Wiki-wls: Newbies guide to the galaxie - food & vitamin information

Wiki-WLS Food and Vitamin Information

Welcome. Here you will find useful information about food and vitamin issues that will help you on your journey. This can include thing like suggestions about what foods to eat through the various stages, recipes as well as information about our vitamin regimen.

Feel free to post your questions on this thread and someone further along in the process will hopefully provide you with an answer. Please keep the questions to general information that everyone can benefit from and not issues specific to your situation.

Anyone is welcome to copy and paste questions and answers from other threads, post links to older threads that have good information or post new information. In an effort to make it as managable as possible, we would like to keep it very specific to the topic so please keep your posts to information and not comments or thank-yous.

If you post a link to another thread, just include a brief description of what it covers. If you think someone has posted inaccurate or incomplete information or something needs updating, in the interest of keeping posts to a minimum, try asking them first to edit their original post before posting yourself.

Here's a the links to this thread &  the post-op thread to bookmark & pass on to newbies:
www.obesityhelp.com/forums/on/4070990/Wiki-wls-Newbies-guide -to-the-galaxie-post-op/
www.obesityhelp.com/forums/on/4070989/Wiki-wls-Newbies-guide -to-the-galaxie-pre-op/
www.obesityhelp.com/forums/on/4070739/Wiki-wls-Newbies-guide -to-the-galaxie-food-amp-vitamin/
www.obesityhelp.com/forums/on/4071433/Wiki-wls-Newbies-guide -to-the-galaxie-OH-How-To/

As with anything you read on this forum, it is only someone's opinion and not to be taken as medical advice. If in doubt, check with your surgeon.

Thanks for your contributions

Food suggestions for the stages
As in all areas, each surgeon has their own guidelines but this will give you an overview

Clear Liquid
broth
SF jello
clear juice
SF crystal light, kool-aid
SF popsicles

Full Fluid
All of the above plus:
SF pudding
Protein shakes, pre-made or homemade
decaf coffee/tea
pureed & strained soup
sf yogurt, smooth no chunks
juice, diluted half & half
SF carnation instant breakfast
SF hot chocolate
SF syrups can be added to drinks
milk, sim to 2%

Pureed
Any food can be pureed, just try to avoid anything fatty or with sugar or with simple carbs.
To make pureeing easier, add milk, gravy, soup, water or broth. Cut food into small pieces first.
If you make more hta one serving, use an ice cube tray to freeze individual servings.

Soft
Meats & fish should be ground or flaky, can be made into caseroles,
Cottage cheese, eggs, egg substitute
Vegetables should be cook soft
Potatoes mashed or baked with no skin
Fruit, canned or cooked without skin
Bread - toasted

Any additionla suggestions can be sent to me to add - thanks.

Just wanted to add a link to a site by Andrea U (one of the vitamin and supplement "go to" people from the rny board). It's a great site that's just going to keep on getting better!

http://wlsvitagarten.com/

Here are some food and recipe links I've collected:

low carb recipes: /lowcarb/recipes.

Ideas for protein early out: need-advise-on-getting-protein-in/   and  Any-Protein-Shakes-Drinks-without-milk/

Information about complex carbs:  Complex-Carbs/

Low-carb pizza recipes: Meat-Crust-Pizza-Recipe/ and My-first-attempt-at-legal-pizza- and  Broks-Cheese-Crust-Pizza/

Other recipes: Turkey-Meatloaf-Recipe/  and  /My-own-Low-Cal-sugar-free-BBQ-Ribs and   I-just-ate-the-weirdest-thing/


Platau Buster Diet: PLATEAU-BUSTERS-DIET/

While awaiting my final approval {I was when it was 2 approvals, 1 consult and then after that info goes in then second approval for surgery} I researched loads of recipes for us. 

Most of them  have the counts at the bottom of the recipe.  {Download the 3 low carb recipe zips then put all in one folder}.

Elizabeth xoxoxo's
http://www.4shared.com/account/dir/19483019/d77a00/sharing.h tml

Here's a couple of things I've picked up along the way for pureed stage.

Fabulous Custard -- full of protein, easy on new post-ops ~delicious!
3 cups milk
3/4 cup splenda
4-5 eggs (depending on size)
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)
handful of coconut (optional)

Preheat oven to 375'.  Beat eggs, nutmeg and vanilla together in baking dish.  On the stove, bring the milk and splenda just to a boil, then stir together to the eggs.  Bake for 25 min
NOTE:  when the milk is coming near to a boil, you'll get a little foam on the top.  Remove this foam before stirring into the eggs, or it will get a weird texture on top.


Fabulous Ricotta Fluff Stuff
1 large container of ricotta cheese
1 box  SF jello instant cheesecake pudding
dollop or two of sour cream (to taste)
A little bit of milk to lighten it up (about a cup-add last and gradually)

Mix it all up and enjoy however you want it.  I love it with strawberries!  It's a great fruit dip or just eating straight out of the bowl. 

Variation for fluff:  Do whatever flavor of pudding you like and add a little milk to get the texture you like.


Lasagna soup - a mixture of cottage cheese, pasta sauce, parmesean cheese, a little bit of the spices you like ~ such as garlic salt, italian seasoning~.  Puree it all together and pop it in the microwave.  Cottage cheese has great protein to it. 

Pumpkin puree  - mix with equal amount of ricotta cheese, some vanilla protein powder ~ about 2 TBSP protein power, 1/4 cup of ricotta, 1/4 cup puree~ , some splenda and some sugar twin brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice.  Blend it all together and yummmm.


Mushie stage/ Pureed Food

baby food meats  (for convenience sake)
meats like chicken, turkey, fish (pureed, blenderized) AVOID red meats at this stage
legumes (peas beans like lentils) mashed
hummus
scrambled eggs
salmon & FF cream cheese (mashed & thin with 1% milk)
FF refried beans (thin with 1% milk)
tuna
tofu
small curd cottage cheese
carbmasters yogurt (Krogers or Smiths carry it)
greek yogurt (trader joes & costco)
low fat cream soups (blenderize bean or chowder soups)
steamed veggies mashed or blenderized (keep clear of corn & rice at this stage)
oatmeal (thinned)
mashed potatoes (yes & gravy!! thin potas with 1% milk)
applesauce no sugar added (add lots of cinnamon I LIKE IT!)
cream of wheat
sf pudding
sf jello
couscous
grits
fruit* (no skins, no seeds on/in it) mashed or blenderized

  ***avoid watermelon/pineapple ^insulin spikes

Soft food ideas

1.  1/4 cup (or 1/3 c.) of cottage cheese (1%)  mixed with about 2-3 Tablespoons' worth of cooked baby spinach.  (I chop the spinach really fine after cooking so it blends well with the cott. cheese.  No salt needed... cott. cheese is already too salty, but I do like to add a bit of cayenne for a bit of a spike.  Simple, but nice! Good for a snack or part of a meal.

2.  Same idea here..... about 1/2 cup of butternut squash, cooked and mashed (with 1 teaspoon. of butter), optional.  Add about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cottage cheese.... again, no added salt needed, but a bit of pepper is nice.

1/4 cup of cottage cheese will give you 8 grams of protein.

3.  Here's a nice easy lunch....

1 egg
1/4 cup of cottage cheese
no extra salt
pepper and/or basil  nice.

whip it up with a fork and cook it in non-stick like scrambled eggs or omelet.


Here's a link to a thread about pureed foods:
www.obesityhelp.com/forums/on/3919996/Baby-Food-Pureed-stage /

Please note, it is recommended that you take calcium with food and spread the dosage over the day, taking no more than 500mg at one time. It can affect the absorption of iron supplements so you should space your calcium and iron supplements 2 hours apart.


The importance of taking calcium for WLS patients

This data was presented June 10, 2009, at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Washington DC.  Doctors from the Mayo clinic looked at 97 patients from the past 20 years who have had bariatric surgery.  They found that 21 of these patients had suffered a total of 31 fractures.  Most fractures occurred an average of 7 years after surgery, with the primary locations being in the hands and feet.  Other sites of fractures were the hip, spine and upper arm.
 
There are many risks for fracture in adults including age, gender, ethnicity, smoking and alcohol use, diseases like type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis, and use of medications such as steroids, antidepressants, and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs).  But nutrition is also a serious risk.  Inadequate calcium intake and poor vitamin D status are significant factors in the ability to maintain bone health after bariatric surgery. 
 
The ASMBS recommended intakes for calcium after bariatric surgery are as follows:

• Adjustable Gastric Band (AGB): 1500mg calcium
• Gastric Bypass (RNY): 1500 to 1800mg calcium as calcium citrate
• Duodenal Switch (DS): 1800 to 2400mg calcium as calcium citrate

 
These recommendations are for calcium intake over and above dietary intake.  While it may sound like a lot it is terribly important that your body gets the amount of calcium it needs.  You need calcium to keep your heart beating and your brain functioning (as well as for other things).  So when the body does not get enough coming in each day, it takes calcium from your bones to supply it to the heart and brain.  People will often not know this until they actually break a bone.  
 
Generally, the ASMBS recommends that AGB and RNY patients get 400 to 800 IU of vitamin D3 daily and that DS patients get 2000 IU of vitamin D3 daily.  There is a lot of data indicating that vitamin D deficiency is very common both before and after surgery, and that many patients require higher doses of D3 based on their lab findings.  If you have not had your vitamin D levels tested, it is a good idea to know what they are.  Your doctor or dietitian can help you determine the amount of vitamin D you need to take based on this test.
 
To read more about the Mayo Clinic findings, you can click on the links below:

• Mayo Clinic press release: http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2009-rst/5312.html
• Article in Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090610124420.htm

A thread with good ideas for easy ways of making protein:

www.obesityhelp.com/forums/on/3981474/Making-eating-our-prot ein-easier

Ways of pumping up your protein intake early out:

Add protein powder to everything and anything: coffee, soup, casseroles.... (unflavoured is best)
Make everything you can with milk instead of water
Add milk powder to what you eat whenever possible
Drink protein water
Add lower fat cheese to whatever you can
Buy protein boosted/latte coffees instead of regular
Use protein bullets, protein bars

or any combination of the above...

For example, this morning, I took 2/3 cup of brocolli soup, added a half scoop of protein powder, hafl cup of milk, and 1 TBL of parmesan cheese for a total of 19g of protein instead of 2 for plain soup alone.

I'm sure there are many more suggestions out there, please send me an email to add to the list.

Need to track your daily protein/calories?

You can use one of the following sites:

www.thedailyplate.com/
www.sparkpeople.com/
www.fitday.com/
caloriecount.about.com/
myfooddiary.com/ (cost involved)

or you can use the Health Tracker here on OH.

Most of these sites have a large database already available so finding the items that you've eaten are usually quite easy. You create an account for yourself and start searching. You can search for the food item by word and/or brand name, the site populates the nutritional values for each item. It gives you a running total for the day and week.

On daily plate which I happen to use, you can put together a list of food items, group and name them as a meal for convenience, next time you eat the same meal, you just select the item from your customized meal list and voila. It keeps a handy list on the right side of the screen with food items that you frequently use. These sites also let you track your water and you can quickly see the total of carbs, fibre as well as protein grams and calories you've eaten. Most of them let you track your exercise as well.

The database for the food tracker here on OH is relatively new so does not have as large a database of food, it means a little bit more work of adding in the nutriional value of food items yourself.