ARSA

So I suffer from this little thing called acid reflux. It's mostly just me eating certain foods, and due to those certain foods I am in a massive amount of pain. So I have to watch what I eat, and cook most of my own food. So I decided, why not blog about it? After spending hours and hours searching the web trying to find recipes, and 9 times out of 10 tweaking those recipes, I decided I would make a blog so I would have some place to go back and look at what I've done and how, and maybe in the meantime help someone with similar problems and educate people on how much acid reflux can REALLY suck. Especially when you're only 19 and all you want is pizza and soda.

I was recently told about this new thing called the alkaline diet. Essentially, food has pH levels. 7 is a neutral, anything higher than that is an alkaline and lower an acid. So if you eat more alkaline foods, its supposed to balance out your stomach acid levels. I was looking into it, and discovered this book.

At first, I was skeptical. I always am when it crimes to books that are on medical topics. But when I went on Amazon, there's a whopping 245 reviews, and it seems most are positive. So I bought it for my Kindle, and started reading. I found it highly informative, and decided I would try out her diet. 

I've suffered from acid reflux for 2 years now. I know what I can eat, I know what I shouldn't eat. I avoid dairy and fatty foods like the plague. No pizza, soda, or candy for me. I only eat chicken and turkey when they're cooked certain ways, and if a tomato or onion has come anywhere near my food I won't touch it. But earlier this year it got really bad. Foods I used to be able to eat, I could eat no more. Even things I would occasionally eat as a treat were no longer touched. I took 4 months of sick leave and couldn't leave my house most days because I was constantly in pain. It has since been discovered that, not only do I have severe acid reflux, but my esophagus is extremely sensitive to stomach acid now. So I've had to become much more careful about what I eat. 

The main problem I have is finding recipes to suit my dietary needs. Regular cookbooks are out, because they use mostly ingredients that are out of the question. Vegetarian cookbooks are out, because they incorporate a lot of dairy. Vegan cookbooks are out, because it seemed every single one I would pick up every recipe called for something that couldn't be replaced that I can't eat. Eating out is out of the question, because most of it is cooked in too much oil and grease for my stomach.

This past year I have eaten more egg sandwiches than I thought I would eat in a lifetime. Eggs are easy, they're quick, and settle my stomach. I really hate egg sandwiches.

Before food excited me. It made me happy. I loved trying new things. I loved pizza. But recently, its become more of the enemy. I went from being 135 to 115 in three months. I went from eating four or five small meals a day to one small one. I've gotten much better, I'm back at work and up 5 pounds. But I still consider food the enemy. And recipe books the enemy's ammunition.

I've looked at acid reflux books. Read them, tried some recipes. None have been nearly as enticing as this one. None have ever made me so hopeful that I might be able to eat decent tasting foods again. Maybe even good. Obviously some tweaking shall be done. I'm a student, some of those ingredients are just out if my price range. But I will prevail. I will try her 2 week diet, and report back periodically with the recipes I've used and the results. Here's to hoping it works. I have a major grocery list to attack tomorrow, with plans to stop my monotonous diet tomorrow night with something small for dinner, in the form of the One Pot Vegetable Rice Tofu recipe. Its something similar to what I do often, but I'll be swapping the tofu out for grilled chicken. 

Hopefully I'll find that last little but if relief I'm looking for.