Diet soda

My doc never told me to stay away from Diet soda. He only said that the carbonation will make me burp but if I let it go flat it should be okay. I read your posts daily and in the past several of you have mentioned that it is a huge no no. What do your docs say about it? I've only had 4 since surgery on March 14 but I do enjoy a diet coke every now and then.

Katie, My Doc said diet soda is ok if I can drink it. The biggest problem is the carbonation. And....water would be a better choice for drinking. I don't care for diet soda so I haven't had any. It seems as though every doctor has something different to say about everything. My best advice would be to do what your doctor says. I don't see where an occasional diet coke could hurt. Valerie

My HMO was Kaiser, and all the doctors in all the classes I had to take said we can never have soda again, because it stretches out our pouch, which defeats the purpose of having surgery. They really stressed that diet soda is a "never" option... As for myself, I haven't had soda since January this year, and I sure do crave it sometimes. I'm not sure that I will stick to the "never" rule for life... I see myself drinking diet soda again a few years down the road, possibly. But definitely not anytime soon. Rebecca M. 269/215/150

Honestly... DONT DO IT!!!! MY Mother in law & Sister in law have had RNY, and both drink soda now, it's caused big issues for them. I read some articles just recently: BSCI eNewsletter March 9, 2004 Fluid Intake Lesson #2 - The Dangers Of Carbonation This is the Success Habit? that seems to stir people's deepest emotions. Many weight loss surgery patients see a Diet Coke?, or Diet Pepsi ?, or a Diet {insert your favorite flavor here] as their last and only "acceptable sweet" that's generally considered to be calorically and socially acceptable. Try to take away this last right and privilege from them and you've got a fight on your hands! We're not interested in fighting, or even arguing, so let's be completely clear about this; we can't offer you a hard scientific explanation, or scientific proof that drinking carbonated beverages will hurt your weight loss or weight maintenance efforts. But, if you are really interested in doing your best to be absolutely sure you can successfully lose your excess weight and then keep it off, you'll carefully consider the evidence. Our Success Habits? study showed that the most successful patients *****ach and maintain their goal weight do not drink carbonated beverages. Additionally, our continuing experience has been that most former patients who have re-gained significant weight, and have returned to the support center to take our Back On Track class, have been drinking carbonated beverages. These two long-term observations tell us that choosing to drink carbonated beverages can be detrimental to your long-term success. Three reasons to avoid carbonated beverages: 1. Distention of the stomach pouch and anastamosis When a cold, carbonated beverage is consumed, it warms and releases carbon dioxide gas that was dissolved in the liquid. This gas can be trapped in your stomach pouch, causing it to distend and needlessly stretch your pouch. While it's true these gasses are not permanently trapped in your stomach (since they can be released through burping) any unnecessary, uncontrolled, distension of your stomach pouch places you at greater level of risk that you'll stretch your pouch to the point where you will compromise the effectiveness of the "tool" you've worked so hard to obtain. If stretching your stomach pouch is not enough to concern you, consider what happens to your anastamosis (the new stomach outlet) when entrapped gas stretches your pouch. This undue pressure also causes stretching of the anastamosis. It is believed that an enlarged anastamosis is a greater problem than an enlarged stomach is for weight loss surgery patients. The size of the pouch outlet is more critical to the patient's ability to achieve satiety than the actual size of the stomach pouch. If the anastamosis is too large, food passes through the pouch too easily and will begin to fill and stretch the small intestine, in effect creating a larger holding chamber in the small intestine thereby allowing you to eat a much higher quantity of food before you feel full and your brain receives the signal to stop eating. The combination of a stretched pouch and an enlarged anastamosis are disastrous to your weight loss and/or weight maintenance efforts. Is the momentary pleasure derived from a diet drink worth the risk? Only you can decide. 2. Caloric Intake Many carbonated beverages are high in calories, low in nutritional value and contain simple sugars. Not only do they add additional calories with low nutritional value and little benefit in achieving satiety, but also they are absorbed quickly into the blood stream, causing a rapid rise in blood sugar, elevated insulin levels, and increased hunger. 3. Caffeine Many carbonated beverages contain caffeine, an appetite stimulant, which is detrimental to initial weight loss and long-term weight control.

thank you Darlene for posting this...my doctor says NO to carbonated beverages, but even though I haven't had any and haven't thought about it...NO way am I going to drink one after reading your post! NOW....big IF....if I got down to a size 2....I might have one! However, don't think my 5'10" frame will ever see a size 2!!!! So NO diet drinks for me! Barbara

I've never liked diet sodas and cant imagine that I would now. But I'm with Barbara, with this information I'm definately not even going to consider it!! I did have my first cravings for a regular Coke or a Pepsi the other day. But it has passed, I think I'll live! LOL

When I decided to have the surgery, I made a pact with myself, no soda ever again. its funny, cause when I did my bowel prep, the awful fleet phosposoda... I followed it down by some sips of caffiene free diet pepsi.... after that, everytime I even think about soda, it makes me physically sick, I start to gag. Soda is sooo NOT appealing anymore. My Mother in law & sister in law who have both had RNY drink almost soley soda--- my MIL is lucky if she gets 8oz of water a day, everything else is soda... she has gained back some weight and struggles. Ive heard the statistics before that a LOT of sucessful post-ops dont drink soda.

MY friend who had her wls 2yrs ago (almost) is now being told to drink diet pop to steach out her pouch some b/c she got too skinny and could not stop losing - something like a size 24/26 to a 2!! in a year - she is now at a 4 and very comfortalbe but they had her drink soda to streach her pouch - so to me that is a big no no - I do not want my pouch streached my 2 cents danni - the very wet and teired after being rained out of camping

Mine said that if it is flat, that is fine. I tried it one day, and it was nasty flat. I will stick to my crystal light!

I am so blessed to have this forum to bounce things off of. I really appreciate all of your imput. WOW! What a response. I definitely will think twice before doing this again. I'm down 65 pounds in almost 11 weeks. I definitely don't want to jepordize my successes. Thanks again.