Do you drink with your SNACK?
OK, from my understanding, we should not drink with our meals, or within a half hour after. Got it. I don't do it and haven't really minded since my meals are so tiny right now. But are we allowed to drink water with a small snack? Like a piece of cheese? If we shouldn't drink with our meal because it will possibly stretch our pouches or wash stuff through too quickly, is there a problem drinking with a little snack that we're just having to add a few protein points to our day?
*******Angela****** 5'10"tall 36yrs old SW 268 CW 180 GW 168
I don't drink with any food. I have 4-5 "meals" a day and no snacks and no drinking. Even your small snack needs to stay in your tummy to get the digestive process going.
66 yrs young, 4'11" hw 220, goal 120 met at 12 months, cw 129 learning Maintainance
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I found this on another weightloss website, it is very good info.
Why we don't drink with meals.......
Sometimes understanding WHY we have to do something (or not do something) helps us follow the rules. Here's the low-down:
Before surgery you had the pyloric valve at the bottom of your stomach to keep food in the stomach while is began the digestive process. As food was digested and ready enough to be released into the intestine, the pyloric valve (a trap door really) would open and let a small amount of food out of the stomach and into the intestines. Digestion would continue, the trap door woud open and a bit more food would be released. And on and on... This process can take 2 to 3 hours in a normal stomach.
AFTER RNY we have to mimic this action manually and the only way to keep food in our pouch (which is basically a funnel now with no trap door) we have to eat dense foods and not mix it with liquid. The denser the food, the longer it can stay in the pouch. Food can stay in your pouch for up to 1.5 to 2 hours if you don't drink water. The minute you add water (or any liquid) to the mix, you are creating a "soup" that will quickly empty out of your pouch.
About 40% of the digestive enzymes our food needs to be broken down is contained in our saliva. Our pouch does not produce gastric acid anymore, so the salive enzymes are all we have to work with here... Which is another reason why need to chew, chew, chew really well. Once food gets to the pouch, those digestive enzymes go to work on the food to begin breaking it down (mostly carbohydrates). Our pouch doesn't churn as much as our old stomach used to, but there is still some movement with that well-chewed food. The longer it stays in the pouch, the more it is broken down and prepared for the intestines to do their work of grabbing nutrients from the food. If we wash the food out too quickly, the intestines can not absorb the nutrients from the food we eat because it passes too quickly undigested. (This can also increase the risk of constipation and intestinal blockage.)
Of course with your pouch being empty you'll get hungry sooner. For new post-ops, this isn't necessarily a big issue because the hunger hasn't returned. But for those further out from surgery, the hunger can be ravenous and you want to keep food in that pouch for as long as possible. That's why it's recommended that the further out you are from surgery, the longer you wait to begin drinking after meals (60-90 minutes).
SO... besides all that, there's the risk of stretching the stoma (the opening between the pouch and intestines). If you have dense food that has not begun to be digested in the pouch and you drink water you are FORCING that dense food to be pushed through the stoma prematurely. That opening is only about the size of a ladies index finger, but if you push food through the opening before its ready to go, you'll eventually stretch that opening. This is FAR more worrisome than stretching your pouch. Once it's stretched it can become the same diameter as the pouch itself... essentially creating one big long tube that food can be packed into at meals. Basically a 20-foot long stomach.
This caution from surgeons is NOT a scare tactic. This is about biology and medical science. You have to manually do the work of the pyloric valve now that you don't have one. And it's about preparing your food so your body has the best chance of absorbing the vital nutrients it needs for survival.
Why we don't drink with meals.......
Sometimes understanding WHY we have to do something (or not do something) helps us follow the rules. Here's the low-down:
Before surgery you had the pyloric valve at the bottom of your stomach to keep food in the stomach while is began the digestive process. As food was digested and ready enough to be released into the intestine, the pyloric valve (a trap door really) would open and let a small amount of food out of the stomach and into the intestines. Digestion would continue, the trap door woud open and a bit more food would be released. And on and on... This process can take 2 to 3 hours in a normal stomach.
AFTER RNY we have to mimic this action manually and the only way to keep food in our pouch (which is basically a funnel now with no trap door) we have to eat dense foods and not mix it with liquid. The denser the food, the longer it can stay in the pouch. Food can stay in your pouch for up to 1.5 to 2 hours if you don't drink water. The minute you add water (or any liquid) to the mix, you are creating a "soup" that will quickly empty out of your pouch.
About 40% of the digestive enzymes our food needs to be broken down is contained in our saliva. Our pouch does not produce gastric acid anymore, so the salive enzymes are all we have to work with here... Which is another reason why need to chew, chew, chew really well. Once food gets to the pouch, those digestive enzymes go to work on the food to begin breaking it down (mostly carbohydrates). Our pouch doesn't churn as much as our old stomach used to, but there is still some movement with that well-chewed food. The longer it stays in the pouch, the more it is broken down and prepared for the intestines to do their work of grabbing nutrients from the food. If we wash the food out too quickly, the intestines can not absorb the nutrients from the food we eat because it passes too quickly undigested. (This can also increase the risk of constipation and intestinal blockage.)
Of course with your pouch being empty you'll get hungry sooner. For new post-ops, this isn't necessarily a big issue because the hunger hasn't returned. But for those further out from surgery, the hunger can be ravenous and you want to keep food in that pouch for as long as possible. That's why it's recommended that the further out you are from surgery, the longer you wait to begin drinking after meals (60-90 minutes).
SO... besides all that, there's the risk of stretching the stoma (the opening between the pouch and intestines). If you have dense food that has not begun to be digested in the pouch and you drink water you are FORCING that dense food to be pushed through the stoma prematurely. That opening is only about the size of a ladies index finger, but if you push food through the opening before its ready to go, you'll eventually stretch that opening. This is FAR more worrisome than stretching your pouch. Once it's stretched it can become the same diameter as the pouch itself... essentially creating one big long tube that food can be packed into at meals. Basically a 20-foot long stomach.
This caution from surgeons is NOT a scare tactic. This is about biology and medical science. You have to manually do the work of the pyloric valve now that you don't have one. And it's about preparing your food so your body has the best chance of absorbing the vital nutrients it needs for survival.
Dr. Nohr in Medicine Hat. Open RNY March 28 2011. Start weight 253 current weight 122. 
I wouldn't do it. Like with a meal, it will push food through faster, and can cause you to be hungry faster. It can also cause the start of a bad habit. Drinking with a snack, and then drifiting off to drinking with a meal. I thought this would be the hardest thing for me would be not drinking with a meal because I ALWAYS did it. But I've had no issues besides 1 or 2 slip ups the 2nd week of surgery. I wait 30 minutes after eating before I drink anything. A few times I've only waited 15 or 20 minutes BEFORE eating but again they were a slip up because I forgot I was getting ready to eat and mindlessly took a sip of what I was drinking
Yes. Treat your pureed meal just as if it was a regular solid meal. It's a meal to you albeit in a slightly different form.
HW 240/ SW 229/ GW 146/CW 125; OH Support Group Leader
Starting size: 18W-20; Present size: 0 or 2; 5'5-1/2" tall.
Current BMI 20.4 as of 2/13/2013 (normal for the first time in my life).
Goal weight reached on 8/12/2010; As of 1/13/2013, 21 pounds below goal
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