public service announcement re: soda

Drinking soda will NOT stretch your pouch.  Here is why:

At the top of your pouch is an opening where food and liquids come from your esophagus into your pouch.  At the bottom of your pouch is another tiny opening where the pouch connects to the small intestine.  Before surgery, you had a pyloric valve between your stomach and your small intestine but you don't have that anymore.  Just an opening.

When you drink soda, it comes into your pouch and runs right out the bottom of your pouch.  It's only in your pouch for a minute or two.  Since there are two openings, it is impossible for liquid or gas to build up and stretch the pouch.

If your dietician tells you it will, that suggests she has little understanding of basic anatomy.  Which, you know, isn't necessarily her area of expertise, but still, it seems like something she ought to know.

If your surgeon tells you it will, that's really scary.  If he has that little understanding of basic anatomy, he should definitely not be operating on anyone!  And if he does understand anatomy and really knows that drinking soda will not stretch your pouch but is just trying to scare you so you won't drink it because he thinks it's not a good choice of beverage for you - well, lying to patients like that is highly unethical and I'd be tempted to report him to the state medical board.

AMEN !!! 

I agree with you Kelly. I was told this by just about everyone, both throughout Kaiser and the surgical group's pre-surgery classes. I didn't know any better but to believe it up until I started visiting this site. Thank you for always posting such helpful information!!  

My surgeon told me the same thing and I believed it at first too.  Why wouldn't I?  I assumed he knew a lot more about RNY than I did (and he does know more about some things than I do, but apparently not about how you can and cannot stretch the pouch!).  For a while I kept telling people oh, my surgeon said it will stretch your pouch so I'm not drinking it.  Then I finally decided to think for a minute.

I am loudly singing "lalalalala" with my fingers stuck in my ears! Which, as you may imagine, makes typing this very difficult. Soda is a danger point for me--drinking it even in small amounts makes me crave other Bozo no-no foods. I was happy when I was told I could never have it again. Curses! I think I'll pretend I never saw your post...

Oh, I'm not saying you should drink it!  There are plenty of good reasons to avoid it.  Fear of stretching the pouch just isn't one of them.

I don't drink carbonated sodas because 1) they taste like c*** to me now and
2) the carbonation makes my tempermental tummy feel very uncomfortable.

I'll just stick to Diet Peach Snapple or the mix-it-myself Crystal Light I keep in
the fridge.

Carbonation caused discomfort for me too.  I *assumed* that was why we were told to avoid it.  They never said it would stretch my pouch. 

Who knows where these "Old Wives Tales" start??  The discomfort alone is enough to
keep me from drinking it, but the taste is definitely what keeps me away!

And those are very good reasons to avoid soda.  I don't like it much either.  It doesn't give me gas or anything but it just doesn't taste very good.  It doesn't seem very refreshing to me.  Iced tea is much better.