Sugar-free popsicles can be a life line during the 2-week liquid diet before surgery. Sometimes, however, they are hard to find. Sugar-free popsicles are basically water, flavor, color, starch, and a sweetener. Some brands found in grocery stores include Sugar Free Blue Bell7 Bullets, Sugar Free Popsicle7 and Budget $aver Sugar Free Twin Pops. The Blue Bell7 and Popsicle7 brands are 15 calories each. The Budget $aver brand is 30 calories for the whole twin pop, so you will need to use half, or one stick’s worth for a serving size.
The calorie limit for sugar free popsicles is 20 calories each to keep the calories low during this pre-surgery liquid diet phase. Although sugar-free, they are not calorie-free because, of the starch and sugar alcohol content. Check the ingredient list to make sure you can tolerate them.
Some of bariatric patients don’t tolerate sugar alcohols or aspartame, which are the more common sweeteners found in sugar free popsicles. Most of these sugar-free popsicles have at least one flavor that is red. No red colors are allowed on that last day before surgery, so use those first. Can you guess the major nutrient found in these sugar free popsicles? The first ingredient in all of them is…water! Nice to know it counts towards your fluid intake.
knowledge_governs reacted to BaileyBariatrics for a magazine article, Finding the Right Sugar-Free Popsicles