Best foods, snacks/treats, drinks, protein drinks or powders, or other supplements, or over-the-counter medications that the group has found post-op. (Please note - if the link is to a commercial site, it's NOT advertising them, it's just one place where the product can be found.
) N
ewest additions in purple.
Best food
--String cheese - Frigo Light String Cheese best brand (9 grams of protein and 60 calories per ounce)
--Cheese in general
--Cottage cheese, lowfat, 12-13 gr. protein in 4 oz. (1/2 cup)
--Beans! Any type--black beans, kidney beans, refried beans,etc. During the soft foods stage I ate lots of them. About 7 grams of protein and around 100 calories per 1/2 cup. I would sprinkle on some cheese and green sauce and microwave. Yum! A perfect lunch.
--Chili - Wendy's chili seems to be a crowd favorite
--Seafood (fish, squid, shrimp crab) most have 21 grams per 3 ounces, easy to digest, plus the added benefit of Omega-3 acids
------Tuna Sashimi
--Bean salad with splenda
--Tuna, Bean and Spinach Salad with Ginger Dressing (See
Paige's post).
--Tortilla soup with chicken or burger
--Blue Bunny sweet freedom yogurt with kashi hi pro cereal (about 22 gr. of protein together)
--Fresh Fruits:
------pears (peeled if you're early post-op)
------pineapples
------mangos
------bananas - some people dump on these, so go carefully to begin with
--Canned Fruits
------mandarin oranges in light syrup, rinse carefully, goes great with LF cottage cheese
------any canned fruit packed in juice will be easier for early post-op than the fresh fruits, as they are softer when canned
Foods for after you've been cleared to eat most things by your doctor and/or nutritionist:
----Kashi Go Lean cereal - terrific source for protein and fiber after you've been cleared for whole grains and you're adding some judicious carbs back into your diet.
----Kashi TLC bars - wonderful resource for fiber--but again, you must be able to deal with whole grains.
Best Drinks
--Propel - you can dilute to half strength if it tastes too sweet - you can also get Propel powders now in a couple of their flavors
--Crystal Light drink mixes - some people even mix them with the protein powders to change the taste
--Iced tea with Splenda
--Low-Acid coffees
--Sugar Free International Coffee mixes
--Sugar Free Hot Chocolate mix - you can add SF syrups for coffee for a special treat
--Sugar Free Apple Cider mix - great stirred with a cinnamon stick
--Nestea Diet Green Tea, Berry and Honey flavor
--Diet Orient Emporium White Tea with Mandarin Orange flavor - absolutely the right sweetness, no carbonation, very nice.
Best Snacks/Treats
--Venti Nonfat Sugarfree Vanilla Latte from Starbucks
--
Stallone Chocolate Pudding at 20g's per small can.
--Schwans Trim Creations Fudge Bars
--Sugarfree Jell-O Cake, Jell-O Puddings
--Sugar-Free Fudgsicles
--Luigi's Real Italian Ice, No Sugar Added
--Sugar-Free Popsicles
--Sugar-Free hot chocolate
--Marty's hot chocolate recipe (paraphrasing: Get a big ole coffee cup, fill it about 1/3 of the way full of powdered milk. Get some powdered chocolete use between 1/2-1 teasp of cocoa powder and then 1 or 2 packets of splenda.....experiment, all depends on taste. Heat some water, not to boiling, milk doesn't like boiling, and mix..)
--Sugar-Free flavored syrups for coffee and hot chocolate.
DaVinci is one brand.
Best protein drinks/powders (Don't overbuy before your surgery--get samples only. Almost everyone's tastes change post-op!)
--Isopure (the web site's annoying, by the way)--comes in powders and premixed drinks. Opinion seems to run about 50-50 on this one, too. Some people love it, some hate it.
--
Enterex for diabetics. (11 grams of protein in a half-coke-can size, and NO LACTOSE, which is what keeps me out of most protein drinks)
--
Profect Vials - Its only 3 oz and I can do it like a shot and get it over with and it has 25 grams of protein in it. (note from LisaBoston: quick shots of 27g of protein, wish I had these early out, not cheap, but they go nicely in the purse to carry with you. The container is great to keep nuts/bolts in (husband really likes them!) We pay about $2.99 for them, so not a daily thing, but great when travelling.)
--
100% AnyWhey Protein Powder
--
Nectar (by Syntrax) - assorted fruit flavors, 23g per serving, mix with water.
--
EAS Premium Protein Powder. I don't have a problem with milk, so I mix it with milk and half a banana in the blender. Makes a great breakfast. 37 grams of protein mixed w/milk.
--
Unjury - Unjury has a sample pack you can order online to see if you can tolerate it - seems about 50-50 for people who like it/dislike it.
Best other supplements
--Flaxseed oil. (helps keep you regular, very important later...
)
--Centrum Performance Multivitamin
--Optisource Chewable Vitamins
--B12 Shots every 2 weeks
--B12 Sublingual - Trader Joes
--Liquid vitamins daily
--
JuicePlus
--FiberChoice Sugar-Free Chewable tablets (fiber supplement)
--BeneFiber (fiber supplement)
--Citracal Chewable Calcium Citrate - this is the kind of calcium we're supposed to have, as opposed to calcium carbonate. Calcium Citrate is absorbed much more easily by the body. The chewables do have about 4 grams of sugar, so if you're super-sensitive, be careful!
Best Over-the-Counter Meds to Keep Around
--Senokot (stool softener)
--Milk of Magnesia (laxative)
--Gas-X chewables (gas)
--Docusate (stool softener)
--Zantac/Ranitidine (histamine-2 blocker, reduces the amount of acid your stomach produces)
--Liquid Tylenol (pain reliever)
If you've found something that suits you, add it to the bottom of this thread, and I'll edit this front listing.