Hey all i have a very.......good question i think.....When you are able to eat solid foods, i know your suppose to take small bites, and chew chew chew chew chew until its mush. My question is.....when that food drops down into the top small portion of your stomach, does it churn the food before it drops down into the bigger portion, or does it not churn until it drops down? Im just wondering because i talked to a lady who also had the lap band done a year ago, and she says she takes a big bite, and swallows a little at a time, and she doesnt chew it until its mush, she chews it, until is like chunky mushy like Soup is what she said. So im just wondering how thats possible when everyone else say to chew until mush. Also how big of bites do you take when eating......im still on the liquid phase, but am very interested in knowing the answer to this. If any of you could provide some insight it would be greatly appreciated. Have a good day all!!!!!

~Hotpink~

The smaller the bite the better for me. If I try to swallow a solid protein that has NOT been chewed to mush I get stuck, slime and pb. I can swallow bigger bites of soft, non proteins like -beans. Its not worth the risk!! I dont want to lose my band to slippage. AND - The pain is too great. I would say the lady swallowing not so chewed food is not restricted.

My question is.....when that food drops down into the top small portion of your stomach, does it churn the food before it drops down into the bigger portion, or does it not churn until it drops down?.... Also how big of bites do you take when eating......im still on the liquid phase, but am very interested in knowing the answer to this.

I don't have any scientific proof, but I'll give you what I believe is the logical answer. Probably very little churning goes on in the upper stomach since it does not contain any acid to digest the food. My best guess is that the lower stomach still does all the digestion and therefore does most of the moving and churning, too. The upper stomach probably has a slight bit of movement from the esophageal spasms and contractions that occur during the process of eating. I would suspect that that movement is fairly minor compared to what the lower stomach is doing. Personally, I believe my stomach is most active when it's hungry. Sometimes it feels like it's going to lurch out of my belly just like the creatures in Alien.

Contrary to bandster rules, I take average sized bites and swallow several times while eating a single bite of food. Just having the food in my mouth washing over my taste buds gives me enough pleasure to compensate for the lack of quantity. I'd much rather take 10 average sized bites than 20 small bites. I probably get 4 swallows out of 1 bite of food. And I do chew well. I've never had anything get stuck, and I've never PB'd or slimed. Of course, I'm still a newbie, so that may change at some point.

You aren't suppose to eat meat bigger than the size of a pencil eraser. As far as churning in the pouch, I don't think that happens. The absorption process begins when the food hits the stomach. The pouch just stays full and the food pushes through in time. Glad you are doing well.

That is a good question. I take small bites, and chew forever.

Have found that some meat I chew, gets gross after awhile and I end up spitting it out. Gross, huh?

Not sure where the full digestion starts, though.

Digestion starts in the lower stomach as there are no digestive juices in the pouch. As for chewing, it really depends on the person the day and the amount of restriction. Some days I take tiny bites and some days I take what I consider to be normal bites (but compared to those around me they are still pretty small). On the normal bites I often get several swallows out of them. I am very cautious with chicken and rarely do normal bites of it unless I know exactly how my band is behaving at that moment and the chicken is fall apart tender and moist.

I don't have any scientific proof, but I'll give you what I believe is the logical answer. Probably very little churning goes on in the upper stomach since it does not contain any acid to digest the food. My best guess is that the lower stomach still does all the digestion and therefore does most of the moving and churning, too. The upper stomach probably has a slight bit of movement from the esophageal spasms and contractions that occur during the process of eating. I would suspect that that movement is fairly minor compared to what the lower stomach is doing.

I agree with enterprise here---plus the person you were talking to may not have a lot of restriction. I could eat much bigger bites and swallow larger pieces before I had good restriction.

Kat