Question:
clearing the pouch by drinking liquids with a meal

I've read everything posted about drinking fluids while eating. I think 90% of the post say dont do it....my question is: Since food absorption takes place in the small intestin and digestive juices are not added until they join the food in the SI out of the left side of the Y. Whats the problem if you do empty the pouch? I know the standard answer is that you'll get hungry quicker but I dont...I eat (and drink) and dont eat again untill the next meal. 330 15 weeks ago, 257 today. Thanks in advance for the help.    — Stephen K. (posted on October 3, 2005)

October 3, 2005
My doctor described it as a drain in a sink if you keep flushing the pouch out you can keep adding food. So it is not so much just that you will get hungry later but that you will be able to eat more at one sitting.
   — tdickson

October 3, 2005
My doctor told me if you drink and eat at the same time or too soon after eating, you will wash away the Major nutrients you need to have especially the protein.
   — mzb2u

October 4, 2005
First of all congratulations on the weightloss!! I am 2.5 years post op, and @goal. I have always drink with my meals, because I lack some of the paristalis in my esophogus to get my food down. My husband and daughter are each 7 months post ops and they both drink with meals and are right on target with weightloss. Our labs are all good, mine is low on iron, but I am a female and have other problems that have caused the anemia, not the wls. We do take prenatel vitimans, (they have more vits, then the chewable kind for kids), calcium citrate, B12 sublinguele. Good luck on your journey, but be sure to sip only small amounts with the meals, to keep you on the right track. Enjoy the ride! Rosemary
   — wizz40

October 5, 2005
Part of the reason is to develop good post-op habits during the first year post-op. While only 15 weeks post-op, you are not getting hungry when you empty the pouch but the further out you get, that will probably change-it does for most. I am 3 1/2 years post-op and if I drink with a meal, the pouch empties sooner and I do get hungry faster and want to eat again, so I try not to do so.
   — Cindy R.

October 8, 2005
My first comment is to say it behooves a patient of gastric bypass to remember that they now suffer from malabsorption. My understanding of the answer to your question (as provided me by my surgeon) is that a gastric bypass patient should not drink liquids with their meals as the liquid will wash the food out of the stomach before the food has an opportunity to digest (to the fullest extent possible for a gastric bypass patient.) Therefore, food allowed to digest in the stomach before proceeding to the intestines to digest further allows greater absorbtion of necessary nutrients, proteins and vitamins. Hence, the less time the food remains in the stomach, the less absorption in the stomach, the less absorption in the intestines which = malnourished via malabsorption.
   — sby949