Essential Soft Diet Tips After Surgery for Faster Recovery and Healing

Following surgery, particularly on the digestive system or areas around the mouth, head, or neck, a soft food diet is often recommended to aid healing and prevent complications. This article provides comprehensive guidelines for adhering to a soft food diet, ensuring adequate nutrition, and promoting a smooth recovery.

Introduction to the Soft Food Diet

A soft food diet involves consuming foods that are easy to chew and swallow, gentle on the digestive system, and low in fiber. It is sometimes referred to as a gastrointestinal (GI) soft diet. This dietary approach is often advised after surgery, for individuals experiencing digestive issues like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, or diverticulosis and those with difficulty swallowing (dysphagia). The duration of the diet varies depending on the individual's condition and the healthcare provider's recommendations, ranging from a few days to several months.

Understanding Esophagitis and the Role of a Soft Food Diet

Irritation in the throat or lower chest when eating certain foods or following a medical procedure may indicate the need for an easily digestible esophageal soft food diet. Food travels from the mouth to the stomach via the esophagus, a tubelike organ. Esophagitis, characterized by irritation or inflammation of the esophageal lining, can cause a burning sensation in the lower chest, pain after swallowing, or the sensation of food getting "stuck" in the throat.

Several factors can contribute to esophagitis, including acid reflux, hiatal hernias, vomiting, complications from radiation therapy, and certain oral medications. While esophagitis often resolves without intervention, adopting an esophageal, or soft food, diet can significantly aid recovery.

General Guidelines for a Soft Food Diet

Several general guidelines can help promote healing and make the soft food diet easier to follow. These include:

Take small bites and chew foods well: Thorough chewing aids digestion and prevents food from becoming lodged in the esophagus.
Avoid problematic foods: Stay away from tough meats, fresh “doughy” bread or rolls, hard bread crust, and abrasive foods.
Moisten foods: Sip fluids while eating to soften foods and facilitate swallowing.
Eat slowly and in a relaxed atmosphere: Rushing meals can exacerbate digestive issues.
Stop eating when full: Overeating can put unnecessary strain on the digestive system.
Choose appropriate beverages: Opt for decaffeinated coffee, tea, or caffeine-free soft drinks.
Sit upright while eating and afterward: Maintain a sitting position for at least 45-60 minutes after eating to prevent acid reflux.
Avoid eating close to bedtime: Refrain from eating for three hours before bedtime.
Eat small, frequent meals and snacks: This approach is gentler on the digestive system than consuming large meals.
Choose easily digestible foods: Focus on foods that are soft and easily broken down.
Avoid extremes in temperature and carbonation: Carbonated drinks or beverages that are very hot or very cold can irritate the esophagus.

Acceptable Foods on a Soft Food Diet

When adhering to a soft food diet, it’s essential to choose foods that are gentle on the digestive system while still providing essential nutrients. Here’s a breakdown of acceptable food categories:

Protein Sources:

Ground or tender meat and poultry: Opt for ground or pureed beef, pork, and poultry mixed with gravy to ensure adequate moisture. Avoid dry roast beef, bacon, link or patty sausage, and meat seasoned with peppercorns.
Boneless white fish: Cod and tilapia are excellent choices due to their soft texture and mild flavor.
Soft scrambled eggs or egg substitutes: These are easily digestible and provide a good source of protein.
Cooked dried beans and peas: These can be a good source of protein, but ensure they are well-cooked and mashed to a soft consistency.
Casseroles with ground meat: These are a good way to combine protein with other soft foods.
Egg whites and egg beaters: Can be continued, but no egg yolks until six weeks.
Dairy: Cottage cheese, string cheese, Greek yogurt.
Fish or shellfish: Even canned tuna, salmon, tilapia, cod, lobster, and shrimp, are great choices, as well as crab. With poultry, you can do canned or ground chicken, or turkey and pork. But no baked or grilled chicken yet, because it’s too dense. With beef, you can do lean ground beef, like 93 over seven, but it may be difficult for some people, to tolerate postsurgery.
Plant sources: Almond butters, nut butters, soy protein products such as tofu, edamame or soybeans, as long as they’re made into that soft consistency. Protein powders and protein shakes, are still consumed during this point, as it helps you to meet your protein needs, and making sure that you’re starting, to put food as the priority, and wean down on the supplements. No more than one protein shake a day at this point, and drink protein shakes in between meals, starting to separate out those liquids from those meals, and utilizing the supplements, only for supplement purposes.

Fruits:

Canned and frozen fruits: These are often softer and easier to digest than raw fruits. Applesauce and fruit cups are excellent options.
Soft fresh fruits: Avocados and bananas are naturally soft and gentle on the digestive system. Seedless melon, peeled apples, peaches and pears or fruit juice without pulp.

Vegetables:

Soups and broths can help soften vegetables such as squash, potatoes (without the skins), carrots, and peas.

Well-cooked or canned vegetables: Ensure vegetables are cooked until very soft and tender, or opt for canned varieties. Potatoes without skin, tomato paste, olives and vegetable juice.

Starches and Grains:

Crackers or bread softened in soups or broths: Soaking crackers or bread makes them easier to chew and swallow.
Cooked cereals without nuts or seeds: These are gentle enough for an esophageal soft food diet.
Dry or cooked cereals, white rice and pasta
Plain white bread, plain crackers and graham crackers

Dairy:

Milk and dairy products: There is generally no prohibition on milk and other dairy products. Milk, malted milk, or milkshakes.
Soft cheese: Cream cheese, brie, Neufchâtel, and ricotta are easier to digest than harder cheeses. Soft cheese such as grated Parmesan or Ricotta, cheese sauces and cottage cheese.
Yogurt: Yogurt is a good choice, but avoid adding fruit, granola, or seeds.

Desserts:

Plain ice cream, sherbet, pudding and gelatin

Condiments:

Sugar, honey, jelly without seeds, mayo, smooth mustard and soy sauce
Oils, butter, margarine, ground spices, herbs and salt

Foods to Avoid on a Soft Food Diet

Certain foods can irritate the digestive system or be difficult to chew and swallow, and should be avoided on a soft food diet. These include:

Tough, fibrous proteins: Stringy, dry or fibrous-type meats (i.e. steak and spare ribs), meats containing gristle or peppercorn, sausage and bacon. Meats with gristle, meat with casings (hot dogs, sausage and kielbasa), lunch meats with whole spices, shellfish, beans.
Breads: Fresh or "doughy" breads may cause “sticking”. Breads made with whole-grain flour, raisins, nuts or seeds.
Raw fruits and vegetables: All raw vegetables, including salads. Raw, coarse or abrasive fresh fruits.
Fruits: Dried fruits, coconut, frozen or thawed berries, fruit juice with pulp and jams or jellies with seeds
Vegetables: Raw or lightly cooked vegetables, including Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, onions, corn, dark leafy greens and pickles or sauerkraut.
Cereals and grains: Cooked cereals with nuts or dried fruits, ready to eat cereals that are not softened in milk. Bran cereals, granola, brown or wild rice, whole-grain pasta, barley, quinoa and popcorn
Nuts and seeds: All nuts, seeds and chunky peanut butter
Desserts: Desserts made with nuts, dried fruits and fruits with seeds
Whole spices: Whole spices like peppercorns, cloves, anise seeds and fresh herbs
Carbonated beverages

Tips for Following a Soft Food Diet

Pay attention to fiber intake: Pick foods that contain less than 2 grams of fiber per serving. Once your symptoms resolve, begin to slowly add fiber-rich foods back into your diet. “Add one new food into your diet every two to three days to watch for gut upset,”
Focus on chewing: Chew all foods slowly to a mashed potato consistency. The more you chew your food, the easier it will be for your body to digest it.
Eat throughout the day: Continue to eat every few hours during the day. You may feel more comfortable eating four to six meals daily rather than three large meals.
Stay hydrated: Drink at least eight cups of fluid every day. “You can count pudding, ice cream, sherbet, frozen fruit pops, soup and gelatin as fluids,”
During the soft food phase of three to six weeks post-op, go slowly with your new food choices: No more than one to two new food choices a day, until you know you tolerate that food. You can, however, try mixing different foods together, so that you get a better variety of options.
Avoid raw fruits and vegetables at this point, especially if they have skins, or seeds, or if they’re incredibly stringy: Those can be difficult to digest, and not well-tolerated. Avoid spicy foods, because those can cause irritation, and all protein consumed should be moist, or falling apart and easy to chew. No tough, stringy, or overcooked meats, especially meats that are reheated tend to cause difficulty.
Remove all visible fat prior to cooking. Make sure you’re not frying your foods.
Puree Technique: Just put your meat in the blender, and use your food processor with a little bit of liquid, like water or chicken broth, to create that pureed consistency. Your food should be, about the consistency of yogurt at this phase.
Label Reading: You wanna start with he serving size, as the first place that you’re looking at, and then really assess what your pouch can hold. Determine how many grams of protein, you’re gonna be consuming, based off of the serving you’re going to be eating. Then, look at the label and consider, is this a good option for me? And is this going to fuel my body? Remember that protein is our focus, and making sure you’re getting the lowest amount of calories, for protein consumed, also known as your relative protein value, which we’ll be reviewing.
Relative Protein Value: Your relative protein value, is where you divide the total calories, by the total grams of protein to find the RPV. For example, if you’re looking at the label, and the product has 90 calories for the serving, and three grams of protein, we would take 30 calories divided by the grams of protein, to find if it’s a good choice. We prefer if you consume 15 or fewer calories, for gram of protein, as this helps to keep you in a safe place, in terms of the cost of calories, for each protein gram consumed. Good choices will be low-calorie gram protein, which is 10 or less. Moderate is 10-20 calories per gram of protein, and high calorie choices, which we wanna avoid, are 20 calories for gram of protein. So once again, no more than, one to two high RPV foods per day. So if you have a 200 calorie food item, and you’re only getting in five grams of protein, this is not considered an ideal choice. You need to get more protein per calorie, to get a better bang for your buck.
Nutrient-Rich Properties: Making sure you’re fueling your body, with nutrient-rich properties.
Carbohydrates: We wanna make sure that you’re not getting, too many carbohydrates. There should be a max of 10 to 15 grams, of carbohydrates per meal. If you’re eating too many carbohydrates, then you’re not gonna be leaving enough room, for adequate amounts of protein, which is your best fuel source. Also, try and consume foods that are higher in fiber, that have between three to five grams per serving, as this helps with digestion. If you’re looking at sugar on the food label, try and keep less than five grams per serving, as sugar is not the best fuel option. Sugar alcohols are listed on the ingredient list, we like to keep those low in your diet as well. Things like sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol in your ingredients list, are something we want to minimize.
Protein Goal: Always start with foods that are easy to tolerate, and remember, 60-70 grams of protein a day is your goal. The primary source of nutrition is protein. Whenever you’re eating, you should be focusing on protein first. Be sure that you’re reaching, the minimum amount of protein per day, with a goal of 60 to 70 grams per day. You should be eating between, five to ten grams of protein per meal, and trying to eat five to six mini-meals per day. One ounce of animal meat, is typically between five to seven grams of protein. Visually, one ounce of animal meat, looks like the size of a sausage link. Protein should be your priority, and first thing you’re thinking about when eating. At least 90 to 100% of your portion of what your eating, should come from protein that’s low in fat.

Post-Surgery Diet Progression

Following precise diet progression after surgery, will help to ensure proper healing. It is important that your food is modified in texture, to help decrease inflammation post-surgically. Once again, portion size will depend, on the procedure you had, and the healing process. Bypass during this point, is typically between one to two ounces. Sleeves typically tolerate between two to three ounces, and duodenal switch between two to four ounces. This is measured volume in a measuring cup, not on a food scale.

On the soft food diet, which is day 21 to day 41, it is a gradual transition away from your liquids to solids. These foods should be easy to chew, very moist, a soft combination of soft foods to pureed foods, and nothing that’s crunchy. Also, you should not have to use, a knife or fork to cut anything, and avoid spicy foods. Pureed foods can be made at home into a thick paste, by using a masher or blender, and this should be a similar consistency to yogurt. Your soft foods are soft, but they can easily be forked apart. It’s similar to a flaky fish, and this is appropriate on this diet phase. One ounce every two to three hours is important, but no more than three ounces per meal. Listen to your tool and to your pouch. Portion sizes always depend on you.

Why is Protein Important?

Protein helps to ensure healing, it maintains and replaces tissue cells in the body, it’s important for your muscles, organs, and hormones, it helps to produce hemoglobin that carries oxygen, throughout the blood, and it produces antibodies, that help against infection, as well as disease. Protein is a great energy source for you at this point, as it allows you to feel full, and have greater satiety. It’s slower-digested than the other nutrients, and this is helpful in your healing process.

Common Questions and Concerns

What if I get hungry?: It’s normal for your pouch to gradually increase in size, as inflammation is decreasing. If and when this happens, you wanna make sure you’re increasing your protein grams, so that you get fuller longer. Also, starting to wait 45 to 60 minutes after your meals, before you start drinking can be helpful. Increasing the density of your food, can also be helpful, so, starting to focus on soft versus pureed. Decreasing the low gram protein foods, such as plant proteins can be helpful, and making sure you’re staying on top of your meal timing, eating every two to three hours your scheduled mini-meals. Also start identifying if it’s head hunger, or emotional eating, as these things are behavioral habits, that we’ll want to adjust, and help you transition away from.

Long-Term Considerations After Surgery

As you move through the stages of the post-surgery meal plan, you will learn which foods work for you. However, there are some key foods and drinks to be cautious of for the rest of your life. Eating these foods can make you very uncomfortable and lead to diarrhea and vomiting. These foods have limited nutritional value, may cause pain and discomfort, and take up a lot of space in your tiny stomach pouch. This leaves less room for the important nutrients you need to get after surgery.

Alcohol is high in calories. Tolerance of alcohol changes. Some surgeons recommend that caffeine in all forms (coffee, tea, energy drinks) be avoided forever after surgery. Caffeine causes the body to increase urination and the flushing of water out of the body. Consider avoiding or limiting decaf coffee as well. Limit coffee or tea to 1 small cup (12 ounces or 200 mg of caffeine) a day and observe your tolerance.

Staying Hydrated

For the first few weeks after surgery, you will not be eating solid foods. Most of your protein will come from protein supplements. As your body heals and your stomach pouch adjusts, you will get more protein from food. The first few days after surgery, you will need to have clear liquids only, so you will be choosing clear protein supplements.

Planning and Tracking

There are many ways you can make some of your favorite foods healthier. Planning and tracking are powerful tools when it comes to making any behavior change. Remember, you don’t have to track every day. Maybe you’ll track habits for a few days every once in a while to identify habits or patterns that may not be serving you. Or maybe you’ll plan and track every day to provide daily inspiration when you meet your goals. List foods that you use to make all meals and snacks. Post this list on the refrigerator. Keeping track of your progress toward a goal, even if only for a few days a week, can help you focus on clear goals, get motivated, identify patterns or habits, and see your progress.

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