Thursday, September 19, 2013

Bad For Tummy

A long-time friend and colleague was, like me, diagnosed with functional dyspepsia several months ago. We're both more or less fine now, but this condition doesn't really just "go away". It lingers. For life. We just have to be careful to not actively invite episodes.

So, a bunch of us went out for lunch and decided to try this place we never knew existed until we saw it. The set meal, which we all decided to go for because we love the convenience, came with either a cold beverage, in form of carbonated drinks, or a hot one, coffee or tea. I decided to go for coffee without a second thought. I said to my functional dyspepsia-mate, I don't take soft drinks. He said he was going for coffee too, and that we made the right choice because soft drinks are bad for our troubled tummies.

Really?

Coffee is also bad for our tummies, I said. Well, yea, he agreed, but not as bad as those darn "sparkling" stuff are.

I wouldn't disagree with him. Carbonated drinks are hard to swallow, saturated with artificial flavouring, colouring and sweeteners, and well, they make me burp more than I'm willing to put up with. Plus, I love coffee (so that I'm OK to ignore whatever artificial stuff that might be in the brew... *ahem*). Cheers!

It's kinda cool to have a fellow sufferer... not cool that we're suffering, but at least we're in good company. =P