Soft/Puree Foods

Folks,

During the soft or puree food stage. What is acceptable? Are things like oatmeal or grits (carbs) harmful?

Jeff

I was able to have oatmeal and grits. It was more about getting used to eating than anything. I got my protein in from shakes, but I would suggest adding some unflavored protein powder. Also, don't use the instant packets. They have sugars and stuff in them. Get the kind that you have to cook. :)

I used instant original packets as instructed by the NUT, no sugar.  I now that you are soft.puree you can start using the kind you cooked.  Before that it had to be instant/1 min kind.

I love real grits. But, was not sure if they should be eaten or not. The observation below about focusing on protein makes sense. Thanks for posting.

I was on pureed food for 6 weeks before moving to soft food.  I think I lived on refried beans and pureed tuna fish and couldn't get enough in to have to worry about carb initially.  Once I graduated to more than two tablespoons then I started watching the carbs a little closer.

I love refried beans. But, I am afraid that I might get sick of them. lol

During the soft / purée stage many people have things like oatmeal on their list of foods ok to eat.  However initially you can eat so little that if you want to be reaching your protien goals its best not to waste your time eating carbs that really provide not much of any nutritional value.  You'd be better off eating yogurt, egg salad, cottage cheese, soft eggs, puréed meatballs...things that help you meet your protein goals.  There is an oatmeal that is sold by mybariatricpantry.com.  It tastes a lot like instant maple oatmeal and has 15 grams of protein for about 100 calories.  I like to use it some days for breakfast to mix things up and have some cereal. The website has other products that I've never tried such as protein pudding that would also work well in the early stages.  

Focusing on protein is a great observation and grits sure don't have any of that. But, I love em! At lest now. That might change.

My nutritionist defined the pureed stage as eating anything that can be mashed with a fork.  Oatmeal or grits would be fine.  I would suggest not using instant oatmeal though.  Buy something that the only ingredient is Whole Oats.  It may say 100% Whole rolled oats.  Silver Palate Thick cut Oatmeal is what I have been using.  There is no added sugar and no artificial sweeteners either ... it is only the oats.  Now once you cook it up ... it obviously will be bland and who wants that.  Add in some cinnamon (not cinnamon sugar) and some Stevia or Splenda to sweeten.  Another idea is to add in cinnamon applesauce to give you a cinnamon and apples flavor.  Make sure the applesauce is unsweetened and again if you need to use Stevia or Splenda.

Eggs (I used egg whites at this point) are very useful as well.  Make some scrambled eggs.  This is where adding various spices can be fun and change things up.  http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/  (For other ideas on pureed foods)

In this stage I frequently bought canned white chicken breast (look for low sodium versions) and then blended it in a blender with Walden Farms BBQ sauce (there is a spicy and non spicy version and it is 0 calories).  Heat this in the microwave or not.  Walden Farms also has several salad dressings ... one I used was Bacon Ranch.  Blend that with chicken or tuna and then heat in the microwave or not depending on taste.  Walden Farms can be bought at Kroger, HEB, Food Lion, and Walmart among other grocery stores.

Also Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes are good at this time ... http://www.blogilates.com/recipe-index/clean-perfect-pumpkin -protein-pancake-recipe

 

For other recipes go here and select the WLS Friendly area ... many recipes for many stages of your journey.  

http://www.schronce.net/forum/index.php?16

For under $10 Trader Joe's sells Bumble Bee brand Claw Crabmeat (16 oz).  This can be used with the Walden Farms dressings among other things.  At 3 oz meals this gives you 5 of them.  Walmart also sells this but it costs a bit more.

Good Luck

Do you know the stats of carb/protein in crabmeat? How did you prepare this?