It’s tough to get into a routine after you or a loved one has just had surgery. Often, there’s a lot of planning and preparation prior to surgery, then plenty of rest afterwards.
When it comes to the best soft post surgery foods, you may be wondering how to keep a nutritious diet when recovering! It’s tempting to grab convenient fast food, but that’s not always the best option to help your body heal.
In this blog post, we’re sharing the best post surgery foods, as well as which foods to avoid after surgery.
Healing foods post surgery
Did you know there are over 48 million surgical procedures done every year? Odds are that over the course of your lifetime, you will have surgery at some point.
And after surgery, your body is more vulnerable to infection, weight loss or gain, and a loss of energy to do the tasks you enjoyed pre-surgery. To ensure a seamless switch from the hospital to your home, it’s important to stock up on healing foods like the ones listed below!
Fruits and vegetables
Berries and leafy greens are especially beneficial when it comes to post surgery recovery. That’s because they’re filled with antioxidants, which help the body repair damage, and vitamins A, C, E, and K, which helps prevent blood clotting.
Try squeezing a serving of blueberries, strawberries, or blackberries into a yogurt parfait, or mashed sweet potatoes into your post surgery meal rotation!
Healthy fats
Healthy fats help provide your body with energy, which is so important after surgery because you’re likely to be more tired than usual. However, if you’ve just received oral surgery, crunchy nuts like cashews and almonds are not a comfortable option.
Olive and coconut oil are great alternatives and serve as an excellent base for the vegetables listed above.
Water
Staying hydrated after surgery is suuuper important! Drinking plenty of water after surgery helps prevent complications, such as vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Water also helps flush toxins from your body that are leftover from anesthesia.
Post surgery meal ideas
If you are taking care of yourself post surgery, having a few go-to meal ideas can make you feel much less overwhelmed! After all, you should be focused on recovery, not worrying about meals.
We’re here to help! :) A few simple, quick post surgery meal ideas are compiled below to be your cheat sheet.
5 minute yogurt breakfast smoothie
This recipe came out of the Proper Good kitchen because we’re always looking for ways to get delicious fruits and veggies into our daily routine … in the tastiest way possible of course! All you need is a blender and a few key ingredients to make this smoothie, which consists of yogurt, juice and vanilla extract.
It’s really easy to add even more fruits and veggies. Just throw in a banana or handful of spinach to provide even more nutritional value.
Cottage cheese
Sometimes you experience a loss in appetite after getting surgery. That’s when foods with mild flavors, like cottage cheese, save the day. Cottage cheese is high in protein as well as essential nutrients. It’s also available in lactose-free varieties for those with dairy allergies!
Enjoy cottage cheese on its own in a small dish, or pair it with another healthy snack, like mixed nuts or celery with peanut butter.
5 minute raspberry sorbet
An ice cold treat is especially useful after dental surgery. This raspberry sorbet recipe is soothing, refreshing, AND good for you! Consisting of just frozen raspberries, confectioners sugar, and fresh lemon juice, this is a recipe you can make and freeze before your surgery to enjoy afterwards when you’re groggy and feeling under the weather.
Proper Good’s all day build your own pack
If you’d prefer to not worry about making meals after surgery but don’t want to be at the mercy of greasy takeout, Proper Good meal delivery may be a good option for you! After surgery, it’s easy to feel down in the dumps and not up for time consuming meal prep. With Proper Good, mealtime can’t be easier! An energy boosting pick-me-up after surgery … coming right up!
Our delicious soups, chilis and oatmeals are made with wholesome, healing ingredients. Some soups and chilis even include turmeric and ginger, which are known to help relieve pain, decrease nausea, and enhance immune function to help protect against illness and infection.
Herbal tea
While herbal tea is not a meal, it’s an excellent beverage to enjoy alongside your breakfast, lunch, or dinner! There are many health benefits of herbal tea, which complement post surgery recovery. Drinking herbal tea aids in relaxation, pain reduction and the improvement of digestive and immune systems.
Coconut, lemongrass and lime soup
There’s just something about coconut flavors that give a little mood boost! Perhaps it’s that coconut reminds us of the beach?! And post surgery, a mood boost is sure to be appreciated.
Prior to surgery, make this delicious soup in bulk to enjoy throughout your post surgery recovery. The recipe includes fragrant vegetables like garlic, onion, ginger, and lemongrass, so popping a bowl of this soup into the microwave is sure to wake up your senses!
Bone broth-based soups
We’ve written about the health benefits of bone broth before and are true fans of this nutritious superfood! Proper Good bone broth-based soups are rich in collagen, which is the most abundant protein in the body. Collagen’s fiber-like structure is used to form connective tissue, and it helps make tissues strong.
In addition, bone broth consists of minerals that promote strong bone growth and function. Bone broth also contains healthy nutrients like vitamins, amino acids, and essential fatty acids.A few of our absolute favorite bone broth-based soups are Cream of Chicken, Chicken Noodle, and Meatball Minestrone–perfect and homey-feeling for post-surgery recovery!
Foods to avoid after surgery
While it’s important to know which foods to incorporate into your post surgery diet, it’s just as important to know which foods to avoid after surgery!
When working toward a speedy recovery, try to avoid:
- Fried and fatty foods
- Alcohol
- Highly processed food (like cookies and chips)
Well, there you have it! While recovering from surgery is never fun, we hope this list of post surgery food ideas is a helpful resource.
