Teas and Smoothies Help Me Out

When it comes to teas and smoothies, I find them to be great for juice and meal replacements. Throughout my years of living with IBS, I have experimented a lot with food and drinks just to find something that hopefully won’t trigger any of my symptoms. It’s quite unfortunate that us IBS sufferers have to go through a lot of trial and error just to figure out what works and doesn’t work for us, but at least we learn a lot along the way. Nonetheless, I find that tea and smoothies work better for me than eating solid foods and drinking beverages bought from the market.

Tea

There are so many benefits to drinking tea, such as it can help with bloating, gas-relief, inflammation, etc., which are all great for IBS sufferers. My favorite kind of tea is pretty much anything with peppermint or ginger and lemon. I prefer making homemade tea as opposed to buying drinks from the store because I feel a peace of mind knowing exactly what goes into my beverages. I like to use all natural ingredients.

Drinks, like soda and juices, that contain high fructose corn syrup and other unhealthy ingredients, are a big NO-NO for IBS sufferers because these ingredients are known to be triggers. It is well known that many IBS sufferers are fructose intolerant, and the fact that fructose has been “chemically reformulated” into HFCS and crystalline fructose, doesn’t help us much. Why? Well because most manufactured food that we consume on a regular basis contains these reformulated sugars, which is why almost anything we eat can trigger our symptoms. Also, just like alcohol consumption, too much of anything can lead to toxicities, and thus can result into long term negative health effects. So because a lot of the things we eat contain these reformulated sugars, we have to be very careful that we don’t consume too much of it for it can be detrimental to our health in the short or long run. With that being said, that is why I prefer to make my own natural beverages from home so that I am aware of what I am putting in my body.

Smoothies

I find smoothies to be great meal replacements. I notice, for the most part, when I consume solid food, I instantly get stomach pain and have to urgently use the bathroom. On the contrary, smoothies are easier to digest since all of the ingredients are broken down and blended together, and it doesn’t trigger my symptoms as bad as solid foods. It also sits well in my stomach and I don’t feel the immediate-need to use the toilet. Another great thing about smoothies, similar to my homemade teas beverages, is that I know exactly what I am putting in my body and therefore I feel somewhat in control over my symptoms.

I feel one of the best ways to manage your IBS symptoms is through diet, which is why I’m particular with what I consume (although I have to be). Personally, I find that tea and smoothies are the best way for me to consume food and liquids without triggering any symptoms too harshly. It’s all about finding what works best for you and how much you can tolerate.