Life in Progress

Last year I asked my Facebook followers the foods that were always on their shopping list since having weight loss surgery. Read more about their responses.


Last year I asked my Facebook followers the foods that were always on their shopping list since having weight loss surgery. Following were the most common responses:
yoghurt
mince
avocado
eggs
porridge
cottage cheese
low fat ice cream.

What do you notice about this list? What do all these foods have in common? They are all ‘easy to eat’ foods.
This theme resurfaced in a similar conversation I observed recently about crackers. Following weight loss surgery, some people prefer to choose crackers over bread. It seems that easy to eat crackers, the ‘puffed’ varieties that dissolve in the mouth like Cruskits™, are a popular choice. You can eat them more easily, allowing you to also eat more of them, than a more challenging and nutritious cracker, like a grainy Vita-weat® or Ryvita®. So why are you choosing easy to eat foods?
The purpose of weight loss surgery is to feel satisfied on a smaller amount of food, preferably nutritious food. So I ask, what would make you feel more satisfied? Taking time to chew, chew, chew through the higher fibre, more nutritious, grainy Ryvita® or Vita-weat® crackers? Or taking half the time and effort for the Cruskits™ to dissolve in your mouth after a quick, half-hearted chew? It is an experiment worth doing. Perhaps also note how many of each of the crackers you need to eat to feel satisfied, as well as how long you remain satisfied after eating them.
In the hundreds of weight loss surgery clients I have seen I have noticed that after recovering from weight loss surgery some people never really progress past the ‘soft food’ stage of mornays, stews, casseroles and mince dishes. Or, they progress onto more solids foods but gradually slip back in to these softer, easier to eat foods, particularly those with a gastric band, as their band is adjusted and becomes tighter. I recall conversations with clients telling me they prefer the soft foods as they are “easy” and they “can eat more”. However, when we discuss this further, their true hunger is satisfied just as much on a smaller serve of a food, which is more challenging to eat. Eating larger amounts of soft, sloppy food or easy to eat, ‘dissolvable’ food is eating to satisfy our eyes, rather than our true hunger.
I am fully aware that some people with a gastric band have difficulty eating particular foods. I also believe however that there are thousands of people with poorly managed gastric bands that are not able to eat healthy, solid food. Unfortunately there is a misconception with gastric bands that tighter equals better, and that regurgitation is normal. Whilst I have no scientific studies to back this up, in my work the people I see who successfully lose and maintain their lost weight with a gastric band are those who can eat a good variety of solid, healthy foods, not those who must survive on protein shakes, soups and juices as their band is too tight to eat anything else. If you can’t eat a range of healthy foods please speak to your team, or get a second opinion. It may be that you need to work on your eating technique, or you may need some medical intervention.
Unfortunately the perception that easy to eat foods are necessary has become quite widespread and is not only confined to the gastric band community and with many online weight loss surgery communities these beliefs spread.
Are you choosing easy to eat foods out of habit? Could you eat more challenging foods that will satisfy you more? Consider this ‘food for thought’ as you move forward on your journey.