BRAT Diet

I've been having really severe abdominal pain ever since getting a stomach virus over Thanksgiving, and since it was not getting better on it's own (in fact, it seemed to be getting worse) I decided I'd better go to the doctor to make sure I'm not dying of some rare stomach or intestinal disease. After a quick chat and examination by the doc, she determined that I simply have gastrointestinal distress as a side effect of the stomach bug. Basically my intestines got totally ripped to shreds and cleaned out of any bacteria (good or bad) that is needed to process food, so every time I eat it's causing severe pain as my body tries to process it. Her solution? Regular doses of Pepto Bismol to coat the intestines and allow them to heal, combined with the BRAT diet.

I vaguely remember my mother telling me about this before. It is historically prescribed for patients with gastrointestinal distress and consists of foods that are relatively bland and low in fiber: Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast. My doctor told me to discontinue all the cold medicine I was taking (did I mention I also have a head cold?) and eat only these foods after first taking the Pepto. So I went home and did just that; made myself a piece of whole grain toast for dinner with a banana. I spent the entire night doubled over in pain and convinced that my doctor is a complete quack.

But in the morning I did some more research on the BRAT diet, which it appears I had misinterpreted. Whole grain bread is full of fiber, which is hard to process and makes gastrointestinal problems much worse! I also had a diet 7-Up because that's what my mom used to give us when we were sick, but apparently carbonated beverages are also forbidden. So it's no wonder I had a miserable evening.

So now I'm faced with a dilemma... white rice and white bread are strictly in the OFF LIMITS section of my regular diet. I would never ever buy either one! But I want to follow my doctor's orders because I'm so desperate to alleviate the pain and get back to normal life, so I'm trying to stick to the rules. Today I had a banana for breakfast and I ordered some plain white rice from the deli downstairs for lunch. But I could only eat about half of it because it was so dang boring and bland. (Ah ha! Perhaps I've discovered the key to weight loss... just give yourself a really boring, restrictive diet and you won't want to eat that much).

I am finally starting to feel a little bit better, and I'm desperately hoping I can get a good night's sleep tonight. I'm still not sure how I will bring myself to buy a loaf of white bread for my dinner of toast and applesauce tonight... it's just so counter intuitive I can't stand it!