Some general nutrition questions

[BigDaddyJoe 246]

OK, I have some questions about nutrition, and how there are so many contradicting opinions.

1. Which is better, low fat or low sugar? It seems all the low fat or no fat options out there are high in sugars, and all the low sugar or low carb options are high in fat. Which should we go with? When I was on the Atkins diet, I was told to stay away from low-fat versions of things because they put so many fillers in them to make them taste good and have good texture. But now it seems they want us to eat low fat.

2. Some of the things they recommend for us to eat or drink, especially in the beginning, are full of artificial sweeteners and chemicals. Things like Crystal Light, sugar-free Jell-O, sugar-free popsicles, etc. I've always been told that sugar is better than artificial sweeteners, and to stay away from them. Now, they are recommended.

I'm looking forward to seeing people's opinions on this.

[johnlatte 1,232]

I don't do low fat, I just limit the full fat items that I eat. There are too many hidden sugars in fat free stuff. Just like I don't do net carbs (a carb is a carb it doesn't get invalidated by fiber). I do sugar free simply because I've been a diabetic for so long it just is a habit. Not one that i particularly like, but it is what it is. I don't like overly sweet things anyway and something with sugar always seems too sweet to me.

[courtoomp 107]

Interesting bc I find artificial sweeteners too sweet! My nutritionist and I have an understanding... Eat tasty food that is nutritious and REAL. I focus on using purer ingredients when I can. For instance, I'd rather get jam that has seeds in it and its ingredient list is fruit!...rather than a less caloric and/or sugary 'jam' that has 10 ingredients. That's just an example. I focus on about 80 carbs a day, >50 Protein, and <30 grams fat. I do not obsess over this though and find when I focus on protein and veggies the numbers even out. And i have dark chocolate almost every day too! So my suggestion is to find a nut who can help you figure out a plan that works for you. Eat real food and listen to your new stomach...good days and bad days will be had but overall focusing on quality is def working for me (but may not be the key for you). Good luck!

[BigDaddyJoe 246]

I agree, I'd prefer to eat real foods, was just puzzled at the recommendations because they go against everything I've been told before.

[PdxMan 4,292]

Well ... to me, this begs the bigger question of just what we are willing to do to be successful in our journey. So, let me start off by saying, I'm not judging anybody, we all have our own journeys and our reasons for following that path.

OK, that being said, the foods that you talk about are the processed, out of the box variety where you don't have much control over the content. It has been these types of products which attributed to my obesity. Bottom line for me, is I prepare pretty much all of my foods from scratch. Just started making my own yogurt after I took a long look at the ingredients.

HOLY COW! When did yogurt become junk food? I missed that one.

I'll have the occasional Protein shake (Premier), which I approve of the ingredient list. I do have salad dressings which are higher in fat than I would like, but I gotta have my blue cheese.

I didn't get the sleeve to restrict my menu, just my portions. When I prepare all of my food, I know what is going in and I can control the amounts.

I know a lot of people are going to jump up and down saying, "It takes too long ... I don't know how to cook healthy meals ... It's only me eating and I don't want it to go to waste." Here is what I say to that ... I am a parent of two young kids who is a Scout leader and work well over 50 hours a week. I also have other side projects which take my time. All of the recipes I cook with are available on the internet with instructions. I cook huge portions and toss the leftovers into jelly jars which I take out on my way to work or pull out for dinner.

You can have total control over what you put into your body. If you do this, then you don't really need to worry about eating the one-off packaged meal.

[bmbrush413 124]

I'm all about clean eating and real, unprocessed food - which is why this liquid stage is KILLING me! Can't wait to eat something that doesn't come out of a packet, tub, or a box! When I need a sweetener, I tend to use a small amount of real sugar, honey, or stevia. As far as low fat goes, lean Protein is a good thing - but better to get some real "good" fats than to eat a bunch of low fat processed stuff. Just IMHO.

[LifetimeLoser 208]

I think it just depends on your goals. As far as healthier goes...I think it is your daily intake not the individual item you are eating. Just because you eat one "bad" food doesn't mean you didn't eat fairly healthy throughout the day. For weight loss purposes, I think low sugar is more useful. This being said, things like crystal light etc. are allowed because they are basically Water...well mostly Water. I don't know about your diet plan, but nowhere in my diet plan does it say to eat sugar free candy etc.

As far as my understanding goes, we need some fat to facilitate weight loss on many levels...including satiety and just basic metabolic processes.

I, personally, feel that low fat or fat free items (processed stuff...not natural stuff like vegetables) is way more detrimental than low or sugar free. I also cannot stand to eat things like fat free mayo. Certain things like yogurt, cottage cheese etc. that they are just replacing with a lower fat milk is fine, but things like mayo where they actually put high fructose corn Syrup is yucky.

I'd rather eat something full fat that I enjoy and have every once in awhile because I feel satiated, then to have something that tastes like crap and I'll end up eating something else to feel full.

I feel extremely lucky now that I have a sleeve. I am starting to wean out processed foods etc. Now that I only eat a small amount I can afford to put high quality products in my body that taste better and are healthier.

[Andi 78]

My thoughts "low fat" products seem unhealthier to me than "low sugar" products. However in general, reducing the amount of processed foods does seem to be the healthiest way to go. After that, it's choosing a healthy moderation & assortment.

[SerendipityHappens 1,594]

I'm very happy to give my opinion as it is something that I've really struggled with during this process.

Prior to beginning my preop way back in December, I was enjoying very little processed food and lots of whole foods.. AND lots of vegetable juices that I would press myself. Even though my diet was relatively free from processed foods, I still ate way more than I should.. especially grains.. bread was my big downfall. I really hate artificial sweeteners and stuff like that and try to stay away from them and I didn't really eat a lot of things that were sweetened in any way... to me I didn't need it as long as I had my glorious BREAD.

When I started my preop, I knew that I'd have to go very low carb in order to stick with 800 calories a day for 3.5 months... so I used stevia as my main sweetener, and bought jay robb Protein powder because it used stevia... I did cut back on much of the veggie juice, opting instead for a few ounces of kale and ginger juice added to my Protein drinks. I didn't have any starchy vegetables or grains of any kind.. meaning NO BREAD! Also, I had just a little bit of fat.. a handful of nuts maybe and that was it.. With only 800 calories a day, you don't really have a lot of room to eat a lot of carbs OR fat!

During my first week post op, I went ahead and did sugar-free everything.. I had to look for stuff without aspartame because too much gives me a headache. I figure, it's just for a short while until I can enjoy a full menu of foods again.

This week I was cleared to include soft meats.. I have been enjoying a weird food called "hot bologna" which is mostly scraps and organ meats that are made into bologna sausage and pickled. Definitely not something I'd ordinarily select.. but since I'm somewhat limited, I don't mind having it for a few weeks. Once I can have stuff like chicken and beef.. Hot bologna will be off the menu.

As for the main question of low fat vs low carb.. Personally, I just believe in getting in the Protein and eating the rest in non-processed healthy foods and being mindful to keep the calories at a reasonable amount. There are some things that I do low fat.. for example, I do PB2 instead of Peanut Butter... and I do 2% cottage cheese instead of full-fat cottage cheese... But once I'm cleared to eat them again I'll also have no problem enjoying a nice handful of fatty nuts.... or some olive oil on my salad... as long as it's measured and accounted for... I'm also not against carbs.. I look forward to summer peaches and also to being able to enjoy my delicious vegetable juices again. Both are high in carbs, but I'm fine with that... I'm NOT fine with breads and pastas and cereals.. those are off the menu permanently as there is very little nutritive value in them.

[SpaceDust 585]

In the early stages with regard to artificial sweeteners, it's a bit of choosing the best from a bad lot, I think. As a type II diabetic, I have to be really cautious about carbs in general, and sugars specifically. To a certain degree, it's true of all of us with weight problems that it's best to stay away from the empty calories represented by refined "natural" (although highly processed!) sugars as much as possible. I suspect that the SF recommendations are to help wean us from our sugar dependency at some level, plus if we were allowed to add a caloric sweetener to our beverages, think about the amount of empty calories some of us would be consuming each day - talk about sabotaging ourselves right out of the gate! Given that many say that plain Water is very difficult to take after the surgery, a flavoring with artificial sweetener may be the only real option. I know for me, stevia really isn't generally an option - it leaves an overly sweet and slightly odd lingering aftertaste for me that is very off-putting. That leaves me with either truly artificial sweeteners like aspartame or sucralose, or calorie-bearing alternatives.

I do know that after I start getting into solid foods again, I will likely re-introduce some of the lower-glycemic sweeteners that are available. I find that I can use a very small amount of raw agave Syrup or coconut sugar to satisfy my desire for sweetness. Raw honey is also effective in much smaller amounts than refined sugar. I don't have a real sweet tooth, but I do like a little balance of sweetness in some things that I eat.

As far as low-fat, it's really about being aware of the trade-offs for a particular item. It's true that often in trade for the fat, you'll find that the carbs have been boosted. If the boost is in Fiber, I'm not so worried - I can always use a little extra Fiber in my diet and I'll generally accept it as a trade. If it's a significant amount of sugars or if there are a bunch of unpronounceable ingredients added, forget it. After I've determined whether I'm okay with a particular item is okay for me from a dietary perspective, sometimes I'll still decide to take the full-fat or partial fat version over the fat-free version - I find that I want more of the fat-free to satisfy what I wanted (if it even will satisfy!), while with full-fat I might be happy with a few bites. I am fine with my 0% fat Greek yogurt, but fat-free cheese is a waste for me. I'm better off indulging with a small square of a really excellent dark chocolate than an entire bar of the stuff from the diet section. I dislike skim milk, but I can do 1%. (Better yet is if I get it from a local farm and skim it myself to a level I like, but that's a whole different discussion ).

[Shawn Morrison 71]

Interesting bc I find artificial sweeteners too sweet! My nutritionist and I have an understanding... Eat tasty food that is nutritious and REAL. I focus on using purer ingredients when I can. For instance, I'd rather get jam that has seeds in it and its ingredient list is fruit!...rather than a less caloric and/or sugary 'jam' that has 10 ingredients. That's just an example. I focus on about 80 carbs a day, >50 Protein, and <30 grams fat. I do not obsess over this though and find when I focus on Protein and veggies the numbers even out. And i have dark chocolate almost every day too! So my suggestion is to find a nut who can help you figure out a plan that works for you. Eat real food and listen to your new stomach...good days and bad days will be had but overall focusing on quality is def working for me (but may not be the key for you). Good luck!

Real is the key here. That is the answer to all of the OPs questions. Stick to real whole foods. The less processing the better. Find good balanced numbers like the ones this person sugested and to fill those numbers use whole foods as much as possible. Cards are less impactfull this way and there wont be hidden sugars so you can find the lower fat options like lean meats.

[BigDaddyJoe 246]

I understand real, not processed food is the answer. I'm just questioning the nutritionists recommendations of low fat and sugar free things. Not just my nutritionist, I've seen many people told to eat sugar-free Popsicles and sugar-free Jell-O in the early stages, and was questioning the amount of artificial sweeteners and chemicals in those products. Of course it is always better to eat things that you know the ingredients of, but that wasn't the point of my question.

[pollyp 2]

Could you send me a Facebook invite sleeved 3-5 2013. Pollypagel@sbcglobsl.net

[BigDaddyJoe 246]

Could you send me a Facebook invite sleeved 3-5 2013. Pollypagel@sbcglobsl.net

Wrong forum, but I added you!

[Andi 78]

When it comes to the popsicles and jello.. well.. considering that they're already processed foods (and I'm diabetic) I felt alright doing the sugar free. I'm looking forward to the time when food is a piece of meat on a plate with some veggies. Not because I'm hungry for that right now, but more because I'll be happy when I'm out of the processed zone.