What to Eat Before Surgery: Top Foods for Recovery and Healing

“What to Eat Before Surgery” was written by Yemina Goldberg and reviewed/edited by Gabi Abreu BSc and Jackie Silver MHSc, RD

Medical Disclaimer: The information in this article is meant for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be personalized medical or nutrition advice. For a plan tailored to your needs, please consult with a Registered Dietitian or qualified healthcare professional.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links with which I may earn a small commission but at no additional cost to you. Affiliate links help bloggers like me to provide you with free content. All opinions expressed here are genuine. 

Last updated: August 28, 2024

What to Eat Before Surgery

Wondering what to eat before surgery? It’s a common concern for many patients preparing for a procedure. Eating the right food can help make surgery and recovery easier and more successful. In this blog, we’ll discuss general guidelines about what to eat before surgery, building on our previous post What to Eat After Surgery to provide a comprehensive approach to surgical nutrition. 

Keep in mind that different surgeries may have specific instructions and dietary requirements, so always consult your doctor or a registered dietitian for personalized dietary advice. They can take into account any underlying health conditions or medications you might be on. This is especially important for people with diabetes, who often need individualized dietary recommendations.

What Happens to Your Body During Surgery?

During surgery, your body has a stress response due to inflammation, immune system responses, and changes to the production of hormones and insulin. This stress response can be as short as a few hours or up to several weeks, depending on the type of surgery, how invasive it is, and your own response.

Many times you don’t move around for a few days after surgery as part of the recovery process, and this can lead to muscle loss and reduced function, which is quicker and more extreme for older adults.

Why You Can’t Eat or Drink Right Before Surgery 

Before any surgery, you will likely be instructed not to eat for at least a few hours before your procedure. This is essential for several reasons:

1. Preventing Aspiration: During surgery, anesthesia is used so that you are unconscious for the procedure. This also relaxes the muscles that keep food and liquid in your stomach from entering your lungs. If your stomach isn’t empty, there’s a risk that food can be inhaled into the lungs. Having an empty stomach is essential to prevent choking and aspiration pneumonia.
   
2. Reducing Nausea and Vomiting: Anesthesia can sometimes cause people to have nausea and vomiting. An empty stomach can reduce the chances of this happening both during and after surgery, making your recovery go a lot smoother.
   
3. Keeping Blood Sugar Levels in Check: Eating too close to surgery can sometimes cause fluctuations in blood sugar levels, which can complicate both the procedure and your recovery. Stabilizing blood glucose levels through preoperative fasting can be especially helpful for individuals with diabetes. 

Talk to Your Doctor and Registered Dietitian

It’s important to remember that each person’s needs may vary based on their specific health conditions and the type of surgery they are undergoing. Always follow the specific instructions given by your healthcare provider or dietitian to ensure the best possible preparation for your procedure.

What to Eat Before Surgery: Essential Nutrients for Healing and Recovery

Optimizing your nutritional health in the weeks leading up to surgery can significantly increase the body’s ability to heal and recover. By consuming the right foods before surgery, you can build up energy reserves that will help to support you during and immediately after your procedure. When considering what to eat before surgery, keep in mind the importance of protein, complex carbohydrates, and Omega-3 fats to optimize your recovery.

Protein

Protein is crucial for helping your body regulate stress, prevent muscle loss and avoid loss of functionality. This is especially important for older adults who may experience muscle loss more quickly. For this purpose, animal protein is best as they are complete proteins and provide all nine essential amino acids needed for optimal function and recovery. 

For those who follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, while plant-based proteins may be incomplete on their own, combining different sources can help provide all essential amino acids. Beans and rice are a great alternative Combining these plant-based options can help ensure you receive a broad spectrum of amino acids, supporting your nutritional needs and promoting effective healing.

Other high sources of protein include:

• Eggs
• Lean meats and poultry
• Nuts and seeds
• Fish and shellfish
• Lower-fat dairy products such as milk and yogurt
• Beans, peas and lentils
• Soy products like tofu and tempeh

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates help prevent gluconeogenesis, which is a process where your body breaks down muscles or other organs for energy. Together with protein, eating carbohydrates before surgery will help prevent muscle loss and loss of functionality after surgery. It is best to focus on eating complex carbohydrates for sustained energy. Complex carbohydrates can reduce hyperglycemia. Complex carbohydrates can improve insulin resistance during surgery. They can also shorten hospital stay.

Good sources of complex carbohydrates include: 

• Legumes such as beans, peas, and lentils
• Fruits
• Starchy vegetables, such as sweet potatoes
• Whole grains, such as whole-grain bread, brown rice and pasta 

Including these complex carbohydrates in your diet will help fuel your body and support a smoother recovery process.

Healthy Fats

Incorporating healthy fats into your diet before surgery can be beneficial for managing and reducing pain and inflammation after surgery. Omega-3 fatty acids, in particular, are known for their anti-inflammatory properties and can help support a smoother healing process. Consider including these sources of healthy fats in your pre-surgery diet:

• Fish, such as salmon
• Nuts and seeds
• Olive oil
• Avocados

Fluids: There are no specific guidelines for how much fluids to drink before surgery, but it is important to drink your usual amount. Try to drink eight cups of fluid per day. 

What to Eat Before Surgery: Sample Timeline and Food Recommendations and Restrictions 

Although you will likely be given instructions for when to stop eating before surgery, you will likely not be given any instructions of what and when to eat leading up to the procedure. Here’s a general timeline and recommendations to help you prepare:

7-10 Days Before

One to two weeks before surgery is a good time to start focusing on eating complex carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. A rough guideline is to aim for approximately 60% of your diet to be from complex carbohydrates. This is estimated at 8g of carbohydrates per kg of body weight. If you can’t do this for a full week, a few days will also be helpful.

One to two weeks before surgery is also when you should start to eat more protein. A guideline for how much protein to eat is between 1.2 and 2.0 g per kg of body weight each day. You should spread out high-quality protein sources throughout the day and aim for 20–40 g of protein per meal.

24 Hours Before

In the 24 hours leading up to your surgery, focus on eating a well-balanced meal with high-quality protein and complex carbohydrates. Aim to eat this meal 6-12 hours before surgery, ensuring it is before the required fasting period begins (usually midnight before surgery). Regardless of when your surgery is during the day, this means having a good dinner the night before.

Examples of pre-surgery dinners:

• A poke bowl with salmon, avocado, cucumber, and brown rice
• Chicken with quinoa and broccoli
• Fish with whole grain pasta and vegetables
• Tofu stir fry with rice noodles and vegetables 
• Lentil chickpea curry with mixed vegetables
• Feta Spinach Lentil Bowl

 If your surgery is in the afternoon and you can eat a little that morning, having a protein-rich drink such as a shake or milk is a great option. 

Here are couple protein drinks from Amazon: 

• Ensure Protein Max Chocolate (gluten-free)
• Simply Protein Chocolate (vegan/gluten-free)
• Boost Protein+ Chocolate
• Sperri (vegan, high quality ingredients) 

Sometimes, you can drink up to two hours before surgery. Hydration is important up until the cut-off time provided by your surgeon, but should be limited to clear fluids. Having a clear juice, such as apple juice, is recommended to provide extra carbohydrates before surgery. 

Foods to Avoid

In preparation for your surgery, there are specific foods and substances you should avoid to minimize potential complications and support a smoother recovery.

• Alcohol: You should stop drinking alcohol 2 to 4 weeks before surgery, especially if you drink frequently. If this is too hard, stop drinking alcohol at least 24 hours before surgery. This is because alcohol may thin your blood, which can lead to complications during surgery. Alcohol also slows digestion and can interact with surgery medications.
• Difficult to digest foods: A few days before surgery, you should limit any foods that take a long time to digest or that could interfere with anesthesia. These include highly processed foods and very sugary foods as they are hard to digest, and potatoes and eggplants which may interfere with anesthesia.

What to Eat Before Surgery: Conclusion

What you eat before surgery can help improve the success of your surgery and your recovery. By focusing on eating nutritious foods including enough complex carbohydrates and protein, you can help prevent muscle loss and mitigate the stress on your body during surgery. Maintaining a healthy eating pattern post-surgery will further aid in your recovery and overall well-being.

Related Blogs

• What to eat after surgery
• How to promote wound healing
• SCI nutrition
• CP Nutrition
• Neurogenic bowel and bladder

References 

1. Deftereos, I., Kiss, N., Isenring, E., Carter, V. M., & Yeung, J. M. (2020). A systematic review of the effect of preoperative nutrition support on nutritional status and treatment outcomes in upper gastrointestinal cancer resection. European Journal of Surgical Oncology, 46(8), 1423-1434.
2. Gillis, C., & Wischmeyer, P. E. (2019). Pre‐operative nutrition and the elective surgical patient: why, how and what?. Anaesthesia, 74, 27-35.
3. Hirsch, K. R., Wolfe, R. R., & Ferrando, A. A. (2021). Pre- and Post-Surgical Nutrition for Preservation of Muscle Mass, Strength, and Functionality Following Orthopedic Surgery. Nutrients, 13(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13051675
4. Kielhorn, B. A., Senagore, A. J., & Asgeirsson, T. (2018). The benefits of a low dose complex carbohydrate/citrulline electrolyte solution for preoperative carbohydrate loading: focus on glycemic variability. The American Journal of Surgery, 215(3), 373-376.
5. Ruiz-Tovar, J., Blanca, M., Garcia, A., Gonzalez, J., Gutierrez, S., Paniagua, A., … & Duran, M. (2019). Preoperative administration of Omega-3 fatty acids on postoperative pain and acute-phase reactants in patients undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass: A randomized clinical trial. Clinical Nutrition, 38(4), 1588-1593.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261561418312287