Bariatric Recipe: Low Carb Low Sugar Corn Bread

Cornbread is one of many traditional Southern foods that are a staple for numerous homes across the U.S.  After Bariatric surgery, it is likely that you will still be able to enjoy this delectable bread on occasion, but in much smaller portions.

Cornbread after Bariatric Surgery

Bariatric Cornbread Recipe

As a rule, northerners prefer a sweet cornbread that contains a significant amount of sugar, while southerners prefer cornbread that is not sweet to the taste. After weight loss surgery, it is important to develop the tastes of a southerner, adhering to a cornbread recipe that won’t break all the rules. You shouldn’t make cornbread part of your daily, or even weekly, diet but don’t deny yourself  this comfort food when you’ve really got a hankering.

 

If you have undergone weight loss surgery, the best option is to seek out cornbread recipes that call for low sugar, low carb, non-traditional ingredients.  While you are supposed to avoid, or strongly limit, your carb intake after weight loss surgery, cornbread contains both dietary fibers and nutrients that can actually be quite healthy for you.

 

This Bariatric Recipe is High in Fiber

The basic ingredient of cornbread is corn meal, a healthy whole grain containing bran. Corn meal is also the germ and endosperm of the fruited grain, including all of the nutrients they contain. This whole grain food item helps by providing much needed fiber to the body

 

Whole-grain foods help the body by regulating bowel movements, absorbing excess cholesterol, and lowering blood sugars in the digestive system. The average slice of cornbread contains nearly two grams of fiber, which the body does not digest. However, fiber effectively passes through the digestive system, providing a feeling of ‘fullness’ without the calories.

 

Bariatric Cornbread is Full of Nutrients

There are quite a lot of nutrients in cornbread, including iron, calcium, folates, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, folic acid, and vitamins A, B 6 and B 12. Bariatric patients should be leery of prepared cornbread mixes, as these are known to contain excess sodium, animal fats and sugars.

 

The best way to make sure your corn bread is low carb, low sugar and low salt is by making it from scratch. If you would rather purchase prepared cornbread mixes, read package labels carefully. There are several new brands available on the market using Splenda, Stevia and other artificial sugars.

 

Bariatric Recipe: Making Healthy Southern Cornbread

You can make authentic southern style cornbread that is healthy and tastes great, using a cast iron skillet that has been heated in the oven. Pouring your cornbread mixture into a steaming hot pan will help brown the edges of your homemade bread. Another vitally important tip is to make the cornbread mixture using buttermilk… like a true southerner.

 

Ingredients:

One Cup of Whole Wheat Flour

One Cup of Corn Meal

1/4 Cup of Raw Sugar

Six Individual Stevia Packets (or 1/4 cup)

3 1/2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon of Salt

4 Tablespoons of Dry Buttermilk

1/3 Cup of Unsweetened Applesauce

One Large Egg

One Cup of Water

 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Spray pan with cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the egg, applesauce and water, stirring until well combined.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

 

Nutrition Facts:

This cornbread recipe is only 138.7 calories per serving, offering only 1.4 grams of fat, 2.7 grams of dietary fiber, one gram of sugar and 4.6 grams of protein.

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Fast Food after Bariatric Surgery

Eating fast food is not the ideal choice after having weight loss surgery due to the excessively high calorie options and unhealthy offerings of most menus. Bariatric patients on a low sugar, low fat diet will find that fast food restaurants are not conducive to meeting current weight loss goals. However, there are rare occasions when you will find that a quick fast food meal is necessary.

 

Is Fast Food Okay for the Bariatric Patient?

You will be surprised to learn that, on rare occasions, fast food may help keep you on the path to healthy weight loss. You can easily curb your appetite with a healthy fast food option when you choose wisely. Here are some instances when fast food becomes the Bariatric patient’s friend.

bariatric Fast Food

Starving and Away from Home

After weight loss surgery, your regular eating habits are easily thrown upside down after missing just one meal. There will be times when you will be away from home and unable to buy or prepare a proper meal, one that meets the exact needs of your diet plan. You will become extremely hungry and look for public dining options. Allowing yourself to become exceptionally hungry can be difficult to control, and often leads to overeating.

Once you have allowed yourself to reach the ‘starving’ point, you will be in danger of eating far too much. A good example of this is going to the grocery store without eating first. You will sabotage your budget by buying more food than you would have if you had eaten.

You can avoid reaching this point by purchasing a small sensible meal at a fast food restaurant. It is very important that you choose the healthiest menu options available, avoiding foods that are not advised after weight loss surgery. Many fast food restaurants are beginning to offer yogurt, apple slices and other healthy alternatives, drastically reducing the calorie count for your meal.

Other tips include avoiding the drive-thru window and dining inside so you will eat more slowly, leave off the bun, order grilled food instead of greasy fried options, and avoid carbonated beverages. Water is your best option, consumed thirty minutes before or after your meal.

Reminder of Your Life Changing Decision

Food should never be considered a reward when you are dieting but dining out occasionally can be rather fun. When you choose healthy options at a fast food restaurant, you are reminded of how far you’ve come and how much you’ve changed. As your body becomes accustomed to healthier, more sensible choices, the cravings for fast food will diminish entirely.

After weight loss surgery, many Bariatric patients will decide to remove fast food from their diets entirely. With each new, healthier dining choice made, your attitude and palate also changes. You may find, after a little time has passed, your best-loved fast food menu items have become less satisfying than you recall, describing them as too greasy, too salty and/or too sweet.

Consume Fast Food in Moderation  

It is important to realize that fast food can damage your weight loss goals if consumed on a regular basis. Common sense is required with every meal chosen by those who have undergone weight loss surgery. Fast food is not off limits to Bariatric patients, when eaten in moderation.  If you make seldom visit fast food restaurants and make only smart menu choices, you will continue to meet or exceed your weight loss goals.

Obese Children and Sleep Apnea

Comorbid Effects of Obesity in Children – Sleep Apnea

Childhood obesity is believed to affect approximately thirteen percent of children from six to eleven years of age and fourteen percent of adolescent children age twelve to nineteen years of age. These numbers continue to climb annually, putting these groups of children at risk for type 2 Diabetes, heart disease and even hypertension. Another risk that we fail to remember when considering the comorbid effects of childhood obesity is Sleep Apnea. According to statistics collected by the Surgeon General, Sleep Apnea is another risk of childhood obesity. Sleep Apnea can be serious and even life-threatening if not managed properly.

Childhood obesity

What is Sleep Apnea?

Characterized by short, involuntary pauses during sleep, Sleep Apnea can happen several times per night. Children who suffer from Sleep Apnea find it hard to get a good night’s rest as with each pause in breathing, the average sufferer will abruptly awake, often gasping for breath.

Without restorative sleep, children with Sleep Apnea are tired and often feel the need to sleep all through the following day. Attention spans shorten and children become more sedimentary. This often leads to a decrease in grades, sports and other activities. While overweight children are at high risk for Sleep Apnea, thin children are not completely safe from this condition.

 

Symptoms of Sleep Apnea in Obese Children

Often times, the symptoms of Sleep Apnea are overlooked or explained away as children are labeled as attention deficit or hyperactive. Some common daytime symptoms to watch for in children include: hyperactivity, inattention, behavior problems and sleepiness.

Children with night time symptoms of can exhibit the following Sleep Apnea issues: snoring, restless sleep, breathing with only the mouth, pauses in breathing during sleep, and difficulty waking up in the mornings, even after a full night’s rest.

 

Treating Sleep Apnea

Childhood obesity is not the only cause of Sleep Apnea in children. Common causes can include enlarged tonsils or adenoids and some dental conditions such as a serious overbite while less common causes include tumors or growths obstructions in the airway. Down and Pierre-Robin Syndromes may also cause Sleep Apnea symptoms because of enlargements affecting the jaw and tongue.

Whether child or adult, obstructive Sleep Apnea may cause a bevy of serious and even life threatening complications. Some of these complications include cardiovascular disease and accidents as well as premature death.

It is vitally important for parents of obese children to watch for signs and symptoms of Sleep Apnea – especially labored snoring or pauses in breathing. If any of these warning signs are present, make an appointment with your child’s pediatrician to discuss the possible causes and ask for the appropriate medical examinations.

While it is doubtful that your child will need to undergo weight reduction surgery, this is a growing possibility that may be considered. Your pediatrician will help with weighing the options and making an educated decision that is best for the health of your child. One great benefit is that in many cases after weight reduction surgery in children, doctors have found that the body is able to slowly heal itself from several results of obesity. 

Lastly, when dealing with obese children, it is important to be attentive to the possible onset of health issues such as Sleep Apnea without singling children out. Always be supportive and use tact as children know when they are obese and need both love and support.

Amazing Protein Superfood and Bariatric Recipe

Amazing Protein Superfood and Bariatric Recipe

Pureed Black Bean Soup

When recovering from gastric bypass surgery, you will be limited to pureed foods for several weeks and beans are a great substitute for meat that should be added to your diet. Beans are a miracle food, known to help chronic conditions which include heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Beans are also good for the waist as they provide ingredients that make you feel full much faster than other foods.

Bariatric Protein puree
Bariatric Protein puree

Another reason to choose beans for much needed protein is that it provides the fiber that many of our diets lack. A one half cup of prepared beans, the proper serving at the pureed food phase, contains six grams of fiber whereas pureed meat contains none.

While you are recovering and watching your caloric intake, remember that beans are very low in sugar and high in antioxidants.  This prevents the spiking of insulin and the presence of frequent hunger. In addition, choosing beans over meat will reduce the saturated fats in your diet.

Black Beans, used in the recipe below, contain about three times more Omega-3 fatty acids than other bean types. Not only do black beans have a rich, smoky flavor but they also contain other vital nutrients your body needs such as Molybdenum, Folate, Copper, Manganese, Vitamin B1, Vitamin C, Phosphorus, Magnesium and Iron.

Before, during and after your gastric bypass surgery, your nutritionist, doctor or dietician has stressed the important of having plenty of proteins in your diet. As you go through the recovery phases from liquids to solid foods, proteins should be eaten first as these nutrients are greatly needed. You do not want to fill up on other foods without getting an appropriate serving of proteins. Our pureed Black Bean Soup Recipe will help.

 

Pureed Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

  • ½ tablespoon of coconut or other healthy cooking oil
  • ½ chopped onion
  • ¼ teaspoon of chili powder
  • ½ teaspoon of ground cumin
  • 1 15-ounce can of black beans, rinsed
  • 1 ½ cups of water
  • 1/4 cup of low sodium mild salsa
  • 1 teaspoon of lime juice
  • Dash of salt substitute and ground pepper

 

Optional Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons of reduced-fat or fat free sour cream (optional)

 

Directions:

  • First, heat the oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add chopped onion and cook two or three minutes, until onion softens and becomes clear.
  • Add chili powder, cumin and other spices and continue to cook for one minute longer.
  • Add the beans, salsa and water and bring mixture to a boil.
  • Reduce heat to simmer and leave for ten minutes; remove and stir in lime juice.
  • Transfer to a blender and puree before returning the mixture to the saucepan.
  • Serve the pureed bean soup garnished with low fat sour cream if desired.

 

Additional information:

This recipe will yield 2 ½ cups of delicious pureed Black Bean Soup which is approximately four servings after gastric bypass surgery. Because your appetite has decreased dramatically, you may cover and store this soup in your refrigerator for up to three days. This recipe is 95 calories and 2 grams of fat for each half cup serving.

*If you do not normally use spices such as cumin and chili powder, please use sparingly. Taste the soup to make sure your digestive tract does not reject it, which is common when trying new foods after gastric bypass surgery.

How the Brain Responds to Food After Gastric Bypass Surgery

Gastric Bypass Surgery patients lose more weight over the long them than those who have undergone gastric band operations.

A recent study found that obese patients who’ve had gastric bypass surgery experience changes in their brain which affect how the brain itself responds to food.  The Medical Research Council (MRC) found that this procedure reduces not only hunger, but the drive to eat for pleasure.

This was not found to be true of patients who have undergone gastric banding operations.  Therefore over the long run, gastric bypass patients lose more Gastric Bypass eat lessweight.  The research was published in the journal Gut and the theory is that physical changes made to the gut during surgery somehow have an effect on the drive to eat for pleasure.

Dr. Tony Goldstone from the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College London and consultant endocrinologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said that  “Both procedures reduce appetite and have health benefits including long-term weight loss and improvement or even complete resolution of type 2 diabetes. However, gastric bypass surgery appears to be more effective for weight loss and has a more profound effect on the way in which the brain responds to food.”

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was used to measure brain activity by scientists from Imperial College London, UK.  They studied 61 men and women who had lost weight using either one of these surgical methods.  21 people had gastric bypass and 20 people had gastric band surgery.  They used a control group of 20 people who had no surgery.

Patients who had gastric bypass surgery had less activity in brain’s reward centers when shown pictures of food, compared with those who had gastric banding surgery.  Gastric bypass patients also rated high-calorie foods as less appealing and as a result ate less fat in their diet than patients having gastric banding surgery or people in the control group.

However compared to the un-operated control group, both groups that had surgery had similarly reduced hunger and seemed unrelated to their psychological traits.

Researchers could not determine what caused these changes in brain activity, but did see differences in the patients’ metabolism which might be a factor.  The gut hormones that make us feel full after a meal were higher in the gastric bypass patients.  Levels of bile, which pay a role in digestion were also higher.

Another factor that was observed was that patients with gastric bypass surgery were physically uncomfortable, even nauseous after eating foods high in sugar and fat.  So this of course influenced their eating habits.

Dr. Goldstone concluded that “These findings emphasize that different bariatric procedures work in different ways to influence eating behavior,” added Goldstone. “This may have important implications for the way we treat patients with obesity and could help pave the way for a more personalized approach when deciding on the choice of bariatric procedure by taking the impact on food preferences and cravings into account.”

 

 

 

 

 

Bariatric Eating Guidelines: Why Can You Not Drink During Meals?

Knowing how much drinking you are allowed to do is important with bariatric eating. It is essential to follow bariatric nutrition in order to avoid serious health risks. Bariatric surgery can dramatically change your life, but you need to carefully follow your new dietary regime in order to see best results and avoid serious health complications. Before you consider bariatric surgery you want to consider all the risks involved. If you have already had the procedure and want help maintaining a healthy lifestyle you need to know what to do. This article can help you understand the health risks associated with drinking during meals after bariatric surgery.

How to Eat After Bariatric Surgery- Bariatric Eating Guidelines

Bariatric surgery and the resulting nutrition and diet that you follow are a good way to help you stop over eating, but it can also come with home health problems if you don’t follow the proper bariatric surgery eating guidelines. Bariatric surgery will reduce the size of your stomach and therefore, reduce the amount of food that can be contained in your stomach. If is important to eat slowly and carefully chew your food after bariatric surgery.

bariatric eating guidelines

 

Typically, not following bariatric eating guidelines will lead to nausea and vomiting. These symptoms are the same that you would feel if you ate too fast or ate too much food. However, there are other health issues that can occur after bariatric surgery that are easy to avoid if you follow proper eating habits. Let us look at some of these issues.

Some nutritional problems that occur after bariatric surgery include the following:

· Difficulty digesting food – especially red meats, bread products and fruit and vegetable skins.

· Intolerance to certain foods – especially in the few days after the operation.

· Malnutrition as a result of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

· Changes in bowel habits.

· Dehydration as a result of inadequate drinking.

· Some symptoms to look for after bariatric surgery include the following:

· Dry mouth

· Headache

· Fatigue

· Strong smelling and/or dark urine

· Lactose intolerance

· Gas

· Diarrhea

· Bloating

· Cramping

 

Tips on How Much and When to Drink and Eat After Bariatric Surgery

Following bariatric surgery you will need to abide by some simple bariatric eating guidelines and take daily dietary supplements and a regimen of multi-vitamins in order to avoid malnutrition and get the missing nutrients from you new reduced diet. When you eat less, you will also be consuming less fiber so it is important to drink as much water as possible, exercise regularly and eat natural fiber sources such as oatmeal or applesauce.

Since bariatric surgery is reducing the size of your stomach it is important that you don’t drink too much fluids with you meal because this will over extend your stomach.  This will increase your feelings of nausea and increase your risk of vomiting. Also, drinking with your meals causes the food to travel faster through your stomach, potentially making you hungry sooner. Some foods can also be expanded as a result of mixing with water. Therefore, it is important to drink fluids often, but before and after meals.

 

Bariatric surgery is one of the best procedures to help obese patients lose weight. If you follow the tips above you will be able to reduce your chance of complications that can make the procedure uncomfortable.

Frozen Banana Chocolate Shake | Liquid Diet for Bariatric Surgery

Liquid Diet for Bariatric Surgery

Frozen Banana Chocolate Shake

Bananas Aren’t Just for Monkeys!

This yummy shake is good for your liquid diet for bariatric surgery, it includes super healthy bananas.  There are many health benefits to eating bananas.

  • Bananas help with depression
  • Help sustain blood sugar
  • Protect against Type II Diabetes
  • High in Potassium and low in salt
  • Bananas act as a prebiotic, helping grow good bacteria in the bowels
  • Produce digestive enzymes to assist in absorbing nutrients

I could go on and on about the health benefits of bananas, but you aren’t here for a lecture on bananas:)

Recipe for Frozen Banana Chocolate Shake

To make the Shake you will need:

  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 medium banana (frozen)
  • 1 Scoop Protein Powder (I used Six Star Nutrition Whey Isolate)

Mix with blender until ready and enjoy!

calories liquid shake