Saying no to soft drinks after bariatric surgery

It’s very easy to consume more calories than you may expect throughout the day. Whether you’re picking at your children’s food while you’re preparing their lunches, having a sneaky teaspoon of sugar in your morning coffee or having a nice cool refreshing can of soft drink on a summer’s day. Today we will be exploring the latter; soft drinks. Did you know that a 2-litre bottle of Coca Cola contains around 800 calories and a whopping 220g of sugar? That only takes around 6 – 8 glasses of coke a day… 

Drinking your calories in a day aside (let’s not forget other culprits like creamy or iced coffees, milkshakes or alcohol), there is another reason why you should be avoiding soft drinks when you have had bariatric surgery. 

Soft drinks and bariatric surgery

After your bariatric surgery, no matter what procedure you had, the volume of your stomach has been significantly reduced. The aim of this is to prevent you from being as hungry as usual, to make you eat and drink slowly, and ultimately to consume fewer (calories) than usual. 

The carbonation of soft drinks releases carbon dioxide in your stomach, which takes up stomach volume. Following bariatric surgery, this can create several problems, from bloating putting pressure on the incisions to seriously upsetting your stomach. 

Early after surgery, soft drinks (or other fizzy drinks like seltzer, beer, and fizzy water) will make it more difficult to consume foods and other liquids (such as water, which is incredibly important for keeping hydrated). Although the aim of bariatric surgery is to reduce the volumes of food, it is important to ensure that you are gaining sufficient nutrition through the smaller volumes of food that you are able to consume, so avoiding fizzy drinks during this time is crucial. If you use fizzy drinks as a way of “pushing” food through your stomach you may cheat yourself out of weight loss.

If you are eating and drinking at the same time, you may fill up to fast and not finish your meal, which can lead to people wanting to graze and snack. Drinking after you eat can push food through and sometimes make it easy to eat more than what you need! If you find yourself both thirsty and hungry at the same time, have a drink (low calorie) first, as drinking with a full stomach may be difficult.

Regular consumption of carbonated drinks also bathes your teeth in acid which will vastly speed up tooth decay, regardless of what else is in the drink.

Caffeine content

Not everybody is aware, but most soft drinks also contain caffeine at varying levels. Caffeine is a stimulant which can lead to worsening sleep habits. People who are awake hours after their evening meals, especially if they are overstimulated will almost always end up mindlessly consuming high-calorie foods. 

Alternatives to soft drinks

Everybody knows how important it is to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water throughout the day. When your body is dehydrated fat cells become rubbery and cannot easily metabolise, meaning it is harder to lose weight if you don’t drink enough water. But water isn’t for everybody. Some find it plain or boring, and as a result, struggle to consume as much as their body needs in a day. 

There are many flavoured water alternatives on the market, although you do need to be careful as a lot of these contain high levels of sugar which is worse than fizzy low calorie drinks. Try adding a natural flavour to water such as slices of lemon or lime, or any type of fruit, herbal/fruit teas are a zero calorie and zero sugar alternative as well. 

Try to avoid…

Energy drinks – these are often fizzy drinks and are usually high in sugar. Even if they are ‘sugar-free’ versions they are typically high in caffeine, and the high levels of sweetener will keep you “hooked” on excessively sweet foods. 

Soft drinks – you should avoid soft drinks with sugar altogether as it is an easy way to consume a higher number of calories than you should post-bariatric surgery. Even sugar-free soft drinks should be avoided, as they are often over-carbonated and over sweetened. If you have a craving for fizz, either let the drink go flat or pick up a sodastream ™ machine which can create a non-explosive, and slightly more interesting version of plain or flavoured water. 

Alcohol – check out our blog about Alcohol & Weight Loss for more information. Alcohol is a “triple threat” to weight loss surgery, it’s high in calories, it’s a potent appetite stimulant and it promotes poor (high energy) food choices.

We hope that you have found our blog about soft drinks useful today. If you are interested in bariatric surgery and would like more information please contact our practice to make an appointment by calling (02) 9553 1120.