Brand new patients are not likely to ask if popcorn is a do or a don't after gastric bypass. They don't ask because the stomach is too tender and sensitive to even consider the intake of roughage like popcorn. But almost universally, you will find patients two or more years out have dipped into the popcorn bowl.

My trespass in the popcorn bowl resulted in a constant state of low-grade dumping and a 5-pound weight gain in two weeks. I called my WLS counselor and she gave me a big NO! NO! NO! She said popcorn is a high carbohydrate food that rapidly dumps into the small intestine causing insulin to drop and dumping to result. Patients also tend to out-eat their pouch with popcorn because they usually consume a beverage as they eat popcorn creating a slurry that quickly moves through the stoma thus more can be consumed in a single sitting. Finally, she said, eating popcorn is mindless and not generally related to hunger. It is a perceived to be an acceptable return to snacking and leads to other snacking abuses.

I stopped the mindless munching on popcorn and feel a whole lot better. But I do miss it and when I smell a fresh batch of microwave popcorn I am likely to lose my mind! But its just not worth it.

For conventional dieters popcorn itself is a nutritious snack choice, containing more fiber than snacks made with refined flour. In the standard three-cup serving (the size of a small mixing bowl), air-popped popcorn contains just 93 calories and less than 1.5 grams of fat and 3.6 grams dietary fiber. Dietary fiber also known as roughage or bulk includes all parts of plant foods that your body can't digest or absorb.

Kaye Bailey

An award winning journalist and former newspaper editor Kaye Bailey brings expertise in writing and personal experience with gastric bypass surgery to EzineArticles.com. Ms. Bailey developed a passion for writing at an early age. As a teenager she found writing her feelings about obesity helped her cope in a world that is often cruel to overweight children and adults alike.

Ms. Bailey says she found out she was fat in kindergarten when another child told her she was fat. ?I didn?t even know what fat was but I could tell it was bad and I didn?t want to be fat. Until that day I had been unaware I was different. But there I was, a five-year-old girl sitting cross-legged on the floor learning a new word that would define me.?

At age 33 she underwent laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery. For the first time in her life after multiple failed diet attempts she lost weight. She said the decision to have surgery took courage, nerve, and a little bit of plain old faith. But she learned surgery was the easy part. Dealing with newfound emotions, struggling with food choices and fighting to keep from regaining weight were unexpected bumps in the road following massive weight loss with surgery.

Having spent most of her life overweight Ms. Bailey is strongly empathetic toward the obese, particularly overweight children. This compassion compelled her to found the website LivingAfterWLS.com, a fast-growing resource of information, understanding and support for the weight loss surgery community. While weight loss surgery is publicly perceived as an easy fix to obesity Ms. Bailey maintains the struggles after surgery challenge the vigor of even the most dedicated individual. As WLS becomes more readily available patients are finding there is a lack of long-term aftercare and support from bariatric centers.

The LivingAfterWLS.com site is complimented with daily blog. The blog, livingafterwls.blogspot.com offers readers the chance to comment or leave feedback about fresh content added daily. This site contains success stories and recipes as well as general information and WLS inspired topics. Complementing the site is a monthly newsletter titled ?You Have Arrived? available exclusively to people who subscribe through the website or the blog. The path forward includes community forums, nutrition and fitness tracking tools.

Ms. Bailey makes her home on a ranch in the Rocky Mountains with her husband of eight years who has been her consort in life after WLS.