Juicing After Having Bariatric Surgery
July 23, 2013by Michael Murphy, RD
Juicing has been around for decades but seems to be growing more in popularity lately. It is not hard to find a new juice bar opening in your area. Every fruit and vegetable has its own unique nutrient profile that can help fight cancer, prevent heart disease, and fight inflammation, in addition to hundreds of other benefits. The questions many of my patients ask me is: Should I juice if I have had bariatric surgery?
Before answering that, let’s discuss the different methods for obtaining fruits and vegetables in our diet.
1. Eating them raw or cooked. Obviously the less processed a food the better it will be for us. Adding heat or other elements to the process or opening up the produce to oxidation can break down the important nutrients contained in the fruit or vegetable. There are some exceptions to this rule whereby cooking some produce actually enhances the nutrients impact on your body. However, there is little doubt that we should always try to eat our produce whole whenever possible. The problem for the bariatric surgery patient is the issue of quantity that he/she is able to consume each day due to the restriction obtained through their surgery.
2. Blending. This is a common method used by many bariatric surgical patients. Simply drop some produce in your blender, add some water or lowfat milk, almond milk, etc, and you have yourself a delicious smoothie with lots of added benefits from the fruits and vegetables added. The problem? It simply may be too bulky and filling to drink very much of it. The fibrous part of the fruit or vegetable adds the bulk and some potential gas and bloating to go along with it.
3. Juicing. This process is good for obtaining the important nutrients from the fruits and vegetables without the added bulk (or fiber). Let’s not kid ourselves; fiber is very important, some would say necessary, for a happy patient. However, it would be nearly impossible to drink 2 apples, 1 pear, 1 cup of kale, 1 stalk of celery, and 1 cucumber, all in one sitting, unless they were juiced.
4. Juice pressing. This is another method of obtaining juice but without the use of heat or power. A hydraulic juice press placing up to 10,000 pounds of pressure on the fruit or vegetable is used and extracts all the juice out leaving the fiber. Not using a centrifuge (which generates heat) is thought to leave more of the beneficial nutrients/enzymes in their original state, resulting in better health and taste. Juice pressers are very costly to purchase and may not be realistic for the budget minded consumer. A trip to a local juice press bar may be more convenient.
With a much smaller stomach, or pouch, the bariatric surgical patient can benefit from juicing or juice pressing because they can drink more of the fruits and vegetables than can be eaten. The drawback is the lack of fiber, which may prevent the feeling of satiety resulting in more liquid calories consumed. Juicing can still be a valuable addition to your healthy eating lifestyles. Dominate your juice with colorful vegetables and use less fruit for a small amount of sweetness. Good juicers can cost around 200-300 dollars so make sure you are ready to invest some money and time into your juicing lifestyle.
Juicing Recipes
Green Juice with Ginger
5-6 kale leaves
1 cucumber
3-4 celery stalks
2 apples
1/2 lemon, peeled or sliced
1 smaller piece of ginger
Asian Pear/Beet Juice
1 Asian pear
1 apple
1 beet
1 carrot
1/2 cup cabbage
3 handfuls chard (about 11/2 cups)
Carrot Pineapple Orange Juice
1 small orange, including rind, seeded and cut into pieces
1/8 small, ripe pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into pieces
2 carrots, scrubbed clean and cut into pieces
Juice of 1/2 lemon (stirred in at end)
Michael Murphy, RD, is the bariatric dietitian for The Weight Loss Institute of Arizona in Tempe, Arizona.