My wife was banded 2 weeks ago, she is doing great!!!

I was reading the "Weight loss succes factors - our own study" post today, and I was wondering about the drinking with meals issue.

It seems like we have heard not to drink with meals but never really heard of a reason not to. So why or why not drink with meals?

I have 3 very recent bansters I am taking care of / watching over so any comments suggestions evidence for or against drinking with meals or not is greatly appreciated.

I had always heard it was good to drink before a meal so you would feel full faster. That way you would be full of Water and food not just food. I guess this does not really apply when talking about the band.

Thanks

Jason

There's a couple of reason not to drink with your meal.

The first, is that it pushes the food through the band, therefore kind of rendering it useless. If the food gets pushed through, you can eat more.

The second, is that for many of us who have decent restriction, drinking right after eating something (either during or right after a meal) will cause a big problem, and often cause dinner to come back up.

So that's why :confused:

I found this helpful info from a local Doc in my area....Hope it helps...

http://www.alagsa.com/after_agb.html#main

"Nibble AFTER you Dribble , or DO NOT EAT AND DRINK AT THE SAME TIME! Your old stomach was very large (think of a 2 liter Coke bottle). With that size and that shape, even if you filled yourself with solid food, you could still drink a glass of Water without problems. This is because a normal stomach has something called the "fast-track". liquids can (in a normal stomach) slip down the greater curvature curving around the solid food quickly to the pylorus and empty into the duodenum without much notice except maybe whirling the food a bit. After surgery, things are different. THERE IS NO FAST-TRACK FOR LIQUIDS. So, if you eat solid food, then drink, you may experience pain or vomiting or both. The longer you wait after meals before drinking, the better for two reasons. 1) You will avoid flushing out the stomach for longer periods of time and therefore avoid rapid hunger and 2)You will avoid the stopped up sink effect. So, DRIBBLE BEFORE YOU NIBBLE and DON"T DRIBBLE WHILE YOU NIBBLE and DON"T DRIBBLE JUST AFTER YOU NIBBLE.

To avoid the Stopped-Up Sink effect, it is best to drink liquids during the hours just before you plan to eat. Imagine if you put a GLOB of pudding in your sink and then turned on the water. The water would back up and sit there in the sink before eventually going down once the pudding thinned out and decided to go down. If this were your stomach tube, that water would fill it, stretch it, back up in your throat, and cause pain discomfort, possible vomiting and other problems. Now do the opposite. Pour the water in first and then add the pudding. The water will go straight through. Walk away and wait 45-60 minutes and come back. The pudding will have gone down without all the problems associated with BACK UP. So NIBBLE AFTER you DRIBBLE to avoid the "sink effect" (Also known as the Glob effect)."

Great explanation. My doctor told me OK to drink before eating, but not during. And wait about 30 mins to an hour after eating.

I actually thought it ws b/c the liquid would cause foods in the pouch to blow up from absorbtion and have a hard time passing through the stoma (think of a wet piece of brea and how big it gets). My Doc told me on my last visit though that if you drink with meals it makes everything into a kind of soup and think of what is easiest to eat -- 2 cups of chicken soup, or 2 cups of chicken & veggies..........in other words the liquids enable too much eating. I think it is the combo of both factors...I have to admit though, I sometimes take small sips of water -- it is a very hard habit to break.....................

Great article! Thanks for posting it.

If you are really tight and drinking is done skillfully and carefully it can really help. In fact I found that drinking about a quart of water with every meal really helped me with discomfort and eating when i was really tight. However, the other poster is correct, if you dont do it right, it can cause immediate PB's. I dont drink much anymore with meals. Water never impacted my weight loss. As I loosened up I drank less and less water with meals. Now I sip or drink none. 256 to 203 in 5 months.