Sometimes a person just needs to change their eating habits. I don't intend for that to sound mean or nasty. But she is asking about fudge and baked beans.

She needs to learn to live without fudge...or with just a tiny little bite. There is no low fat and low sugar fudge that is anything like real fudge.

There are lots of recipes that are sugar free, but if she is expecting to have it taste like the food that got her to the place where she needed the surgery, that won't happen.

She needs to learn that the surgery has forever changed her life, she will be healthier and definitly thinner but will have to re-learn eating habits....or after 2 or 3 years she will gain back what she lots. I have seen it happen!

I have lots of sugar free recipes for beans and other things, but they taste nothing like baked beans with lots of sugar and molasses.....and if I understand the problem correctly, even splenda causes the dumping reaction in bariatic surgery patients.

I find it funny/sad that as she is trying to lose wight she is also looking for a recipe for fudge!

Please dont take this the wrong way but GB is a VERY serious surgery and she should maybe ask her nutritionist for ideas in finding alternate foods that fulfill her cravings or she is going to find that in a few years she has put back all the weight she has lost and then some. It is very definitely possible especially as sugar and fat free do not equal calorie free.

I would recommend that she takes this opportunity to change her eating habits and looks for healthier alternatives to satisfy her cravings for sweet things...fruit comes to mind.

I am saying this with her best interests in mind. My dear friend had bariatric surgery last September and I have walked the road with her. She has found it very helpful to follow Clean Eating ideas and concentrate on proteins and lots of water.

Also there are boards out there especially for bariatric patients where she might find people with better ideas than me. Try obesityhelp.com on their forums.

Thanks for your input!!! I don't know this woman at all, but I knew I'd get some valuable advice from here.
Of course, your words are bang-on so I'll gently suggest it to her.

I had three secretaries who had that surgery and every single one gained all the weight back within 3 years, two of them gained even more than they lost. Not only did they not want to limit things like fudge, they all ate a tiny bit nearly constantly, and it was things like cheese and salami and cream in coffee and lots of butter. Sigh.
The first thing the poster will have to do is change her lifestyle and eating habits if she wants to keep the weight off.

I think we all struggle with the fantasy that there is some way to eat anything we want and not gain weight. Boy, I sure wish that was true.

The reality is that patients who have that surgery are going to have to learn healthier eating habits to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a healthy weight. Surgery is just one more tool, it's not magical.

Now, as for the question, I don't know of any way to make a palatable fudge without sugar, I don't think it's possible. Baked beans? Brown sugar Splenda works relatively well, if it doesn't trigger a physical response, which happens sometimes. Nothing is going to taste like baked beans with brown sugar and molasses, though.

The good news is that, after you don't eat that way for a while, you lose some of your taste for it, and it gets easier. Things just taste too sweet, or too salty, or too greasy and that makes choices a bit easier.

Best of luck to the original poster, I hope she finds some substitutes that are acceptable and enjoyable to her, and that she's successful in whatever health issues she's battling with that surgery.

Annie

Poor lady! Ditto all the above.

There's tons of recipes out there with no sugar and very low or no fat, but I've never heard of any fudge that meets those requirements. Any decent diabetes site will offer lots and lots.

The taste for high sugar and fat foods is like an addiction. It can be overcome and you can develop a taste and liking for healthier foods. Maybe not all of them but some of them. But like an alcoholic, you have to give up the attachment to foods you know are bad for you. I am not someone who thinks you should punish and deprive yourself. But fresh fruit is absolutely delicious and very tasty. So are many, many healthy foods. I weaned myself from fatty sugary foods long ago and I don't feel deprived. I enjoy eating healthy foods and also enjoy the way I feel when I eat well. This woman should not think of herself as depriving herself from things she likes, rather cultivate the idea that she is going to pamper herself with things that are enjoyable AND good for her. These things do exist. Frankly, to me fudge represents a total waste of time and calories. Now, freshly baked whole grain sourdough is a little harder for me to moderate. So part of loosing weight is also finding other fun things to do with your time besides eating and cooking. She needs to find some type of physical activity that she enjoys. Again, don't punish yourself with gads of push ups, but instead reward yourself with a fun activity.

You're right. It's all about enjoying what you CAN have and not worrying about what you can't.

Jasdip, the others are right when they say that this person is doomed to regain any loss she has if she does NOT change her eating habits.

I researched weight loss surgeries for 2 years before I had mine. I had the BPD/DS (bileopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch - commonly called the Duodenal Switch) for this very reason. No dumping and virtually impossible to regain any weight. I realized that I was not willing to change my eating habits (other than to concentrate on protein intake, which is easy since I'm a meat-eater!), and that's why I had the procedure I had instead of the more commong Roux-en-Y (gastric bypass).

Something to know, by way of encouragement, is that once you stop eating those carbohydrates, the craving for them gradually goes away. I have a dear friend that was just diagnosed with diabetes, and watching the carbs for the first few months was hard. But, now they no longer serve a starch with every meal, and it's not even missed--not only by the diabetic, but by the rest of the family as well! A little taste of something sweet becomes enough, because it tastes really strong when you don't have it all the time. It might take awhile to readjust your habits and your palette, but with some willpower and a patience, it will happen.

All the best of luck to you.

Cj

All true. It IS an addiction, and just like most cigarette smokers can't have just one cigarette, people with food addictions are unlikely to be able to enjoy one piece of fudge- at least not in the beginning. You have to reset your body... look east for the answers, not west... to what's been working for centuries- not what worked for a trial group- controlled by gosh knows what company.