while you will be able to handle most juices as long at they are "all natural Juice", no added sugar.

Good luck,

Robert

Hooked on Juice

EVEN WITH NO SUGAR ADDED, FRUIT JUICE HAS THE SAME AMOUNT OF SUGAR AS SODA. WHY? BECAUSE FRUIT IS FULL OF SUGAR!

JUST WHAT IS THE SUGAR CONTENT OF FRUIT JUICE? We’ll use orange, apple, cherry and grape juice as examples. Even with no sugar added, fruit juice contains about the same amount of sugar as the same amount of soft drink. Because apples, oranges and grapes are naturally full of sugar. (No surprise there: Processed sugar comes from plants, usually corn or sugar cane or sugar beets.) The table below compares the sugar in 12 ounces of juice (no sugar added) with 12 ounces (one can) of Coca-Cola. If you look at the nutrition label on a can of Coke or fruit juice, the “carbohydrate” is mostly sugar. Four grams of sugar carbs equal approximately 1 teaspoon of sugar.

12 ounces of >>>>>>>	Coca-Cola	Orange Juice	Apple Juice	Cherry Juice	Grape Juice
Total carbohydrates	40 g	39 g	42 g	49.5 g	60 g
Carbs from sugar	40 g	33 g	39 g	37.5 g	58.5 g
Sugar (teaspoons)	10 tsp	8 tsp	10 tsp	9 tsp	15 tsp
Calories	145	165	165	210	240

WHAT DOES THE CHART TELL US? It tells us that no matter which juice you choose, they all have more calories than the same amount of Coke. It tells us that juice — 100 percent juice, no sugar added — contains about the same amount of sugar (or even more — 50 percent more for grape juice) as the same volume of Coke.

Instead of sucking down liquid candy all day long in the form of soda and fruit juice, drink water. Is there a place for fruit juice? Of course there is — and it used to be called the breakfast table. Way back in the day, fruit juice (usually orange or grapefruit or tomato) was regarded as something of a treat. You’d have a little four- or six-ounce glass with your coffee and cereal or eggs. If you were in a restaurant, your juice glass might even come to the table nested in a bowl of ice. But then the fruit-packing industry got into the act, first with the slogan “drink a full big glass” (see illustrations on this page), and then with “orange juice — it’s not just for breakfast anymore.” Before you knew it we were chugging OJ like it was water, 24/7. (And of course fruit juice is mostly water — but it’s sugar water.) First sippy cups, then “juice boxes” — no wonder kids are hooked on fructose.

Wow, thanks Boner. 
That sure is an eye opener.  Guess I won't be waisting my intake on juices, not to mention not being able to tolerate all that suger after RNY.

My NUT always used to say "Don't drink your fruits!!!"

She's right.  Despite what you might imagine, most fruit juices are nutritionally poor, and in fact are little better for you than sugar water.  Juicing removes most of the fiber from fruit, allowing you to mainline a concentrated dose of sugar relatively quickly.  The sugar in juices might be "natural", but too much sugar is too much sugar wherever the sugar comes from.  Many people who are sugar-sensitive post-RNY can ingest enough sugars from a glass of juice to trigger dumping, and they need to dilute it in order to drink juice at all.

Tomato juice and V8 juice have much less sugar, as you might expect.  "Cranberry juice" isn't 100% cranberry juice; it's a mixture of a small amount of the intensely sour/bitter juice along with a sugar/water solution.  There are low-sugar variants which dilute the pure cranberry juice with water and add non-caloric sweeteners, which should be OK.   Tropicana has a low-sugar version of its orange juice which is palatable, though I don't think it's any better tasting than regular OJ mixed 50/50 with water.

I used to drink OJ by the quart in order to get my daily potassium, and that's a bad choice now.  However, I don't have any trouble with 4-6 oz. of OJ or grapefruit juice.  I just keep my NUT's advice in mind and use moderation, realizing that these are high in carbohydrates and can't be treated as "free" beverages.

As far as sipping, I never really thought about it.  It is hard to guzzle like before the surgery, especially immediately post-op, but I just let how I feel be my guide.

/Steve

Great advice, thanks Steve.

I do like V8, or Clamato juice.  So I'm hoping I can still have an occasional virgin Bloody Mary after surgery.

Toddy,

Wait several months post op then you can say to hell with the "virgin" part unless you have control issues with alcohol then by all means keep it a virgin.  Remember post op, when we can go eat out and maybe indulge in a few adult beverages in moderation of course, with the pouches we get buzzed easier than we did with a full sized stomach.  Because we eat so little we can easily split meals.  Therefore between taking very little alcohol to get a buzz going and not costing very much to feed us WLS post ops are very cheap dates! 

No doubt.  I can't wait for the day when I can tolerate an full blown adult Bloody Mary.  Unfortunately, I love my beer and I know because of the carbonation and carbs, that's gonna be out.  But its still worth it.

Thanks

My post-op experience with drinking hasn't been too pleasant.  I usually feel hung over even before I've finished drinking!  Weird!  (This is largely with wine; I haven't tried stronger distilled stuff like vodka.)

I tried a beer at about 5 months out, and surprisingly, I didn't have much trouble with the carbonation; I sipped it slowly before a meal.  I drink so rarely that the carbs in beer are hardly worth worrying about.  But if I drank regularly, the empty calories from the alcohol and carbohydrates would really wreak havoc with my weight loss.

/Steve

Todd

Dr. Sonpal will have you drinking watered down juices while you are in the hospital and encourages you to do so during the liquid diet during recovery. Peter the nut will explain all this to you in your pre-admission testing (p.a.t) day. It is a good way to get some calories in the liquid recovery diet stage. In the hospital they would bring me apple juice cut with water with every meal. I hate juice so I didn't drink it, The other thing they give you to drink in the hospital is gator-aid that is what tasted good tome. Soon after getting home the gator-aid became too sweet same with crystal lite. now all I drink is power aid zero and water. You will have 95% of your questions answered during p.a.t. You will see Peter the nut and Dr. Solman, Peter will go over what you can eat and drink, take notes. Dr. Soloman will review any meds you currently take and prescribe non time release versions and will go over anything you will need to do on the medical side. I had to givemyself blood thinner shots at home for a week after I was discharged from the hospital. If you haven't seen Sonpal recently they may want you to see him again before surgery. 

On a side note 6 days away from being 2 months out and have lost over 50lbs my primary doctor was shocked that I have all ready lost so much. Down to 1 bloodpressure pill from 3 off my anti depressents and only on vitimans and Actagall, prevents galls stones after surgery, I am feeling and looking great.

Any other questions shoot me an email.

Bill