carbonation

Question???? Why is that we can not drink carbonated drinks????? Like diet sodas......

 I was told the carbonation increases your stomach acids, which could lead to an ulcer. However, I was also told I could drink flat tonic. I did have sparkling water a month ago, and I tried to wait for it to get flat. It gave me a lot of burpy gas, and didn't really feel that great. I'm sure if I was further out, I'd have a different reaction, though. 

Mostly it's because it bothers most people. It hurts me to swallow drinks with carbonation. The gas is bothersome. I have a friend who is 4 years out and still can't drink soda because it's to painful.

carbonation, drinking from straws, overeating, and drinking within an hour of eating are ALL reasons for pouch expansion. if it gets bigger you'll get hungry more often and will want to (and be able to) eat more. avoiding all those things keeps the weight off. expansion of the pouch is the number one reason for failure after surgery.

Carbonated drinks can NOT expand the pouch.  There is an opening at the top of the pouch and another opening at the bottom.  Liquids, including carbonated ones, go right through.  Drinking from straws cannot expand the pouch, either.

Can I ask where you get the fact that expansion of the pouch is the number one reason for failure after surgery?  Since expansion of the pouch is so uncommon, that seems unlikely to me.  I would guess, but I'm not sure, that the number one reason for failure would be eating high calorie foods.

All of those are RNY myths that some surgeons tell their patients to "scare" them into compliance!  

While our pouch will expand when food is introduced, it will contract when emptied.  

Consistent overeating may make the stoma stretch but it is VERY difficult to overstretch our pouch.

There is no physical reason why we cannot drink from straws.

Drinking within 30 mins to an hour after eating will only wash the food through the stoma quicker, making us hungrier quicker.   It will NOT stretch the pouch!

People *****gain generally do so because of their food choices ie, diet non compliance - it is rarely because they have overstretched their pouch!

I beg to differ on the claim that expansion of the pouch is the main reason for "failure" after surgery. Not sure who told you that, but if you talk to people who have actually regained, you will find that the biggest reasons are allowing too many carbs or other unhealthy foods back into their diet, snacking/grazing, and/or going back to drinking with meals.

My surgeon indicated that, of all the people she has ordered EGDs on who claimed that they were eating properly and making good food choices but were sure that their pouches or stomas were stretched, LESS THAN 20% actually had either a pouch or stoma that was enlarged beyond what normally occurs during the first year.

Lora

 I have no problem with carbonated drinks.

My surgeon recommended giving up or limiting carbonated beverages after surgery (but was not foolish enough to believe that, even if she "prohibited" it, everyone would comply) simply because it can be uncomfortable for some (it doesn't bother me as long as I let just a bit of the carbonation subside by pouring it over ice) and because it is nothing but chemicals.

It will not stretch your pouch, it doesn't stay in your pouch long enough for the acid to damage the pouch (unless you already have an ulcer) , and -- for SOME people -- it may cause them to go back to eating unhealthy foods. (For me, it actually KEEPS me from eating things that I know that I shouldn't.)

Lora