Question:
Am I going down the "wrong" aisle at the supermarket??

Yes, it is ME again. I need some more help. I went to the grand opening of a super big supermarket today. My agenda was to buy most, if not all of the food items that I will need post op, since my surgery is next Tuesday. Well, I found all that yucky looking baby food. Expensive, too!! I bought no sugar applesauce to help my swallowing of those crushed up pills. I got all kinds of cream soups. Lots of flavors of Crystal Lite, too. Yes, sugar free jello and canned lite fruit. BUT when I went looking for low fat yogurt and Gatorade (which some of you aspire to)..I looked at the labels and there were at least 15 grams of sugar in any of them. Fruit juices were the same way...so was fat free pudding. Am I doing something wrong?? I thought that I read that many post op's were eating those kinds of things. Where do I find these items w/ small amts of sugar in them? Also, is it ok to eat cheddar cheese soup post op? It looks yummy! Has some protein in it, too. Thanks for any guidance you may be able to give me.    — kathy S. (posted on July 11, 2000)

July 11, 2000
Post-op I ate sugar free yogurt (the sugar listed in the sugar free is okay, it shouldn't cause you a problem), sugar free instant pudding (I added a scoop of protein powder when I made it...I practically lived on this stuff for a few weeks!), creamed soup made with evaporated (not sweetened condensed) milk instead of regular milk, sugar free jello, blended and strained vegetable beef soup, 100% juice-no sugar added. I was told to get 65 gm of protein a day and I didn't have a problem doing that because they (BTC) told me to use evaporated milk instead of regular milk, dry milk when ever possible and I bought protein powder that I added to things. The first few weeks I ate alot of protein in the form of milk products but then I started having trouble with lactose intolerance. Luckily by that time I was able to eat more regular food so I was able to get my protein that way. In case you haven't noticed, protein is mega important after surgery! The rule that BTC gave me about sugar was not to eat something with more than 2 gm of sugar per serving and/or sugar (in any of it's various names) listed within the first three ingredients. If the product has more than 2 gm of sugar per serving but sugar isn't listed with the first three ingredients then continue reading and find out where the sugar is coming from. If it is coming from fruit (fructose) or milk it is okay. I know that some people believe that sugar is bad in any form including fruit and milk but I'm just telling you what I was told and what worked for me. I didn't concentrate too much on eating low fat, I mostly worked on meeting my protein requirement and taking my vitamins (almost 4 months post-op and not the slightest sign of hair fall-out yet...knocking on wood!). :-)
   — Kellie L.

July 11, 2000
Most store brands of non-fat (not low-fat) yogurt have only 10 grams of sugar per cup. The national brands seem to be loaded with it.
   — Duffy H.

July 11, 2000
How aboutsugarfree products......with Nutrasweet...or Aspertame....I buy them all the time....for my so called "Diets". I suppose you can have them after surgery....you can find yogurt, puddings, that is what is in Crystal lite...there are lots of products sweetened with Nutrasweet.....just read the ingredients........I am an expert of finding diet foods......just not an expert at eating them...LOL
   — Terry M.