Hi everyone. I am about 2 months out (RNY 3/9/16) and I had celery at a bariatric support group yesterday. I knew veggies could be tricky, but I had just sat through an hour of nutritionist counseling lecture, and she really recommended getting enough greens. Most of the people in my practice are sleevers, and there isn't a lot of talk about dumping or differences between the two groups. My nutritionist even suggested I try the black bean Pasta, although I am nervous about that one. Starting this weekend I had a small salad and up to a cucumber a day with no issues at all. My calories started going higher than suggested, so I figured it was time to add some veggies back and getting more Fiber. I thought the celery would be ok. I though about it and even said to myself "can I eat this yet?" , and I avoided the raw carrots and ate a little of the tender celery stalks. 1-2 hours later I felt fine and ate more. I was really craving the veggies, took some home with me, and probably ate about 1-2 full size stalks, maybe 1-1.5 cups worth over several hours. I admit they tasted so good I just wanted more and I allowed myself to get carried away. I had some hummus/peanuts butter with them at the group, but most of the celery I ate plain. 12 hours later had a lot of cramping/etc./probably delayed dumping syndrome of some sort. I am very careful about grains/pasta/bread and sugars, but the celery got me. Any other "healthy" foods I should watch out for. I heard that steak and shellfish can also be hard to digest. Any other safe veggies. So far a small salad or cucumbers (peeled) seem fine, but I don't want to over do it.

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Not surprising, celery is a very fibrous vegetable and can be difficult to digest. I'd wait a big longer on celery, broccoli and asparagus due to this reason. Also maybe stay away from the skin and seeds of any fruits and veggies for now. Early on I did a lot of zucchini (seeded), some tomatoes and spinach as well. I often softened all of them by cooking though. As I progressed, I started trying some raw fruits and veggies... apples, carrots, berries, raw green Beans, etc. Once I got past 6 months I eat pretty much anything fruit/veggie related that I want without issue. I don't eat much celery, but it has not caused me any issues at this stage.

I am a celery addict and although haven't had WLS yet I've read that celery is often not tolerable after surgery (for the reason @@goblue9280 mentioned).

Edited May 4, 201610 yr by KristenLe

I'm only 2 weeks out so am not speaking from experience, rather, from theory :-). I think if you were to perhaps de-string your celery and chop into small pieces and mix with other foods (such as a Protein such as tuna?) you would be ok. One of my favorite salad recipes is a mango salad, but I guess its more of a salsa. I LOVE it... can eat just that for dinner :-). Perhaps try something like that to slowly start adding back celery to your diet but mix with a protein so it doesn't hit your intestines as one BIG lump of fiber :-) . Hope this helps and recipe below. YUMMMM!!

Finely chopped celery

Finely chopped cucumber

Finely chopped tomato

Finely chopped red onion

Small cubes of a medium-soft white cheese such as goats cheese or light cream cheese

1/2 mango chopped into small pieces

A scattering of toasted pine nuts

@@NewAngela - We're pretty close in terms of surgery dates (3/16 here) and I've found I can only have celery chopped up very small, as suggested above. Costco sells these amazing chicken salad cups made with greek yogurt instead of mayo that are 14g of protein for a 1/2 cup serving and have a small amount of celery. It's nice to have that little bit of crunch and I haven't had any dumping because of it. If making it smaller doesn't help, I'd hold off for a little bit. 2 months out is still pretty close to be having a lot of fibrous foods. I was told to wait at least 3-4 months before trying to add them in any significant amount.