The rescue meal

Haydn Shaughnessy developed an antacid food regime after agonising years of a bleeding duodenum

Haydn Shaughnessy developed an antacid food regime after agonising years of a bleeding duodenum

After years of crippling pain I learned eventually what worked as a rescue meal. For me it is white fish and potato, cooked simply. I tried bran (nearly fainted), roughage (ditto) and pasta (not quite so ditto) but always come back to the potato as my saviour. For the mornings, mango and papaya work well as does a honeydew melon.

I've noticed also over the years that every cuisine except those in the English-speaking world serves a raw dish alongside a main course. It can be as simple as salad. Lettuce is thought to create an alkaline environment in the gut.

There's a case too for ensuring the raw dish has a dash of vinegar, not just to sterilise the food. Cider vinegar is a potassium electrolyte balancer! Potassium depletion gives salt a free hand to ramp up our blood pressure and dehydrate us. Vinegar moderates that effect. So why did you put salt and vinegar on your chips? To balance your potassium electrolytes.

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Raw foods are thought beneficial because they retain active enzymes that cooking destroys. They help with digestion.

Finally, I've found that the dark green leafy vegetables lightly cooked did some good. Bitterness appears to me to be therapeutic.