Question:
I have never liked fruit, and now post op I think about fruit constantly. I know

it's not protein, but I want it, especially the mandarin oranges. How bad is fruit. I noticed that a can of mandarin oranges has about 30 g of carbohydrates. What do ya'll think?    — Sugarbaker2001 (posted on January 6, 2003)

January 6, 2003
Fruit is OK. You do need to get your protein in first, above all else, but veggies and fruits are a necessary part of your diet. You don't need to have the whole can of Mandarin oranges. At 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate, half a can would be 60 calories. I had a thing about the canned Mandarin oranges a couple of months ago. I had some the other day and they were just OK. I'm on to pineapple now. What I do is get the little snack pack sizes. One of those is usually plenty to satisfy the fruit craving.
   — garw

January 6, 2003
I got addicted to ruby red grapefruit. The canned is prepped so it does not have all that tough yucky fibers. Really good. I drain off the liquid figuring it excess sugar. In jars its great but pricey. I really didnt eat much fruit pre op, eat lots of grapes too. But have been limiting the quantity.
   — bob-haller

January 6, 2003
Early post-op, anything with more than 10 g. of carbs made me dump ... but that didn't stop me from eating the occasional fruit snack. For some reason, fruit (especially fresh fruit w/ fiber) didn't cause me to dump as badly as 10 g. of refined carbs. Now, at 2 years post-op, I am able to enjoy small servings of fruit on a daily basis and found it has not hindered my weight loss in the least.
   — Terissa R.

January 6, 2003
The same thing happened to my daughter and I after our RNYs. We never cared at all for fresh or canned fruit pre-op, but it seemed as soon as we came home from the hospital, we couldn't get enough of it. Most RNY patients notice a real turn-around in their tastes post-op, and I think that this is just another example of that. Fresh fruits never made us dump, although any amount of refined sugars will. Peel your fresh fruits, stay away from fresh pineapple/oranges/grapefruit for the first few months because of the high fibrous content, choose canned fruits in their own juices instead of sugar syrups, and chew well. I think that you'll find that the "obsession" passes. Although salads and fruits are still favorites, at 33 months post-op, I find that my diet is very well-rounded. I always eat my protein foods first, and then enjoy those other items. Best wishes!
   — Diana T.