Summer drinks? // Egg yolks?

[playethic]

Hi

I need a summer drink ... in this new IC world, when I'm meeting someone for drinks and I need to order something, and it's spring/summer now so I need an alternative to my peppermint tea standby... what can I order?
Booze is out now - I know some can handle hard liquor, but I'm on opiates so off alcohol - I can live with that (though tougher in summer!). I used to have club soda and lemon or cranberry soda if not drinking, but that's out, as is anything carbonated. I'd order juice, but most places don't have pear juice.
What do you order?

New topic:
Also - I'm confused by some of the contradictions between food lists - eg. the urologist gives an IC food list that doesn't agree with the ICN list, or other IC diet lists. And some lists of acid & alkaline foods suggest flags for some foods that on other lists are okay. I know that everything's individual. But one thing is eggs... on one list they're not good for IC, on another list they're okay. I have one list that shoes acidity/alkalinity measurements of different foods. The highest acidic level, 6.0, includes hard cheese, black pepper, barley, pastries, cakes and cookies, beef, vinegar, artificial sweeteners, pistachios, trans fatty acids, arcrylamides (?), booze & sft drinks, soya sauce & MSG & brewer's & nutritional yeasts, cranberries & dried fruit (sulfured), processed soybeans, salted and sweetened peanut butter... and the yolk of chicken eggs.

So if chicken egg yolks are at the highest acidity level of foods, I wonder why it's not on all IC 'caution' lists? What are your experiences -- do any of you eat egg whites only?

[ICNDonna]

The safest thing I have found is bottled spring water when I'm away from home.

I use the ICN list --- it's the latest one available and was developed with input from thousands of IC patients, in addition to professionals.

Donna

[cmclien]

I'd stick with the ICN list too. The acid / alkaline lists don't all apply because citrus turns alkaline in your body yet is a severe bladder irritant to those with IC. There has been lots of talk about this under the diet section. I eat both whole eggs and egg whites and have no issue with either. I also eat alot of peanut butter. Most meat is good for IC yet its on that acidic list. My UG gave me a list too but it did actually mesh up with the one here luckily. There is also a histamine list that kinda matches up but not quite with the list here. It does get confusing but I'd stick to the one here. I think the thing to remember also is for ICers its not necessarily what the food/drink turns into i.e., acid or alkaline but the fact that our bladder linings are compromised and whatever you ingest will eventually come into contact and seep through. In that regard you can see why citrus fruits would hurt, it would be like squeezing a lemon on a cut.

[VickiB]

Summer drink? I pretty much stick to spring water. Although last year I began to put cucumber slices in it for flavor and that didn't seem to bother me.

I too would stick with the ICN list for starters. It is very close to what I have found in my own IC diet experience trigger wise. That said, there seems to be some variables from one person to the next, -myself included. Which is why I'd have to say ultimately the best thing you can probably do is to keep a journal of foods eaten and your symptom level.

In my case, I've learned that I flare from a handful of peanuts (bladder friendly) and yet can drink a beer (caution) without consequences. So unlike Cindi, I find I have to avoid peanut butter. This took me a while to figure out but my journal left little doubt after repeated experiments consistently showed the same result. I don't understand it, -why should these differences exist? All I know is that some things make me flare and others don't. (?) But 98% of what does makes me flare is on the ICN diet caution list.

I know, the list my doctor gave me (from the Elmiron manufacturer if I remember right) said to avoid eggs as well. Yet in reality, they are the very first "safe" food of choice I always resort to when flaring.

Vicki