Why no TUMS???

Robin in VA posted (to someone else here) that TUMS weren't a good choice for calcium. Why is that? What would work better! Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone is different, my nutritonist recommended TUMS smooth dissolve for the first 9 weeks. Not only for a good source of calcium but they really help when things don't go down so well. What does your nutritionist/surgical team suggest? Good luck. 11weeks post-op, 44lbs down.

We were taking TUMS for the first month because they were easily chewable/dissolvable/crushable. Once we were able to tolerate solids, our surgeon suggested Citrical Calcium Citrate with Vitamin D. BEWARE though.....the pills are HUGE; if you do not tolerate the swallowing well stay away from them. Sometimes they feel like they just lay in my stomach! Tara

Thanks to both of you for the help! I appreciate it.

hi Sue, the dietician that one of the busiest practices here in Va has tols hundreds of his patients, no tums because we can't absorb the type of calcium that is in it. there is calcium carbonate and calcium citrate. they are very different from each other. I have spoken with several people on this issue and all recommend cal caltrate, not carbonate. I will try to get a better reason ans response for you but i am walking out the door right now. hugs, congrats on your loss so far, isn't it amazing????? Robin

TUMS are calcium carbonate, which requires stomach acid to be absorbed. With our very small pouches we do not produce enough stomach acid to absorb very much calcium carbonate (coral calcium is also not absorbed well by WLS patients, but I don't know what the science behind that is). Calcium citrate, on the other hand, does not require stomach acid to be absorbed, and so is a much better choice for us. We will absorb all, or most, of what we take in as calcium citrate. Lots of dietitians and doctors are still recommending TUMS to us, but I think it is out of habit rather than conscious thought. My dietitian suggested TUMS, but when I asked her about the need for stomach acid, she stopped for a moment to think, and then agreed that I probably don't produce enough stomach acid anymore to effectively break down the calcium, and wholeheartedly endorsed my suggestion of taking calcium citrate instead.