Are you struggling to get your fruits and veggies down? Here are some strategies to help you enjoy the good produce that yields good health.

Believe it or not, I actually love the fruits and veggies my doctor tells me will keep me healthy. When I was growing up, no one had to tell me that, like Popeye, I needed to eat my spinach. I’d rather not eat greens out of a can, but decades later, they appear on our dinner table often.

At home here in rural Tennessee, we enjoy many months of harvest from our big garden and small orchard. We are truly blessed in the produce department. The problem is that the harvest is too big for a big man and a small woman to eat. We give a lot to friends, coworkers, and the local food pantry, but my husband continues to overestimate how much I can eat nowadays, and I continue to work on strategies to make produce easier for my altered upper GI tract to handle.

During my pre- and post-op nutrition classes, my dietitian warned us that fruits and vegetables are a challenge for most gastric band patients to eat, and repeated the “take tiny bites and chew each bite 100 times” mantra many, many times. It took several months and band fills for me to truly understand why Susan had repeated her warning so often, and what was true for me as a bandster is still true for me as a sleevester. If you’re in the same situation, I offer you a delicious mixed salad of produce prep ideas.

But first, let me address the juicing of fruits and vegetables. It's true that juice is easy to get down. It’s true that you can get vitamins, minerals, and flavor from juiced fresh vegetables and fruits. It’s true that you can add protein powder to juice to amp up its nutritional benefits. But even the freshest juice won't give you the fiber and satiety of the solid versions. One of the things I like best about raw produce is its CRUNCH. Just the act of crunching a carrot makes eating it so satisfying to me. And no one can convince me that juicing is convenient. I used the fancy juicer my helpful husband gave me at the time of my surgery exactly twice. I love to cook and love kitchen toys, but assembling, cleaning, and reassembling a juicer takes far more time than I’m willing to give a glass of juice that takes me all of a minute to drink. I stuck to my pre- and post-op liquid diets like a good girl, but if I’d believed I could lose my excess weight and maintain a healthy weight by consuming liquids for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t have had bariatric surgery in the first place!

Here are some suggestions that might make it easier to eat your fruits and veggies, both raw and cooked.

• Peel and seed everything within reason, except perhaps grapes (unless you can find yourself a cute slave boy to peel your grapes for you - and if you find one, ask him if he has a brother or sister who would like to move to Tennessee - MUST LOVE DOGS). It's easy enough to peel fruits like tomatoes, peaches and plums by dunking them in a boiling water bath for a minute. The skins of bell peppers can be a problem for me, but if you grill or broil the peppers until they're charred, the skins slip right off (you'll have to rinse off the stubborn bits) and the roasted flavor is wonderful.
  
• If eating fruits or vegetables "out of hand" (such as two of my favorites - carrot sticks dipped in hummus and apple slices smeared with with peanut butter) is a problem for you, cut them into small pieces and eat them with a fork. When I eat with utensils instead of my fingers, I automatically eat more slowly and carefully.
  

• Try shredding the food in a food processor. At times I haven't been able to eat broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, apples, spinach, kale and other things whole or even chopped, but they worked if I shredded them before I cooked or ate them.
  

• Try alternating bites of a challenging fruit or vegetable with a less challenging food. For example, instead of just eating a banana, cut it up and mix it with other cut fruits and berries in a salad. Then (slowly) eat a bite of banana, a bite of melon, a raspberry, and so on. Or eat a bite of strawberry, then a bite of cottage cheese. “Lubricate” fresh blueberries by mixing them into thick, yummy, protein-rich Greek yogurt (a sprinkle of chopped nuts in that makes it even better).
  

Although I prefer fruits and most veggies raw, sometimes I have to do what my grandmother called "blanching". Bring a pot of water to boil. While it's heating, cut up the fruits or veggies into small pieces. When the water is boiling, throw the produce in, turn off the heat, and let it sit for one or two minutes. Then drain it and run cold water over it (or put it in an ice bath) to stop the cooking. The produce should still have its bright color and it hasn't lost a lot of nutrients, crunch, or flavor this way, but the parboiling takes some of the meanness out of the fibers.

Just before serving, mix the raw or cooked produce with a sauce, yogurt, light sour cream, hummus, dip or low-fat dressing. Sometimes all any food (including meat) needs is a lubricant to help it go down. Just don't overdo the sauce so that it covers up the flavor of the food and sends a flood of saturated fat into your circulatory system.

Corn kernels can be a challenge for us to eat (cooked or popped) because of the fibrous hulls. That doesn’t mean you can never eat corn again. It just means: eat it carefully, and in moderation. It’s mighty hard to eat corn-on-the-cob carefully, so I slice the kernels off the cob (which also reduces the annoyance of corn stuck in the teeth. I’ve also had good luck with fresh corn if I cut the kernels off the cob before cooking the kernels. Hold the corn cob so it stands with its stem end on a plate or bowl. Run a sharp knife from the tip of the ear straight down to the stem end, leaving 1/8 to ¼” of pulp behind on the cob. Then cook the cut corn with a little bit of water or broth, or proceed with your recipe. Use caution when eating generic brands of frozen and canned corn, which in my experience contain more tricky and/or indigestible stuff (like bits of cob) than the more expensive name brands.

If you love fresh fruits and veggies too, y’all are welcome to pick all you can eat from our garden and orchard this year. To find us, get yourself to Memphis and drive north until you hear barking. I must warn you, though, that our dogs love produce too, so you may have to negotiate your share of the apple harvest with them. But they also love company, so come on down!

Wow didn't think about some of these as I love cucumbers , and pickles and carrots but I stopped eating these and some other thing because it was not a good feeling and I would get stuck , so now maybe with your suggestion I will be able to eat some of these , fruits and veggies again , thankyou for bringing this to us at the band wagon.

I like cucumbers too. I prep them by skinning them with a vegetable peeler, cutting them in half lengthwise, and removing the seeds by running a melon baller down the middle (you can use a small spoon if you don't have a melon baller). Then you can slice/cut them however you like. Or you can fill the channel left by the melon baller with goodies like tuna/chicken/seafood/egg salad.

Great piece; thank you. I am a big gardener and a veggie lover -- have been struggling with not being able to eat them like I used to (fast and hard!). Have worked out a few things like cutting up the broccoli smaller and just eating the tops, peeling beets, etc. But I miss the volume -- and so does my digestion. Have not been able to get enough fiber despite chia seeds, flax seeds, Miracle Fiber (veggie), psyllium, you name it! Any suggestions very welcome. I tended in this direction prior to surgery so it's not a big surprise but I have got to get things moving. It's only been three months so I'm hoping my body will adjust. Wondering if I should do a series of colonics, if that would help.

Great piece; thank you. I am a big gardener and a veggie lover -- have been struggling with not being able to eat them like I used to (fast and hard!). Have worked out a few things like cutting up the broccoli smaller and just eating the tops, peeling beets, etc. But I miss the volume -- and so does my digestion. Have not been able to get enough fiber despite chia seeds, flax seeds, Miracle Fiber (veggie), psyllium, you name it! Any suggestions very welcome. I tended in this direction prior to surgery so it's not a big surprise but I have got to get things moving. It's only been three months so I'm hoping my body will adjust. Wondering if I should do a series of colonics, if that would help.

Infrequent bowel movements are not considered a medical problem, but when that goes on and on, it can be very uncomfortable (for me, anyway).

A colonic would probably help (I had one before my last colonoscopy), but having to do that on a regular basis for the rest of your life could get expensive and a colonic is not risk-free because there's an area in the neighborhood of the anus that can cause heart problems if it's stimulated the wrong way (if that's confusing, remember that I'm not a doctor!).

Another approach would be to swallow an 8-ounce bottle of magnesium citrate (immediately followed by an 8-ounce glass of Water when the situation gets to the very uncomfortable stage. It makes me gag but it does work (I think that other forms, like liquid gel pills, don't have the laxative effect). But...using it (or any other laxative for that matter) on a regular basis can make your bowels too lazy to function properly, which is a worse problem than constipation.

Another thing I've used in the past is Laci Le Beau Super Dieter's Tea. I get it in the tea & coffee section at Walmart. It comes in a few flavor choices; I prefer the cinnamon. You make the tea with one teabag and 12 oz of water; that has 1.9 g of senna in it. You can also find senna in tablet form. But...it's not a good idea to use senna on a regular basis (see above).

Do you have a gastroenterologist whose advice you could seek?

Oh, I forgot - you can find a wide variety of foods like breads and cereals that have extra fiber along with their natural fiber content. And some grains and Beans already have a high fiber content, and certainly taste better than magnesium citrate. There's a list of high-fiber foods here: http://www.mayoclinic.org/high-fiber-foods/art-20050948

Great piece; thank you. I am a big gardener and a veggie lover -- have been struggling with not being able to eat them like I used to (fast and hard!). Have worked out a few things like cutting up the broccoli smaller and just eating the tops, peeling beets, etc. But I miss the volume -- and so does my digestion. Have not been able to get enough fiber despite chia seeds, flax seeds, Miracle Fiber (veggie), psyllium, you name it! Any suggestions very welcome. I tended in this direction prior to surgery so it's not a big surprise but I have got to get things moving. It's only been three months so I'm hoping my body will adjust. Wondering if I should do a series of colonics, if that would help.

Be sure to drink LOTS of Water when you're eating high-fiber foods and/or supplements. If you don't, the constipation is like to get worse instead of better. Water helps the body assimilate the fiber.

Great piece; thank you. I am a big gardener and a veggie lover -- have been struggling with not being able to eat them like I used to (fast and hard!). Have worked out a few things like cutting up the broccoli smaller and just eating the tops, peeling beets, etc. But I miss the volume -- and so does my digestion. Have not been able to get enough fiber despite chia seeds, flax seeds, Miracle Fiber (veggie), psyllium, you name it! Any suggestions very welcome. I tended in this direction prior to surgery so it's not a big surprise but I have got to get things moving. It's only been three months so I'm hoping my body will adjust. Wondering if I should do a series of colonics, if that would help.

Infrequent bowel movements are not considered a medical problem, but when that goes on and on, it can be very uncomfortable (for me, anyway).

A colonic would probably help (I had one before my last colonoscopy), but having to do that on a regular basis for the rest of your life could get expensive and a colonic is not risk-free because there's an area in the neighborhood of the anus that can cause heart problems if it's stimulated the wrong way (if that's confusing, remember that I'm not a doctor!).

Another approach would be to swallow an 8-ounce bottle of magnesium citrate (immediately followed by an 8-ounce glass of water when the situation gets to the very uncomfortable stage. It makes me gag but it does work (I think that other forms, like liquid gel pills, don't have the laxative effect). But...using it (or any other laxative for that matter) on a regular basis can make your bowels too lazy to function properly, which is a worse problem than constipation.

Another thing I've used in the past is Laci Le Beau Super Dieter's Tea. I get it in the tea & coffee section at Walmart. It comes in a few flavor choices; I prefer the cinnamon. You make the tea with one teabag and 12 oz of water; that has 1.9 g of senna in it. You can also find senna in tablet form. But...it's not a good idea to use senna on a regular basis (see above).

Do you have a gastroenterologist whose advice you could seek?

Thanks so much, Jean. I've been adding some magnesium to my drink -- a 32 ounce bottle filled with water, 1/2 cup aloe and 1/2 cranberry. I try to drink at least two of those a day plus I am a tea drinker, so I get a lot of fluid in. I've tried the Smooth Move tea (another version of senna) but agree that's not a good long term solution. I suspect at three months out my body is still adjusting to the new reality of much less food, etc.

Although I am a sleever rather than a bander, I love this article and there are some great tips that any of us can learn and benefit from, regardless of our WLS of choice! Thanks for the post! Great information!