As soon as the weather gets warm, PB starts her romance with iced coffee.
Oh, I love my iced coffee! A day without iced coffee is a day not worth living. The first thing I do in the morning is set myself up with a big ole iced coffee in a big sippy cup with a straw. You know those things, right? The washable, non-BCP cups you get so you can pretend you went to a Designer Coffee Shop drive-up window?
I make myself my big sippy cup full of iced coffee, take the dog out, have a smoothie, then sit down with my coffee to check e-mail. I have lots of those sippy cups and I use them all day long: usually for plain water or sometimes sticking an herbal tea bag in the water for a bit of flavor.
WELL. Some of you will see immediately where this is going.
A few weeks ago, I noticed that I was constantly full of painful gas. There is no delicate way to say it, pigeons. If this post WASN’T FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH AND WELL-BEING I WOULD NEVER HAVE BROUGHT IT UP.
The gas pressure made me constantly uncomfortable and of course I imagined the worst. “I’m sure it’s just stress,” said I. “But there is also the possibility that I’m dying of some terrible disease and I have an enormous tumor that’s putting all this pressure on my stomach or lungs or heart or whatever and I’m sure I’ll be dead soon, so maybe I shouldn’t worry about filing all these papers. My bereaved friends can do it for me after I explode from this build-up of painful gas.”
I cut spicy foods from my diet. I took organic charcoal pills. I did yoga. I cut out carbonated beverages (which I don’t drink much of in the first place). I blamed wheat. I blamed dairy. I blamed the Red Sox.
I practiced my 4-5-8 breath every morning. That one where you breath slowly in to a count of four, hold it for a count of five, and then slowly exhale to a count of eight. That really did help. That always helps: it is the best free medicine I know of, that breathing technique. I do acknowledge that I’ve been running around a lot and find myself gulping air rather than breathing deeply from my diaphragm.
Then it hit me. This all started when I switched from drinking from mugs and glasses to drinking all day from a straw, starting every day with the acidic iced coffee!!
No wonder I’m pumped full of air like a bicycle tire! That’s what happens when you drink from a straw — you take in tons of air along with your beverage! Wotta dingbat!
I cut out the straw 24 hours ago and I am feeling relief already. This isn’t to say that I’m not still gulping air, but at least I’m not also taking in tons of air with my liquid.
Oh, and by the way? This is the best post on how to make iced coffee that I’ve ever seen.
My guts have been having way too many technical difficulties lately for me to continue with my iced coffee habit, but I have found that I can tolerate iced tea (and I rarely drink anything literally iced — I prefer room temperature). So at least I can still worship the caffeine gods in some measure.
This, too: you know what they say about slowing down and chewing each bite? That helps, too.
Here’s to healing and to healthy tums, darlings.
WHen I read this, I winced in recognition…not of the iced-coffee thing, but of the unhappy innards thing.
Hope you get yours sorted soon PB. It really is quite unpleasant.
There’s another issue with straws, particularly if you’re going to be ecologically aware and re-use the same heavy plastic straw. My uncle doctor told me that even if you wash them unless you sanitize them (and let’s be honest, most of us just rinse and re-use) they collect all kinds of nasty germs and microbes. The minute you started talking about straws I wondered if it was contributing to throat/respiratory issues…
Be well!
Ditto for sipping all day long out of plastic bottles. (I have a nice thermos-type coffee cup from a wellknown retailer of caffinated drinks – following my doctor’s advice it now goes regularly in the dishwasher.)
I do put my straws and cups in the dishwasher but I hadn’t thought about how hard it is to really get inside of those straws… hmmmm. I may have to retire the grown-up sippy cup and stick to bottles with a wide mouth. Probably a better idea. Thanks!
Not that Peacebang would regularly indulge in the habit, but I discovered the same effect years ago from chewing gum. Needless to say my gum chewing is now limited to only that which is necessary to keep my ears properly pressurized (when flying or driving in hilly areas) and in dire breath-odor emergencies.
When I bring iced coffee from home on my commute, I just put it in a regular travel mug that I use for hot coffee. No straw needed.
I believe that only you could get me to read a blog posting about gas.
On a recent Dr. Oz show, one of his guests mentioned that repeated sucking on a straw will increase the speed with which WRINKLES will form along your mouth…leading to the dreaded lipstick bleeds into the area above the upper lip! So much for trying to keep the lipstick nice by using a straw instead of a glass that will gain the rosy lip imprint.
Totally agree that PW has the best method for making iced coffee (except for the tip about adding sweetened condensed milk – I don’t do that, since I like to fit into my jeans – waaaaaay too much sugar for daily drinking!). She has great recipes in general, if not always the healthiest. Her apple cake in an iron skillet is.to.die. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/apple-cake-in-an-iron-skillet/
Hope you are feeling fit as a fiddle soon!
I hesitate to write this because I can hear my husband saying “and what medical school did you graduate from?”; however, I have found that adding milk to coffee or tea causes stomach problems – straight black as your heart coffee doesn’t – also one acidopholis (sp?) each day seems to promote good gut working –
“I blamed the Red Sox.”
You are truly a Woman of Faith. You are A Believer in Things Unseen.