No Caffeine
Well, I’ve gone and done it: too much takeout and too many indulgences, and now I’m on the GERD diet. Which means no animal fats, citrus, tomatoes, garlic, onion, spicy foods, chocolate, peppermint, coffee, alcohol, or TEA.
Yes, I’ll be tempted to cheat. I’m also supposed to cut way back on sugar, which is really hard, especially during the holidays. But the upper chest pain I experienced last week has made me religious about preventing that from ever happening again, so I’m going clean for the time being. Sadly, decaf tea seems to be a trigger. But I do have a lovely big pouch of Egyptian chamomile, and am enjoying that, while I read recipes on drgourmet.com.
Have a great Winter Solstice tomorrow and happy holidays all around. I’ll see you on the other side of this dietary purgatory.
Teavivire has some nice caffeine free fruit blends. I have bought a number of them but make them mostly as cold brewed iced tea.
Thanks, Allan! I’m not supposed to have any fruit besides melon and bananas, but I’ll check with my doctor whether I can have a fruit tea that has other fruits.
I second trying rooibos – both red and green, as well as honeybush – since they all taste different, and floral teas, and you might also try roasted barley (mugicha) or other roasted grains, dandelion leaf, rosemary or other herbs from your spice cupboard, and dried carrots. You might be able to drink some fruit or dessert flavored herbals so long as they don’t have sugar, fruit pieces, citric acid, hibiscus, or any cocoa or mint products. Be wary of citrus flavors though, as well as strawberry and raspberry which may be okay, or may bother you. Make sure you read the ingredients carefully! Check out herbals from Adagio, Numi, Lupicia, 52teas, Bird Pick, or Teasenze. You can also just do a search on Amazon or Google, or browse keywords here on Steepster. I get heartburn during the second half of pregnancy, so I have some experience limiting or avoiding the same foods. Good luck!
I surprised you cannot have peppermint. That is often used for gastrointestinal illness. I drink it all the time for that purpose and because I like it.
I know Peppermint can make heartburn better or worse depending on the underlying cause. It triggers my heartburn.
If you don’t like the flavor of rooibos, I find that green rooibos is often less apparent in flavor in blends than the red variety, and honeybush can often be inoffensive in blends as well. Harney also has a lavender/chamomile blend that I like called Yellow and Blue.
It’s too bad you can’t have decaf. :-( I had written out a bunch of recommendations before I reread your post and realized that was a no go.
Thank you so much for all of your recommendations, rosebudmelissa, and I really appreciate your efforts, Morgana — why not post them here? Somebody reading this thread later might find it very helpful!
Glad to be of help! I would be interested in decaf recommendations. Being pregnant makes me more sensitive to caffeine, but sometimes I can handle a little bit. A month or two ago, even decaf was bothering me, but I’ve had some this week, and I seem to be doing okay with it at the moment. It’s always nice to have more variety in what I can currently drink.
I was just going to mention Harney’s decaf Vanilla Comoro, which is one of the best decafs I’ve had. Their peach decaf is also good, and while I haven’t tried it I have wanted to try their decaf cinnamon (I like the non-decaf version so it could be good).
Yeah, most decaf isn’t regulated so there’s still caffeine in them.
I’d suggest Lupicia’ Orzo teas, Korean Barley Tea and Jiaogulan (M & K Tea Company has a good dragon pearl one) as other options.
Okay, I have a hard time remembering all the nos above – I don’t know how you do! I took a peek through my cupboard for inspiration so some of these are specific blends.
Some thoughts that might pass your requirements:
-Lemon balm/verbena/myrtle (I think they’re all different?). I’m thinking it’s okay as it’s not actually citrus, but not sure.
-Tulsi (with other things it is more palatable to me).
-Rooibos and honeybush – there are lots of blends which might be okay for you.
-I still have some Wellness by Joys Teaspoon and have long loved it. It might be ingredient acceptable. (http://steepster.com/teas/joys-teaspoon/16147-wellness)
-I had a bamboo leaf tea from Davids a few years ago, maybe you could find something like that.
Oh you poor thing! So sorry to hear that. On the bright side, there are so many interesting rooibos blends to try :)
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