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Why no caffeine?



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I can't remember the reason behind, no caffeine......was it to be forever or just at the beginning?

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There are differing opinions on this. My NUT tells me not to have any ever again but I am a bad girl and I have coffee every day. I am still doing well in my weight loss. They say that caffeine can cause stomach upset due to acidity on your new pouch, and also it can mess with your natural hunger (making you either not hungry or too hungry unnaturally).

That said I only have one (occasionally two) cups of coffee each morning. I waited for three months though, so that I ws fully healed before having it.

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I was told to avoid caffeine because it is a diuretic. But here is an article that might help you to understand why

http://www.peachtreebariatrics.com/2015/02/08/are-caffeinated-drinks-ok-after-bariatric-surgery/

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13 minutes ago, Pup said:

I can't remember the reason behind, no caffeine......was it to be forever or just at the beginning?

My NUT of course prefers if we'd stay away from it forever, but they mainly want you off of it in the beginning because it's a diuretic. Since it can be such a challenge to get all of your fluids in the beginning they don't want you flushing it out of your system quickly. My NUT had a policy that if you were going to drink caffeine you had to drink extra to "replace" it. Meaning if you drank 1 cup of coffee you would need to drink an extra cup of Water to compensate for it.

I've tried having a little bit of regular coffee and it has not sat well with me so far, and I was a coffee junkie. Decaf hasn't been a problem, so I can only attribute the blah feeling being from the caffeine. I've done a few pots that were 1/4 regular coffee and 3/4 decaf and have been good. Over time I plan to increase it to half and half.

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My Dr said because it is an appetite stimulant.

I told him it had the exact opposite effect on me. I have had caffeine since week one. No issues at all. And I have had coffee the whole time. I drink probably 6-10 cups of coffee a day.

You can't dehydrate yourself with coffee. Science has debunked that so many times.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/01/13/262175623/coffee-myth-busting-cup-of-joe-may-help-hydration-and-memory

There is a NY times article that I don't have the time to find but there are like 10 scientific notations in it.

Anyway fluids are fluids, You would have to drink gallons of coffee to get enough caffeine to dehydrate you.

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I know that there are many differing opinions/advice on this, and in the end you have to do what's right for your personal situation. My NUT and surgeon both have no problems with caffeine from coffee or tea, but from day 1 have been adamant about not having soda or energy drinks...

I will tell you that caffeine hit me a lot harder after the surgery than it ever did before. I believe that's because it's going through your system and into your body much faster, but that's a personal experience, and I'm sure everyone's is different.

Best of luck!

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My surgeon is 100 percent fine with coffee. Do I have six cups a day? No. I have one cup, or I take a Premier Protein to the coffee shop, have them steam it for me and add a shot of espresso.


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I asked my surgeon and she said it had a lot of acid in it. Bad early on before your stitches heal. Potentially bad if you have or develop acid reflux. I took 6 months off and drink 2 cups in the morning and an ice coffee every day.


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I find it surprising that there are so many different "reasons" for people to avoid caffeine coming from their surgeons. The "acidic" nature of it is always hilarious to me. Your stomach has hydrochloric acid in it already. Like, as soon as they close your stomach, it's producing acid again.

The diuretic nature of caffeine is nullified by the amount of Water present in pretty much any caffeinated beverage, so that one isn't true either.

The appetite stimulant is one I haven't heard before. Doesn't make sense to me either. Hell, all the diet pills and appetite suppressants on the market have caffeine as a key ingredient. So I would call bunk on that one as well.

The only verifiable thing I could find on why bariatric patients should not have caffeine is because caffeine attaches to the same receptors that absorb Vitamin D and calcium; and those two are vitally important the first year.

It is also common for caffeine to irritate the bowels in some people. And as a gastric patient, whether you have a sleeve or a pouch, you no longer have a reservoir to hold the coffee in before it seeps into the intestines. So you get a full dose pretty much right off the bat.

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I find it surprising that there are so many different "reasons" for people to avoid caffeine coming from their surgeons. The "acidic" nature of it is always hilarious to me. Your stomach has hydrochloric acid in it already. Like, as soon as they close your stomach, it's producing acid again.
The diuretic nature of caffeine is nullified by the amount of Water present in pretty much any caffeinated beverage, so that one isn't true either.
The appetite stimulant is one I haven't heard before. Doesn't make sense to me either. Hell, all the diet pills and appetite suppressants on the market have caffeine as a key ingredient. So I would call bunk on that one as well.
The only verifiable thing I could find on why bariatric patients should not have caffeine is because caffeine attaches to the same receptors that absorb Vitamin D and calcium; and those two are vitally important the first year.
It is also common for caffeine to irritate the bowels in some people. And as a gastric patient, whether you have a sleeve or a pouch, you no longer have a reservoir to hold the coffee in before it seeps into the intestines. So you get a full dose pretty much right off the bat.


Very helpful...thanks




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11 minutes ago, Pup said:

Very helpful...thanks

Quite welcome.

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44 minutes ago, landoflaura said:

It also has a dehydrating effect on the body. Working hard to keep the Water intake up! Caffeine works against that.

Unless a person is taking caffeine pills, the Water content of whatever beverage they are getting their caffeine from will be sufficient to counteract the diuretic affects.

Of course, this does not necessarily cover the poisonous "energy" drinks. But coffee and even Mt Dew have enough water to counteract the caffeine. The bigger concern with pop would be the sodium content.

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Caffeine stimulates hunger.


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I can't remember the reason behind, no caffeine......was it to be forever or just at the beginning?


My NUT said no caffeine until after a month and then I'm able to if meeting my Water goals isn't a problem because caffeine dehydrates you you have to replace it with the same amount of water, so if I have a 16 oz coffee I need to add 16 oz of water on top of my 64 oz liquid goal.


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      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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