Question:
Carbs or no Carbs
My Doctor told me that I can only have good carbs (fruit and vegies). He said no bread, no pasta and no rice. But then his nurse said I can have all the grits and oatmeal that I desire. Should I be concerned about the amount of carbs i am eating? I have been trying to eat lean cuisines and healthy choice meals, I have found the majority of them have pasta, rice, bread or potatoes. Are they safe to eat? I do not want to do anything to jepordize my success of having WLS as a tool. I want to do what is right but don't want to have to make unneccesary sacrifices. — tuckerheather (posted on August 19, 2008)
August 19, 2008
If you are under 6 months you should not have any carbs other than what is
in fruit and vegatables, which is very little. After 6 months you can have
complex carbs. That would include small portion of potato, and corn.
Priot to then skip those carb vegatables. After 6 months you can add Whole
wheat bread, whole wheat pasta and brown rice. Stay away from the health
packaged meals with white pasta and white rice. It will just slow you
down. There are a few that have protein and vegatables, but watch gravy
and other items added, and read the label carefully. Remember you are not
on a weight watcher or health choice diet. The safest thing to do is
prepair your own and take it to work. I found after 6 months adding the
approved complex carbs slowed my weight loss down a great deal so I gave
them up except for maybe one meal a week as a small treat. Eating out?
Just tell them what you want on your plate and have them hold everything
else. I sometime ask them to pack what I don't want in a to go box and
give it to my wife, as she can eat anything later, but it is not worth the
reduction in weight loss for me to eat something that I need to be
skipping. Best of success to you. By the way, other will tell you they do
it, but only you know what you are trying to accomplish and how much
success you have had with diets in the past,. I personally found something
that works for me after many diet failures, so I follow the rules 110%.
— William (Bill) wmil
August 19, 2008
I assume that you are pre-op. My Dr. gave me a list of foods to avoid and
those that were ok to eat. Most carbs are on that list of foods to avoid
or to only eat in small portions. Some bread is condsidered ok in small
amounts as long as you eat a whole grain bread. If you are post-op then
rice and pasta is definately not something you should be eating. Oatmeal
has protein in it and is a good choice for either post-op or pre-op. I buy
a Quacker brand that is full of whole grains and has pecans in it. Tastes
delicious. Your pre-op and post-op diets are going to be quite different,
maybe the Dr's office could provide you with a sample diet to help you.
Good luck. Dee
— deebunny38
August 19, 2008
What your doctor wants you to avoid is the processed carbohydrates that
come in white wheat flour. These are too quickly processed by the body and
have no natural nutritional benefits besides "empty calories."
They are like SUGAR in this respect. The oatmeal and grits are different
in that they are NOT simple carbs but are BOUND with the fiber of the
natural GRAIN. They have NOT been over processed. If you WANT to enjoy
products like pasta and bread, perhaps you can ask your doctor if it would
be acceptable to eat SMALL AMOUNTS of WHOLE WHEAT pasta and bread INSTEAD
of the WHITE WHEAT products. See if that makes a difference to him. It
may HELP if you bring an EXAMPLE of the product WITH you when you TALK to
him. WALMART has begun selling MANY Whole Wheat Pasta products recently
that compete with some health food chains for quality and BEAT them on
PRICE, HANDS DOWN! You do need to look CAREFULLY, though, since SOME of
the products are BLENDED products and contain BOTH Whole Wheat AND enriched
WHITE WHEAT. This would NOT be a suitable alternative. I hope this helps,
Hugh
— hubarlow
August 19, 2008
Thank you for those that responded. Yes, I am post op and do not want to
do anything to jepordize me losing so I needed some more info! I will stay
away from rice and pasta! I want to lose the 100 lbs the dr wants me to
lose. 39 down 61 to go!
— tuckerheather
August 19, 2008
Carbs translate in the body as sugar...The more refined and processed
/ground any flour becomes, the more it raises your glycemic index. In
other words it raises your blod sugars as if you has eaten mouthfuls of
sugar. Low gylcemic foods do not not spike your blood sugar. These foods
are good carbs. Take a whole grain..It has all it's natural pieces and
parts still attached to it...It is much harder to digest and break down
into those sugars...so it passes thru the body in tact... You get the
benefits of it's nutrients and fiber without the sugar...Take that same
grain and grind it...half the work is done for you body and it get to feast
on that sugar and store whatever you don't burn as fuel...it stores as FAT!
Fruits have natural sugar...Obviously they taste sweet...but they are
usually lower glycemic foods because they have natural soluable fiber that
cancels out sugar carbs and they also have antioxidant and nurtient
qualities that bread and white carbs don't usually have. Many Fruits even
have some protein too!
Brown rice is just as high a gycemic food as white rice...But the best rice
is one that stays firm...The more you cook (process) rice, the more carbs
(sugar). Basmati rice has the lowest gylcemic index and carbs of easy to
find rice....It's lower than brown rice. Poatoes in moderation also have
nutrients that are good for you...But they are a higher gycemic
food....Baking them is the least processed...Enjoy a baked potato now and
then! I put greek yogurt (tastes like sour cream) and chives on mine. Many
post Ops were carb junkies before surgery and so carbs are a scary thing to
re-introduce into your diet. KNOWING which ones are low glycemic carbs is
half the battle. These food will not create a carb monster as readily as
simple carbs (the bad ones)
Here's a small Glycemic chart...Take a quickie peek at it and you can see
that fruit is a good carb...Pretzels and cereal bad! There are some things
that might actually surprise you are low gycemic foods...There are beter
charts, but I just found this one really fast...
http://www.glycemicedge.com/glycemicindextable.html
Hope that helps you understand carbs and how they are processed in our
body...
— .Anita R.
August 19, 2008
I am pre-op and I am no expert. But, if you need the quick prepared foods
sometimes... How about getting the South Beach instead of the WW or LC
etc...
Like I said I do not know when you can start eating those prepared foods
and we are probably advised against having too much of them because of the
sodium. But, I love South Beach frozen meals and they are low carb high
protein.
Gina
— Gina F.
August 20, 2008
My doctor for pre-op has me on no sugar, 30 grams of carbs & 70 grams
of protein a day limit. modified Adkins diet I love carbs but I
want to get this weight off. Good Luck!!
— caroline2622
August 21, 2008
I thorugh a phase recently where I found suddenly I was "too
hungry". I was *panicked*, and thinking oh my God, why? This is like I
was before surgery, why do I keep wanting to eat eat eat???? Well, people
here helped me figure out it was because I was eating too many carbs and
salt; I had bought some frozen dinners and they had tons of salt and mashed
potatoes or stuffing so they were loaded with empty carbs!!!!! I was also
eating some crackers which were empty carbs. These foods were causing my
blood sugar to spike up, then crash down and everytime it crashed it was
causing unreasonable hunger!! Once I went back to simple good proteins like
chicken, tuna, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, baby food vegetables, and a
little Fiber One cereal (this cereal has so much fiber that it helps to
cancel-out the effects of its carbs), I almost immediately noticed my
hunger was back under control!!!!!! I can not stress enough to people to
avoid carbs, stuff made from flour, wheat, potatoes, rice, crackers,
breads, cereals. I see people here who are 3 or 4 or 6 months out saying
they're eating pizza and tacos and potatoes and subway sandwiches - I don't
want to hurt anyone's feelings o judge, but in my "opinion" they
are lying to themselves to think they're ok eating those things, even
"occasionally". They're slowly slipping back in to there old
habits. They're spiking their blood sugar and inducing cravings and hunger.
I KNOW what it is to lie to yourself about what you're eating, convincing
yourself that it's ok to have one of these once in awhile, or telling
yourself that the subway is ok because it has protein and vegetables. Well,
the subway sandwich is ok if you throw away the bread roll and just eat the
meat and tomatoes/lettuce/cheese! Just my opinion and own experiences, hope
it helps..
— Gina S.
August 21, 2008
Hi...
Gina A. said it all!! Those frozen dinners are so full of salt and yeah,
alot have carbs in them. Try to stay away from carbs. Don't fall back
into bad habits. We all have to watch ourselves, but that is what you get
here....support. Best of luck to you.
— snowlover
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