You have to be accountable for what you eat; you have to measure it so you can manage it; and you have to know the foods that don’t work well with the lapband. You should also know the foods that work well for lapband patients.
It’s fairly simple. There are food choices that you can make and none of them will leave you feel deprived. They are the basics of most meals: produce and meat (unless you are a vegetarian in which case it is produce and produce).
Food is something we celebrate in our practice. We love food, we enjoy food, and we do not want people to feel deprived. The feeling of being deprived, both emotionally and physically, is typically what causes most diets to fail. (Which is why we aren’t advocating a diet, rather a lifestyle change that includes healthy food choices and portions).
The only time we really focus on “diets” in our practice is during the early post operative period when our lapband patients are allowing their body to get used to this piece of plastic called a lapband. We instead focus on choices — because when it comes to food there are a lot of choices.
There are dramatic differences between smart food choices, and
other food choices. How do you determine what is a healthy food?
The basics of determining what foods are “healthy” are these:
• Less processed foods are better than more processed foods
• Low fat foods are preferred to high fat foods
• Low glycemic index carbohydrates are preferred
What does not determine the food choices are:
High protein vs. carbohydrates. This is a distinction of a dietary program that, while working in the short run by limiting calories, is neither healthy nor sustainable in the long-run for most people.
A low carb diet is not a choice you have to make, or a lifestyle you need to adopt with the lapband. It is not the food group, but the food that is important. While being in a zone is a wonderful concept, the real issue is eating healthy foods, not the percent of which particular group you eat. That said, the food pyramid — which is less exciting than real pyramids — has sound principles that all would be wise would adhere to. Even, maybe especially, lapband patients.