Hello all... I have a tentative date for September 24th for my gastric sleeve procedure. I'm very excited and nervous at the same time! One of the questions I have is-- are there any natural or artificial sweeteners that I can use after my surgery going forward with the rest of my life?

I'm trying now to get used to not eating sugar but don't want to go to artificial sweeteners if I will no longer be able to eat those either. What about the sugar that are in fruit and milk? How about monk fruit as a sweetener?

I really dislike artificial sweeteners. I just use normal sugar in moderation post surgery. I don’t really eat or drink much sweet stuff though....

Oh boy.. wish I didn't like sugar! Today is day 2 of no sugar other than what is in my flavored coffee creamer. I'm pheenin for my "fix" trying to get more information

What does your dietitians plan say?

My dietician instructions: No real sugar. I can use splenda or stevia in weight loss mode.

Depends on how far you want to take what is healthy........Artificial sweeteners are chemically processed. I don't have the time to grow, dry and grind stevia leaves. lol

In recipes my dietician may use a bit of agave, molasses and raw honey in small amounts.

And another mini-thought, try adding a sprig of fresh mint or another herb to water. I hate, loathe and abominate pee-warm water. With a spring of peppermint and /or spearmint I can stand it. Where did I get the fresh mint? Any cook worth her salt has an herb? garden. Bah dump dump.?

2 hours ago, mandmom said:

Oh boy.. wish I didn't like sugar! Today is day 2 of no sugar other than what is in my flavored coffee creamer. I'm pheenin for my "fix" trying to get more information

Just chose an artificial sweetener with no glycemic load.

as for the coffee i use that time to get in my Premeir protein drink by adding it in 1/3's to my giant coffee cup

Amazon has great prices and costco is not bad if you have a card. I use chocolate or caramel for a great coffee.

but i do drink it black after i finish the protein drink.

I use a little bit of Stevia.. I find it very sweet though so only use it when I really need it.

7 minutes ago, allwet said:

Just chose an artificial sweetener with no glycemic load.

as for the coffee i use that time to get in my Premeir Protein Drink by adding it in 1/3's to my giant coffee cup

Amazon has great prices and costco is not bad if you have a card. I use chocolate or caramel for a great coffee.

but i do drink it black after i finish the Protein drink.

Omgosh! Great ideas! Especially the protein powder in my coffee!

1 hour ago, mandmom said:

Omgosh! Great ideas! Especially the Protein Powder in my coffee!

not the powder although you can do that, I use the 11oz cartons

1 hour ago, _Kate_ said:

I use a little bit of Stevia.. I find it very sweet though so only use it when I really need it.

Yes I agree.. TOO SWEET

Just my opinion:

this is the greatest chance you will ever get to get off sweet tasting food. I used this to get off it all. My surgery nutritionist even asked us to not eat fruit at all for 6 months. She called fruit “sugar bombs.” It has nothing we need in it that we can’t get from veg. So I drank only water or bone broth (you could have unsweetened teas and coffees ). I ate only unflavored unsweetened protein powder (I mixed it with raw milk which was already a staple in my diet and full of probiotics etc). I eat absolutely no breads or baked goods or desserts. My treat was dark chocolate, when I was ready to have a snack. I started with 85% and now I am at 90% dark and above.

I do use a little maple syrup in my batch of granola i make a week, and have a little bit each day. At 6 months out, I added berries - about 1/2 c a day.

If you don’t eat sweet tasting things, you get enough pleasure from roasted veggies, potatoes, etc. really sweet things make me feel sick now. I am SO GLAD. Just giving you this in case you want to reset our sweet tooth. So glad I did. I think I wold have lost weight after surgery anyway, as most people do eat sweet foods all the time. But I think my getting off all sweeteners and sweet foods will help me when I’m in maintenance.

My plan allowed any no calorie sweetener.

I too tried to rid myself of my sweet tooth as much as possible, but I did use artificially sweetened protein powder/drinks. I was still able to break the sweet habit/cravings. I prefer Splenda but also use stevia.

20 minutes ago, GotProlactinoma said:

Just my opinion:

this is the greatest chance you will ever get to get off sweet tasting food. I used this to get off it all. My surgery nutritionist even asked us to not eat fruit at all for 6 months. She called fruit “sugar bombs.” It has nothing we need in it that we can’t get from veg. So I drank only Water or bone broth (you could have unsweetened teas and coffees ). I ate only unflavored unsweetened Protein Powder (I mixed it with raw milk which was already a staple in my diet and full of Probiotics etc). I eat absolutely no breads or baked goods or Desserts. My treat was dark chocolate, when I was ready to have a snack. I started with 85% and now I am at 90% dark and above.

I do use a little maple Syrup in my batch of granola i make a week, and have a little bit each day. At 6 months out, I added berries - about 1/2 c a day.

If you don’t eat sweet tasting things, you get enough pleasure from roasted veggies, potatoes, etc. really sweet things make me feel sick now. I am SO GLAD. Just giving you this in case you want to reset our sweet tooth. So glad I did. I think I wold have lost weight after surgery anyway, as most people do eat sweet foods all the time. But I think my getting off all sweeteners and sweet foods will help me when I’m in maintenance.

Wow you really are a power of example! Thank you so much

My NUT and I have talked about the fact I really can’t stand artificial sweeteners or honestly most sweeteners. Most don’t sit well with me or taste way to sweet and or chemically. Short term I’m pretty much avoiding all of it with the exception of what’s in my protein shakes and or as part of some of my flavored teas. Protein shake wise I’m usually good to get one in but it’s takes me multiple hours. Tea wise the qty is so low it’ doesn’t even register. My meals now are pretty much savory and I’m totally okay with that.

Longer term we are having the convo around fresh fruit. It makes smoothies drinkable for me let alone I love love love fresh berries. It’s one of the few things I’m completely unwilling to give up longer term. My NUT is actually okay with that. Of course I’m tempting fate and it’ll likely be one of the things my body can’t handle.

I agree with above that the more used to non-sweet things you are, the more you enjoy the natural sweetness and flavours of natural foods like steamed pumpkin and even broccoli (the broccoli I grow at home turns out quite sweet). I can't have aspartame as it triggers headaches (same with MSG and it's many hidden forms), and I avoid most other sweeteners too: splenda/sucralose, acesulphemate K, and saccherine. One or more of these are in almost every sweet "diet" product.

The meal replacements I had to have pre-surgery were stevia sweetened (and not very sweet) because optifast contains aspartame, and the protein water I am drinking is also stevia sweetened (and sweeter than I'd prefer). I used to have two strong coffees a day with a sugar in each, then moved to an equivalent amount of powdered stevia in deaf coffee, and am slowly reducing the sweetness now. Once I'm able to get most of my protein from meats and eggs and rarely need to supplement I'd prefer to not have anything very sweet in my diet. It makes the temptation of sweets/chocolates so much less because it will actually taste gross and overly sweet if I did have some.