There is more to eating healthy than the food you put in your mouth, I’m learning. There is how you eat and why you eat and when you eat. Dealing with a severe case of GERD right now, and in talking to friends, so many others are, too. So, I thought I’d share my journey out of this hole with people, so maybe they can get ideas of how to address it in themselves.
Quite a few years back, when the kids were younger, I got a sharp stabbing chest pain that made me journey to the ER. While on vacation. It turns out I had GERD. What a funky-sounding word. Gastro-esophageal reflux disease. Basically, the acid from my stomach travels up into my esophagus, where it doesn’t belong. And, by the way, that’s really not good. And, by the way, I don’t want a disease.
I was put on medicine, but my first thought was….how do I get off of this medicine, because I ain’t taking a pill for this my whole life.
So I did research, and found a technique called food combining that moves food out of your stomach faster. Sounded promising. So I tried it. And it worked!
Here’s the premise. Eat fruits by themselves, either 1/2 hour before or 3 hours after a meal. That way, they are the only thing in your stomach and they move out of it really quickly. Don’t eat animal protein and carbs together. Eat nuts and dried fruit alone or with raw veggies. And eat veggies with anything.
Vegetables are a plus in any kind of diet. Yay, vegetables!
I found this really great chart, you might want to look at it if you are interested in learning more. And an informative blog post to go along with it.
Over the years, I’ve gotten out of this way of eating, although since I don’t eat much animal protein, I guess I haven’t, really, strayed that far. Well, except for the fruit-by-itself part. I mean, what about my smoothies?
But right now I am dealing with even worse pain than I did the first time around that has lasted for four days now. Every time I take a deep breath I get a stabbing pain under my sternum. Thought I had pulled a muscle, but finally checked in with the doctor. The initial diagnosis is GERD.
But, but, but…I eat healthier than most people! The doctor told me that some people just have a bodily makeup that’s more prone to this.
So. I guess that includes me. And there have been clues. Which I’ll go into in a later post.
So, back to research mode. Back to food combining. Back to trying to be more intentional about my eating. Back to a pill (by my own choice) to get me out of this temporary pain place. (I’m considering it a jump-start.)
And, it appears, back to another blog post series. Stay tuned.