"I had gastric bypass in January and am having trouble with finding some recipes.
I am to keep my sugar and fat intake to a bear minimum. I try converting ingredients but I cannot seem to adequately find fudge recipes.

I tried making baked beans and while they turned out alright, it still called for more sugar than I am willing to use (brown sugar, syrup, etc.). Also, while some items claim to be sugar free they still contain sugar alcohol which is the same as sugar for us bariatric patients...

Does anyone have recipes that strictly speaking are truly sugar free and fat-free? I would greatly appreciate some of them...

Thank you so much for reading."

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.

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.

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

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).

All the best of luck to you.

Cj