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Diet for a Total Gastrectomy

A total gastrectomy, or removal of the entire stomach, is necessary when you have uncontrollable bleeding, inflammation, cancer, or noncancerous tumors. After the operation, you will need adjust your diet. While adopting a gastrectomy diet might not be easy at first, with some time and patience it will become second nature.

  1. Total Gastrectomy Diet

    • Consume an "anti-dumping" diet following your surgery, according to the Jackson-Siegelbaum Gastroenterology Clinic. Dumping, which can occur following removal of a portion or all of the stomach, is triggered by food--especially sugars--passing through the digestive system too quickly. It can cause fatigue, dizziness, cramping and diarrhea. Svoid sugary foods such as pastries, ice cream, soft drinks, sugary fruit drinks, and fruits canned with syrup after your surgery. Also avoid products that are high in sweeteners related to sugar, such as glucose, honey, fructose (found in fruits), dextrose, corn syrup and sucrose. Focus your food intake around whole grains, vegetables, lean meats, low-fat dairy and healthy unsaturated fats. Each meal should include a fruit or vegetable, a whole grain, a lean protein and a small amount of healthy fat, as from nuts, seeds, fat-containing fruits like avocados or coconuts, or oils like peanut, sesame, olive, fish or flaxseed.

    Diet Modifications

    • Change your eating schedule to allow for five or six small meals throughout the course of the day to avoid overloading your digestive tract. To further slow digestion, drink no more than 4 ounces of beverages with your meals; instead; drink 30 to 45 minutes before or one hour or more after eating. Extremely hot and extremely cold foods can cause discomfort for some people.

    Sample Menu

    • Start your day with a small, two-egg omelet prepared with cheese and tomatoes. On the side, eat a half serving of fresh berries and a piece or two of whole grain toast with natural peanut butter. For lunch, eat a half sandwich made with fresh chicken or turkey, lettuce, tomato and cheese, along with a small bowl of vegetable soup and a few capsules of fish oil. For dinner, consume a salmon steak cooked in olive oil and served with brown rice or whole grain dinner rolls with a small garden salad with vinegar dressing. Eat healthy snacks between these meals.

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