Background  

This research compared both food selection and food intolerance frequency of High-fat grouped foods versus Low-fat grouped foods in Roux-en-Y bariatric clients during their dietary adaptation phase (DAP).

Methods  

Thirty-eight bariatric surgery patients in their dietary transition phase (3 months–2.5 years) filled out a 236-food item questionnaire. From the larger set of primary data, 24 high-fat (30% or greater fat) and 22 low/lower-fat food items were itemized by selection frequency and food intolerance frequency for comparison.

Results  

High-fat food selection was 38.3% against low fat at 50.4% (p = .0002). For comparison, the complete questionnaire’s 236-item food selection percentage was 41%. Frequency of “Never” experiencing food intolerance was similar between both groups with a combined mean of 1.92%. “Seldom to Sometimes” intolerance in low-fat foods was 13.3%, and 24.9% in high fat (p = .002). Finally, “Often to Always” experiencing food intolerance in the Low-fat food group was 85.5% versus 72.2% for the High-fat group (p = .002).

Conclusion  

Roux-en-Y bariatric patients in the DAP demonstrated typical “dieting behavior” by selecting low-fat foods at a greater frequency than high-fat foods. Although selected more, these low-fat foods also showed significantly worse intolerance frequencies. Thus, current dietary/nutrition professional recommendations to avoid high-fat foods during this postsurgery transition time are problematic. Future bariatric studies are needed to further explore this and other commonly practiced “dieting behaviors” in bariatric patients.