WLS Patients Feeling Gassy & Bloated?

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WLS Patients Feeling Gassy & Bloated?

Sugar Alcohol May Be To Blame

Sugar intake is a real concern for people who've had gastric bypass,

in fact most patients fear sugar. The foremost fear isn't weight

gain, it's dumping. Foods containing sugar pass too quickly through

the small pouch, they are rapidly absorbed and cause insulin levels

to drop resulting in dumping.

Very unpleasant. Instead of taking chances with sugar many of us

reach for " sugar free " sweets or diabetic candy to satisfy our sweet

tooth. Many of these products contain sugar alcohol, a natural

sweetener derived from fruits and berries. Unlike artificial

sweeteners that contain no calories, sugar alcohol has about half

the calories of sugar. Diabetics are able to have food with sugar

alcohol because it's converted more slowly to glucose and require

very little insulin to be metabolized.

While sugar alcohols are low in calories and slow to convert to

glucose, the down side is they can cause gas, bloating and diarrhea.

I learned this the hard way. One day that devil we call temptation

seduced me into buying a bag of sugar-free jelly beans. Jelly beans

are dangerous because they are little bites of soft food which means

a gastric bypass patient can eat too much volume. I ate the entire

bag in about an hour (true confessions of the closet snacker). I

soon became uncomfortable with a small tummy ache. The tummy ache

turned to bloating, cramping and gas. Extreme cases of all three

symptoms. Painful " take me to the hospital I think I'm gonna

explode " symptoms. It took a couple of days for my body to return to

normal, a couple of stressful and uncomfortable days.

The jelly beans I ate contained Mannitol, a common sugar alcohol

extracted from seaweed. I know they contained Mannitol because I

read the package mid-way through the crisis. The package contained

this warning, " Warning: excessive consumption can cause a laxative

effect " Fine time to be reading labels I told myself! Mannitol is

found naturally in pineapples, olives, asparagus, sweet potatoes and

carrots. It's about 60% as sweet as sugar, so more product is needed

to replicate the sweetness of sugar. " Mannitol lingers in the

intestines for a long time and therefore causes bloating and

diarrhea. " Yup! That's exactly what happens all right.

What other names are sugar alcohols called?

Sorbitol is found naturally in fruits and vegetables. It is

manufactured from corn syrup. Sorbitol has only 50 percent of the

relative sweetness of sugar which means twice as much must be used

to deliver a similar amount of sweetness to a product. It has less

of a tendency to cause diarrhea compared to mannitol. It is often an

ingredient in sugar-free gums and candies.

Xylitol is also called " wood sugar " and occurs naturally in straw,

corncobs, fruit, vegetables, cereals, mushrooms and some cereals.

Xylitol has the same relative sweetness as sugar. It is found in

chewing gums.

Lactitol has about 30-40 percent of sugar's sweetening power, but

its taste and solubility profile resembles sugar so it is often

found in sugar-free ice cream, chocolate, hard and soft candies,

baked goods, sugar-reduced preserves and chewing gums.

Isomalt is 45 - 65 percent as sweet as sugar and does not tend to

lose its sweetness or break down during the heating process. Isomalt

absorbs little water, so it is often used in hard candies, toffee,

cough drops and lollipops.

Maltitol is 75 percent as sweet as sugar. It is used in sugar-free

hard candies, chewing gum, chocolate-flavored desserts, baked goods

and ice cream because it gives a creamy texture to foods.

Hydrogenated starch hydrolysates (HSH) are produced by the partial

hydrolysis of corn. HSH are nutritive sweeteners that provide 40 -

90 percent of the sweetness of sugar. HSH do not crystallize and are

used extensively in confections, baked goods and mouthwashes.

Should Gastric Bypass Patients indulge their sweet tooth with sugar

alcohol?

The American Diabetes Association claims that sugar alcohols are

acceptable in a moderate amount but should not be eaten in excess.

In addition, weight gain has been seen when these products are

overeaten. Personally, I'm not dipping my sticky fingers into sugar-

free candy again. For gastric bypass patients generally the key, as

in all eating, must be moderation, not a full bag of jelly beans.

And of course, we can always rely on the old advice of conventional

dieters, " Hungry for something sweet? Reach for a piece of fruit. "