I'm not sure how you define "being able to drink again." But here's a conclusive paragraph from the government's National Institutes of Health, and they're the same people who examine pros and cons and make sure hazards and benefits are honestly labeled:
"However, there was no consensus about sensitivity to the use of alcohol, which increases after the BS. Smaller alcoholic doses cause greater toxicity, compared to the period prior to the surgery. Likewise, research studies have addressed more frequently studies on BS that used RYGB technique, because this is the most usual procedure for the surgical treatment of obesity, indicating the need for comparative studies with other common techniques. . "
The whole report is here. And I've been enjoying very infrequent drinking when I want to for the last Post-op 16 years. If you drink a bit more than normal, you run the risk of becoming slightly to very inebriated. But a glass of wine with dinner or a beer on a hot day isn't going to affect your metabolism, which is specifically studied and referenced.
The NIH study abstract is here:
THE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IS AMENDED AFTER BARIATRIC SURGERY? AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW
I noticed a couple of things when I read the study. First, light to moderate alcohol consumption does contribute to your sugar and digestive functions, but not in any hazardous manner and second, these statistics were gathered by people who self-reported, meaning there's a lot of room to doubt the accuracy, and most of them were men.
I always check the federal site if I hear some rumor or report of complications from surgery. But I also check myself, because I eat and drink everything I want, just much, much less, and being so much lighter, I can move a lot more, so even though I don't put sugar on my cereal, I'd actually rather use sugar than a chemical sweetener whose effects may not be known for generations.
