Question:
What specifically does a carbonated beverage do to adversely affect your health?

I am 10 weeks post-op and have begun tasting of diet sodas. My doctor said to wait 3 months. My question is...what harm might I be causing to myself (surgery related) other than producing gas?    — Alesia V. (posted on March 2, 2003)

March 1, 2003
The bubbles from the carbonation are uncomfortable for some people after surgery. It will not hurt you in anyway though. Just try and stay away from the caffeine.
   — Linda A.

March 1, 2003
I was told by the Doctor and the Dietician that carbonated beverages acutally can help to stretch your pouch. He did a little demonstration by taking a zip ock baggy and adding some soda. Sure enough after awhile the bag blew up from the carbonation. He told me that continual use of these beverages will in time lead to a stretched pouch. They did say that if you are really in dire need of a soda leave it sit opened for a day before drinking it.UGGHHHHHH that sounded to disgusting to me. I prefer to drink my fruit 2 o's and my crystal light.
   — cindy O.

March 2, 2003
I know you asked what harm soda might cause as per the surgery, something else to consider is that some carbonated beverages contain phosphoric acid. Phosphoric acid depletes calcium in all humans. Considering we are already have difficulty asporbing calcium, the more carbonated beverages we drink post-op, the higher our risk for osteosporisis. I just learned this the other week from someone with a 4 year degree in nutrition, and was told this NOT in relation to WLS, but in a general discussion of people taking supplements and then doing "stupid" things to counteract them. You may want to check the label of any carbonated beverage first (not all contain phosphoric acid, but most colas do). As for the soda post-op....I have found that fountain soda has a lot less carbonation than canned or bottled soda. The next time someone you know is getting fast food, try a sip of their (diet) soda to see how it makes you feel. I'm 15 months post-op, but the first few times I had carbonation, it felt very, very weird.
   — Cyndie K.

March 2, 2003
If you put "osteoporosis" and "soda" into a search engine (I used Google), you get a ton of info on a *possible* connection between the two. This is enough to scare me away!
   — Lori A.

March 2, 2003
I don't know about pouch stretching...that whole zip lock baggy theory is fine but it's flawed. Liquid drains out of the pouch. It doesn't sit in there to blow up. I didn't drink carbonated drinks for long after my surgery and still really don't, although I crave a couple gulps of pop every now and then and go for it when I do (I'm almost 2 years out). I find that it does give me gas a lot quicker so that's why I don't drink it as much. Not sure about the phosphoric acid theory, that one's interesting, I think I'll do a little research on that. If that's true, then I definitely will cut out the pop. If you're gonna do it though, stay away from the caffeine. Good luck and God Bless!
   — Kimberly L.

March 2, 2003
I agree with Kimberly that the baggie trick with the cola is just that, a trick. A closed baggie does not have an outlet-hello, we have two of them, the esophagus and the stoma...I used to drink lots of soda pre-op. I had tried two sodas post-op, at about 3 months and again at 5 months, both times it tasted too sweet and made me very gassy rather quickly. I had the third soda last week and this time not only did it taste good, but the gas was less. I think 3 sodas in a year won't hurt me, but I'm more curious about the phosphoric acid and its effect on calcium absorption-would like to see more info on that.
   — Cindy R.

March 2, 2003
I agree with Kimberly and Cindy on the baggie trick. I don't drink carbonate beverages because I once read a paper on long term postops who kept their weight off and one of the things that most avoided was carbonated beverages. I tried diet ginger ale about two months post op, I would let it go flat and then mix it with protein drinks. It tasted, but then I just decided to be carbonation free. I feel I need to make some drastic changes to my diet as a reminder that I cannot go back to the way I previously ate.
   — Lisa N M.