HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

tea and stress

Support Forums
>
Ulcerative Colitis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 8/3/2011 5:44 PM (GMT 0)
I grew up drinking black tea (plain old Lipton type) with milk and sugar. It's my biggest comfort food.. er.. drink. Used to drink 4-5 cups a day at work.

Then I cut way back when I realized it's not stomach-friendly. Pretty much weaned myself off caffeine, drinking lots of water.

But stress is hitting hard at work and I "need" my warm milky tea to keep my sanity.

So stress = bad for UC.
Tea = bad for UC.

Can't win...
Posted 8/3/2011 5:51 PM (GMT 0)
I know it is not the same but have you tried the herbal teas? Many are naturally decaffeinated.

When I am flaring, the first thing I reach for is herbal lemon tea. It is very calming to my gut. For a sweetener, I add a tad of sweet and low:)

Posted 8/3/2011 5:59 PM (GMT 0)
Peppermint tea is good for the gut too
Posted 8/3/2011 6:08 PM (GMT 0)
Oh I know herbal teas and all that. It's just not the same. :-)

I need to be able to drink it with milk to "count", or it's just a different drink with the same name.

I have a couple decaf varieties that I've found that work with milk, but when I'm stressed like I've been I find myself grabbing that old box with an 'I don't care what this does to me, I need my tea!' attitude.

*Looking at empty cup* cry
Posted 8/3/2011 6:11 PM (GMT 0)
Hoshi,

I too drink a lot of black tea  with just soy milk ,  5 extra large mugs a day.  It has never bothered me but If I used regular milk and sugar that probably would.  Bacteria feeds off sugar, so could you try your tea without sugar. 

Teatley tea is the one I drink and they have a decaf one that might be good for you if you find the caffeine bothers you.  It tastes exactly like the regular one.

Posted 8/3/2011 6:46 PM (GMT 0)
tea isn't bad for UC...it seems that it just doesn't agree with you.

maybe have it with a bit of food..it might be OK then.

I agree that Tetley tea decaf tastes like regular...see if that is OK for you.

Problems with tea are more often the tannic acid than the caffeine, so maybe trying another one will be OK.

Herbal teas give me stomach pain, not regular tea....so, it's definitely subjective.

Try it with food...

Hope you get through this stressful time.

Oh, just want to add that sometimes with low rectal inflammation, stomach discomfort seems to come into play (for whatever reason)....so maybe with the fact that your flare is being treated, the tea might not bother you as much.

As well...maybe have it not quite as strong.

q
Posted 8/3/2011 7:04 PM (GMT 0)
I'll definitely give this Tetley a try. I have Red Rose right now and their decaf version tasted awful.

Never been sure if it's the actual tea or the milk (I'm trying lactose free again)... never really considered that sugar is the issue. The lactose free milk is sweeter so I can try to get away with not using sugar.


As for the stress, the mantra "one more year" keeps going through my head. Next spring my husband graduates from school and hopes to have a job that will support both of us so I can move on to plans of starting a business, going back to school myself, and having babies. (All at once? I must be crazy!) So while we're going to want to keep double incomes for a while, I just started thinking I maybe could use medical reasons to ask to be cut back to part time.
Posted 8/3/2011 7:31 PM (GMT 0)
Hoshi, You might want also to try green tea. It does have caffeine, but for whatever reason I have found my digestive tract likes it better than black tea. It also tastes good without milk in it, a bonus.

I will say, though, that you should only try loose green tea (which I admit can sometimes be expensive). The kind in bags is awful, and I've heard that in bags it actually has MORE caffeine than black tea.

I speak, by the way, as someone who used to drink lots of lattes, then lots of black tea, and was totally depressed about doing just green tea-- I write in the mornings and thought it would never fire up my brain in the same way. Now I'm used to it and it's fine.
Posted 8/3/2011 8:58 PM (GMT 0)
My colon dislikes every type of caffeine, herb, roibos, peppermint, green and white, decaf tea in all versions there are on the market except...Tetley. Tetley must have some special decaf technique that makes it gut-friendly for my gut. I can't even drink most de-caf coffee because they use chemicals to de-caffeinate and my gut rebels. The only decaf coffee I can drink is Paul Newmans Special Decaf, quite good.

I have a cabinet full of teas I've tried and failed with, dozens. The coffee gets drunk by my DH :-)

I use coconut cream instead of milk and honey. It's almost a dessert and when it's "tea time" it's lovely with an almond walnut biscotti.
Posted 8/4/2011 7:59 PM (GMT 0)
I haven't had a chance to get to the store to look for Tetley yet, but I've been drinking my regular tea since making the post without another issue (yet, I know, tempting fate). I'm quite sure now that stress is/was responsible for my symptoms getting so bad. It's hard to wrap my mind around the idea that something intangible can do that but some of my worst days have definitely coincided with really stressful times at work.
Posted 8/9/2011 9:34 PM (GMT 0)
I haven't been able to find the decaf version in store yet, but I bought some of the regular Tetley (British blend) to make sure tasting like the regular was a good thing to begin with.

So now I'm blaming you guys on getting me hooked... sooo good...
Posted 8/10/2011 8:57 AM (GMT 0)
enjoy! It's not going to make your UC worse...my opinion.

q
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply