Pampering the Aging Stomach

I remember those halcyon days when I could eat anything-greasy, fattening, spicy, acid-it didn’t matter. If it was edible, I could eat it. These days, I am more likely to have a chicken sandwich than a burger, foot-long Coney dogs are an absolute no-no (and I loved the things-they have emotional memories, as well, of going to the movies with my mother and having one AFTER the movie so that I wouldn’t get the chili all over my best bib-and-tucker.). Greasy anything is questionable, and I have to watch my intake of acidy drinks or the amount of citric acid that has been laded into canned or dried soups or into fruit juices.

Recently, I made a longish road-trip to train a budding librarian. I was tired, not feeling especially well, and this particular trip had some emotional ramifications laid on as well. I pulled into a Sonic shortly before heading on to my appointment. My tummy had been a not-so-happy-camper all the way on this drive, so I ordered a chicken wrap and a banana smoothie-thinking that smoothies are usually made with yogurt, so I should be ok despite a fairly recent inability to drink whole milk without feeling yucky afterward. The wrap and smoothie seemed ok. I got the training session finished up, and sat down with one of the staff members to check on a couple of other issues. She was fairly direct in giving me what she felt to be a few home-truths (and I suspect she is right, which didn’t make me any happier), and I drove on home. By the time I arrived, my stomach hurt nearly as much as it had the two days I had food poisoning back in the summer.

I took a zantac, and then one of the tiny blue pills I still had on hand for stomach pain. The combination calmed things down, and I was able to have something rather bland for supper. My roommate watched this process. “You had dairy stuff, didn’t you?” he commented. I thought a moment, and realized I had ordered a shake instead of a smoothie. “Yes,” I confessed.

So what can a temperamental stomach endure? Actually, this varies-depending on the stomach, but I have found the following foods to continue to be good:

1. Rice. Plain, buttered, mixed with vegetables or drenched in broth are all good and leave me with a contented tummy. Just don’t sugar the stuff or put milk on it!
2. Oatmeal-any way ya want to cook it
3. Rice milk or soy milk. I prefer the rice-soy is a bean product with the usual bean product anti-social digestive problem.
4. Fruit teas and some herb teas. Chamomile is good-but some of the sleepy time/tension tamer teas have other stuff that doesn’t seem to agree as well.
5. Chicken-unless it has been fried in something icky. Fast food chains do not seem to change their cooking oil often enough.
6. Roast beef, and beef broth
7. Noodles in a white sauce (not cheese or tomato)
8. Apple juice if I can find it without citric acid added
9. Bananas or other low acid fruits
10. Whole grain breads
11. Cooked vegetables-go easy on the cabbage family
12. Sorbets, sherbet or frozen fruit juice instead of ice cream. Again, see the above about citric acid. Seems to be in everything these days.

Not an exhaustive list, but a few ideas for those of us who no longer have the iron-clad stomach that can consume anything. Oh, and the other thing? Be wary of emotional eating. Ice cream/shakes/yogurt used to be my comfort foods. I’ll never see/smell or taste a Coney Island hot dog without thinking of my mother, or bake a pan of bread without remembering my grandmother. Know what the triggers are that can have you eating the wrong things, work to develop different ways of coping. I’ve found music to be a delightful focus and found that scented candles help fill the house with those wonderful “fresh-baked” odors such as vanilla or cinnamon without introducing the foods that encourage uncontrolled eating-and a possible tummy ache.