Originally Posted by DonnaD

Hey, y'all. I had some awful news today. I'm an RN and today I talked to the doctor that does the lap-band and gastric bypass surgeries for a hospital in St. Louis. He was down here doing a seminar for ladies interested in getting either one done.

I told him I had thought of having one or the other done in the past, but had never followed through. While I was talking to him I was drinking a diet Dr. Pepper. He said "Well, I wouldn't do either on you until you swore to never drink another soda". I said but I only drink diet sodas. He said "Doesn't matter. Soda keeps you fat. The carbonation keeps your stomach stretched, which means it takes more food to make you feel full. If you have either one of the surgeries and drink soda it will stretch your new reduced-size stomach and when it does you will lose all the benefit from having surgery". Now, I've heard that drinking diet soda was not good if you were on a diet because it kept you from losing your desire for sweets, but I never heard this. He explained a lot more about it but bottom line is soda prevents you from losing weight by causing you to eat more. It makes sense. If I get an upset stomach I'll drink a soda as fast as I can so that I can burp like a truckdriver and feel better. Breaks my heart to think I have to give up my sodas. What in the world will I do without them? Drink water?