Real sugar?

[dizlightly]

I have never liked fake sugar. Pre-surgery, I also didn't really have much of a sweet tooth. I love salty things. So I'm having a really hard time with the foods that I can have (I'm in the puréed stage) being riddled with "no-sugar". The aftertaste it leaves and the gross coating on my tongue I don't think I can take it anymore.
would I be ruining my healing by just having normal sugar but in moderation of course?

 

[TraceyT]

I have never liked fake sugar. Pre-surgery, I also didn't really have much of a sweet tooth. I love salty things. So I'm having a really hard time with the foods that I can have (I'm in the puréed stage) being riddled with "no-sugar". The aftertaste it leaves and the gross coating on my tongue I don't think I can take it anymore.
would I be ruining my healing by just having normal sugar but in moderation of course?

I am the complete opposite. I may have eaten real sugar in something baked like a cake / pie / candy - but being diabetic for more thank half my life - I don't care for the taste of sugar - since surgery most everything is too sweet. It doesn't matter if its equal or sugar - it's all too sweet. If I make something - I can control the sweetener and the amount I put in.

My tastes have changed a lot. The pre made shakes are way too sweet. I think it was in February or March - my blood sugar dropped and I needed to eat something - it took me 30 minutes to eat one - 1 - snack size Hershey bar to try and get my sugar up. Anything overly sweet tends to make me sick.

 

[WazzuCoug]

A reasonable amount of sugar isn't an issue, but it can be a slippery slope for some people. This is when you really have to know yourself and your tendencies. Will it drive you to eat more than you should? If you use it, use it very sparingly. That being said, the time you spend in these early phases of healing are just a tiny, tiny part of your overall journey. Even though I'm not a fan of artificial sweeteners, I stuck to the foods that were recommended for the first 6 weeks, and that included sugar free jellos and puddings and such. After I started eating "regular" food again, I started moving away from anything artificial.

I'd take the safest route for now, which is only eating what your bariatric team said you should eat...gut through it, food doesn't always have to be pleasurable. Think of it as medicine right now, and once you get back to real foods consider a transition away from the artificial stuff. You'll be done with these healing/recovery phases before you know it and you can move on.

 

[dizlightly]

A reasonable amount of sugar isn't an issue, but it can be a slippery slope for some people. This is when you really have to know yourself and your tendencies. Will it drive you to eat more than you should? If you use it, use it very sparingly. That being said, the time you spend in these early phases of healing are just a tiny, tiny part of your overall journey. Even though I'm not a fan of artificial sweeteners, I stuck to the foods that were recommended for the first 6 weeks, and that included sugar free jellos and puddings and such. After I started eating "regular" food again, I started moving away from anything artificial.

I'd take the safest route for now, which is only eating what your bariatric team said you should eat...gut through it, food doesn't always have to be pleasurable. Think of it as medicine right now, and once you get back to real foods consider a transition away from the artificial stuff. You'll be done with these healing/recovery phases before you know it and you can move on.

Thank you so much. "Think of it as medicine right now" that's what I needed to hear.

 

[LisaLisa]

I have never liked fake sugar. Pre-surgery, I also didn't really have much of a sweet tooth. I love salty things. So I'm having a really hard time with the foods that I can have (I'm in the puréed stage) being riddled with "no-sugar". The aftertaste it leaves and the gross coating on my tongue I don't think I can take it anymore.
would I be ruining my healing by just having normal sugar but in moderation of course?

I loathe artificial sweetners as well and like Ryan, am sticking with what they tell me to do, until I'm healed enough to choose for myself.

Here's a link to some info.

artificial sweetners

Hello all-- I just had a 2 hour group appointment with my dietician and like so many other sources, she was recommending artificial sweetened food and sweetners. I have never been a fan of the chemicals and not sure of the long term effects on the body. I know the answer is to just not eat it...

www.americanbariatrics.org

 

[WazzuCoug]

What is probably most damaging to people trying to lose weight, before or after surgery, is that artificial sweeteners have been proven in randomized studies to make people hungrier and eat more. The issue is believed to be that your brain is tricked by the artificial sweeteners that it is going to get glucose/energy because it associates sweet with sugar. When that glucose doesn't arrive, if signals out the desire to eat more in an attempt to get more glucose, and if we keep trying to feed it with artificially sweetened things, it will keep making us feel hungry until we do eat something with enough sugar to satisfy it. The reaction seemed to be most prevalent with sucralose (splenda) but with others such as aspartame and saccharin as well. Stevia was not tasted, but I would expect that since, like artificial sweeteners, stevia is sweeter than sugar and doesn't have any sugar, the effect would be similar.

I'm not 100% sweetener free, as I do use stevia in coffee and tea, but I try to avoid it as much as possible by just drinking water or fruit essence type water. Artificial sweeteners are also not good for your microbiome. I've cut back a lot.

 

[Tokash]

You might find you can not tolerate real suger. I dont like fake stuff either and it is actually a major trigger to my chronic migraines. I made it a point prior to surgery to transition over and find the things I could tolerate. I am glad I did because I can actually tolerate very very little real suger now with out actually feeling sick.