Cooking for Health

 

Today and yesterday, my stomach hurts. The harsh reality is that ulcers run in my family, and I had mine when I was 12. Yes, seriously. An ulcer isn’t something that really ever goes away, and it can flare up. That is what mine is doing these last few days. In order to fix it, I am resting more, trying to worry less, and eating foods that sooth my stomach. But it got me wondering what people eat when their stomach hurts?

Jason said that growing up, his family ate canned chicken noodle soup for colds and stomach upset, or Sprite soda. My family also drank soda, but ours were 7 up and ginger ale. To this day, I will often reach for a ginger ale when I am feeling a little queezy. Now I like the extra ginger beer offered by Reeds to anything in an actual can. Give me a nice bottle of ginger beer, please. My mom had her own unique cure for any stomach ache. She called it the “Kill or Cure”. She could put cheese on crackers and use the hottest hot sauce that she could find. To this day, now that I am vegan, sometimes a bean burrito with Daiya and spicy salsa will settle my stomach, too. That gives me all the comforts of the past without any cruelty or bad health effects.

I think that all families have their own home grown cures, their own traditions. Some of us have had to alter a few to make them vegan, but it is great we can keep our traditions alive. After all, a dish prepared in the same way that you had it when you were a kid can be as healing as the actual food.