For most people, eating sliders is a good thing. Popularized by the American food chain, White Castle, a slider (originally Slider) is a miniature grilled hamburger or cheeseburger on a steamed bun that is often served with onion and dill pickles and other condiments. They were originally sold for a nickel a piece in the 1940s, making it affordable to add a side of fries for just pennies. Overall this is a good type of “slider” food.
Patient slider foods for weight loss surgery are the curse of good intentions and ignorance that often lead to dumping syndrome, weight loss plateaus and eventual weight gain. Slider foods, for weight loss surgery patients, are bland simple processed carbohydrates with little or no nutritional value that slide right through the surgical stomach pouch without providing nutrition or satiety. The most innocuous of slider foods are saltine crackers, often eaten with hot tea or other beverages, to soothe the stomach in illness or while recovering from surgery.
The most commonly eaten slider foods include pretzels, crackers (saltine, graham, Ritz, etc.), filled cracker snacks such as Ritz Bites, popcorn, cheese snacks (Cheetos) or cheese crackers, tortilla chips with salsa, potato chips, Contains Sugar-Free. Cookies, Cake, and Candy. You’ll notice that these slider foods are often salty and cause dry mouth, so they must be consumed with liquid to be palatable. In this way these sliders become food. They are also often devoid of nutritional value.
The process of digestion is different for patients who have had weight loss surgery than for those who have not had gastric surgery. When slider foods are consumed they pass into the stomach pouch and pass directly into the jejunum where the simple carbohydrate solution is quickly absorbed and stored by the body. The digestion of simple carbohydrates has little thermic effect like the digestion of proteins, so much less metabolic energy is expended. In most cases patients in the weight loss phase who eat slider foods will experience a weight loss plateau and possibly a bout of weight gain. And sadly, they will begin to believe that their surgical gut pouch is not working properly because they do not feel fullness or restriction when eating protein.
The nature of surgical gastric pouches is to create a feeling of tightness or restriction on eating enough food. However, when bland simple carbohydrates are eaten it does not result in starvation or restriction and one can continue to eat copious amounts of non-nutritive food, without measure, without feeling uncomfortable.
Many patients turn to slider foods for this reason. They don’t like the discomfort that comes with eating a measured portion of lean animal or dairy protein without fluids. Yet it is this very restriction that is the desired result of the surgery. The purpose of the discomfort is to signal the end of eating. It is important to remember the “Protein First” rule for weight management with bariatric surgery.
Gastric bypass, gastric banding (lap-band) and gastric sleeve patients are instructed to follow a high protein diet to facilitate healing and promote weight loss. Bariatric centers commonly recommend to weight loss surgery patients what are known as the “Four Rules,” the most important of which is “Protein First.” That is, out of all the nutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, fats and alcohol), it is necessary for the patient to eat proteins first.
Protein isn’t always the most comfortable food choice for weight-loss surgery patients, who tend to feel restricted after eating even small amounts of food. However, a diet rich in protein and low in simple carbohydrate slider foods must be followed for the surgical instrument to function correctly. A high protein diet should be followed even after achieving a healthy body weight to maintain a healthy weight and avoid weight gain.
Source by Kaye Bailey
