The Breakfast Mistakes
Once upon a time, I began the day with strong, strong instant coffee, sweetened with three or four packets of Splenda. That was enough to send my gastrocolic reflex into paroxysms of activity (diabolical, you might say). I came across a web site that mentioned that Splenda was associated with producing gas; I already had read this about other artificial sweeteners. I did try cutting down on the Splenda, with little effect. I tried mixing Sweet N Low with Equal, which works to enhance the sweetening effect of each–something I read on the web. There was a slight improvement, but not a whole lot.
Then I read Heather Van Vorous’s list of IBS Triggers; in fact, I’ll make a page for this blog, from that list and others I’ve discovered.
Reading the list, I discovered that caffeine was also a trigger. I hadn’t noticed any change in tummy pain in switching from morning tea to morning coffee, when the research on coffee started to sound good. Oh, how I had missed morning coffee!
I then made an omelet/frittata from the South Beach Diet folks, using chopped broccoli or spinach, two whole eggs, Egg Beaters or similar liquid eggs, and Lactaid, topped with either or both dairy Mozzarella and “Veggie Shreds Mozzarella or Cheddar and Pepper Jack flavors.” Oh, my! The List said “all dairy” and “egg yolks.” I also noticed, during this experimental period, that where I used to be able to eat cheese (the dairy Mozzarella) and cottage cheese, they now seemed to be the source of problems.
So my fixed breakfast routine had to go.