Ramen Noodles

[PigsRFlying 0]

Ok, other than their sodium being way too much. They have 9 g's of Protein add an egg that makes 14 g's. Now, I am in the mushy stage and I ate those today. Does anyone know if the noodles will kill my stomach. Of course, I chomped on them real well!:confused:

[Cindy_D 1]

Did you eat the whole package? I love those things even though they are so very bad for us. Not sure I would have tried the package today - I'm just in the full fluids stage and am really only tolerating a few things - so far still apple sauce, and a pudding. Have a pain in my left side and can't figure out if it is from gas or too full. (think it must be from the gas).

Cindy

[PigsRFlying 0]

OH, it was the cup o' noodles. There was like 9 oz. in the thing.

I don't think the noodles would hurt my stomach any,,,,? That is what I am worried about!

[Cindy_D 1]

I would expect you would know it by now - if you are not experiencing reflux (bad gas pains) or you are not vomitting you should be fine. The people who seem to get into trouble are the ones who ignore pain, and vomitting to their detriment. Hang in there - we are likely going to give ourselves some real scares over the next few weeks.

C.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

I would expect you would know it by now - if you are not experiencing reflux (bad gas pains) or you are not vomitting you should be fine. The people who seem to get into trouble are the ones who ignore pain, and vomitting to their detriment. Hang in there - we are likely going to give ourselves some real scares over the next few weeks.

C.

I'd have to disagree with you. One does not need to experience pain or barfing before damage can be done if someone doesn't follow the post op diet. (Copy/paste below because I'm too lazy to retype)

Eating solids during liquid phase:

When you eat food your stomach has to churn and work to break food down so it can pass through the GI system. When you drink Clear liquids it virtually does little to no work. When you drink full liquids it doesn't have to work hard. When you eat solids your stomach has to work very hard to break down food. It almost looks like stomach spasms.

Since it is the scarring and adhesions that hold the band in place and not the sutures (long term), when you eat solids your stomach is moving and churning and this prevents adhesions from forming.

The other issue is that when they first started doing this procedure they made the pouch bigger than they do now. People were not losing weight with a larger pouch so they started making it much smaller. If you eat solids before you are supposed to you can actually push your pouch down and the adhesions that do form will secure the pouch in place but with a much larger size. You could end up with a larger pouch and weight loss will be very difficult. The only repair is surgical and then you start the post op diet all over again. I doubt most docs would redo the procedure because you didn't follow the post op diet.

When you don't follow your doc's instructions you are only harming yourself. If you want the band to work, you have to do as your doc tells you.

I think there should be a huge warning label somewhere that patients have to read before surgery. If you want your band to work you have to follow the instructions for EVERYTHING and especially a post-op diet.

When you are doing clears/full liquids/soft foods remember that sugar, ANY kind of sugar or carbs will make you want to eat your right arm. Protein will kill hunger. It's the way your blood sugar and pancreas work. When you eat sugar your blood sugar increases. Then your pancreas kicks out insulin, then your blood sugar decreases and that sends hormones that tell your brain you are hungry again. When you consume Protein it doesn't mess with your blood sugar much so your body isn't constantly trying to tell your brain you are hungry. Oh, you'll still have head hunger issues, but we all have that and that is a big reason we are fat. But mix head hunger with stomach hunger and we will fail. It's just too much.

So cut out ALL sugar and most carbs, limit carbs to 30gms daily. Then bump up your protein and that should make it so you can manage post op diets.

[Cindy_D 1]

Wasabb - thanks for that - you're right and I should have known better. I am not suggesting anyone play fast and loose with physician orders and keeping the stomach quiet is essential to a good setting of the band. It does no one any good to knowingly eat things that are not allowed and then go through the "what if and what Have I done's". Some of hte confusion may be related to the differences in physician diets - they all have their little differences. However, if something does go wrong and you have not followed your physician's instructions, I doubt you will have any recourse in having them fix it without significant cost. So listen to the experienced folks and your docs and "FOLLOW YOUR OWN POST-OP INSTRUCTIONS"

It isn't helpful to you to compare diets - physicians also use different types of bands and they may also perform differently. Take care and stay away from the Ramen noodles - they are called a chemical death for a reason.

C.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Pain just isn't a necessary factor to determine if someone has a slip or if they enlarged their pouch. There are people that go for a fill under fluoro and discover a slip but they never had a symptom. Enlarging your pouch wouldn't hurt, one wouldn't know until they either had a fluoro or couldn't figure out why they were eating so much with proper restriction. There is no sweet spot for them.

It doesn't take barfing, PB'ing, or even nausea to see that there has been damage done. I know people get sick of my posts about the post op diet but it's my thing. Some post about exercise all the time, some post about nutrition, some post about sweets. For me it's the post op diet because that sets the tone for the life of the band.

[PigsRFlying 0]

I am having to try and be creative because noone gave me a list of ideas for the mushy stage. Therefore, I just wanted to know what people thought about ramen at the mushy stage! I have done some of the recipes here and they are good ,however, I was just trying to come up with some other things.

[Cindy_D 1]

I think the big problem with noodles at this stage and for that matter at any stage is that they belong to "the whites". These are the processed carbohydrates from white flour that really don't have a great deal of good nutrition to their credit, but are rapidly broken down and turned into glucose - adds to the hunger feeling without adding effective nutrients. Just some of those things they tell us to avoid.

Not sure what you mean by the "mushie" stage - my clinic has me on full fluids for this week, then 1 week of puree, followed by 1 week of soft, then to regular. Perhaps your "mushie" is the same as puree - if so, then you could follow the regular diet guideline for lapbanders of 3 oz pureed Protein, followed by 2-3 oz soft veggies (overcook the broccoli, cauliflower, Beans, etc - remove the strings from the beans), add some mashed bananas, pureed fruit and spread it out over the day. Does this make sense?

Cindy

[skyeblu79 0]

If you cooked them to the point where they were mushy I don't see what the problem is.

[brandottie01 0]

For mushies they suggested pudding, applesauce, yogurt, some non starch veggies cooked extremely well. Carrots are great because you can mush them up. We also were allowed scrambled eggs. I have a food processor so I used that on anything I make to make it easier to swallow.

[Dani-X 0]

Refried Beans with a little taco sauce are EXCELLENT for the mushie stages. Start training your body with low fat and high Protein. A lot of people also do cottage cheese. Personally, I can't stand the stuff so we all need to adapt to what we can handle. tuna fish mashed up super well with some lemon juice was great for me during my mushie stage... I also stuck with the Protein shakes and added the 42g Protein vials to my Water.

Good luck and *follow your post-op*

[Pacomomma 0]

tuna, egg or chicken salad are great mushies. the refried Beans with taco sauce and a bit of lowfat sour cream. quiche . One of my favs is seafood quiche made with egg beaters and skim milk. another is ham and cheese. egg drop Soup made with ff chicken broth nd scramble an egg in it . and of course smoothies made with ff vanilla yogurt. remember to think outside the box and you cam come up with some great meal ideas