TayTay5889

Hi Kevin! Dietitian here. You're correct in that much of this isn't researched and is anecdotal. Clear liquid stage is to help your stomach heal and prevent nausea/heartburn, everything you listed. If you feel like you're tolerating that stage fine, you can move on to the next. Just take baby steps.. start slowly sipping on a protein shake, if you do great try to add something else. If you start to feel queasy, take a step back for a day. It is all subjective and listening to your body. Some of the other things you asked about... corn/grits can be difficult to digest. I'd recommend trying that down the line, maybe 3+ months post-op. Small amount of potatoes is ok. The main concern is that it's just crucial to get your protein- so eat the potatoes last. As you know, you'll fill up on much less food way quicker, so you don't want to fill up on potatoes. Same thing with rice and peas. Rice can also expand in your pouch and make you feel uncomfortably full, so very small bites & chew very well. In our practice you can have scrambled eggs in the pureed stage. Dried fruit isn't advised bc it's a large amount of concentrated sugar- even if sugar isn't added to it. Honey digests the same as white sugar- so you want to avoid, or minimize, it to prevent dumping syndrome. For fish... if you're tolerating other "soft" foods fine, I don't see why you couldn't introduce it sooner. As long as it's tender & flaky. I hope some of this helps!