A love letter to charcoal

It's the actual week of Christmas, so I'm guessing most of us are at the point where we have had so much rich and sweet food that we only want plain sandwiches or rice until the new year.  I know I was craving lemon sorbet last night because I wanted something tart and sour to combat all of the sweet (and I love the sweet!).

Well, this really is related - promise, yesterday I went to a Christmas meal full of super yummy casseroles.  I took a plate home for supper because the chicken casserole really was divine even if it was basically straight up cream and fat with a bit of chicken thrown in.  And because I trust these people.  They wouldn't make me sick, right?  I reheated this plate for supper and went to bed happy. 

Until about 3am.  Then, I was not happy.  My stomach was basically on fire and expanding and screaming at me.  I laid there for a long time until I finally woke up enough to go get some pepto to buy me a little sleep time.  When it was time to get up, I was in gross, unhappy pain.  So, I went to my charcoal tablets.
I was introduced to charcoal tablets by a lovely little Indian doctor lady at a doc-in-the-box in Arlington, VA.  I was there because my stomach literally felt like I had eaten rocks and they were just hanging out and rolling around in there.  This was at the point in my DC time where my body was acting out quite a lot because it wanted me to move home.  This lovely little lady told me that I didn't officially have a hole in my stomach, but I almost did.  Then, she told me I was a sweet girl and that I should go home and get out of that place.  After that, she told me to always keep charcoal tablets handy.  She said she never travels without them, particularly since you might not know what you'll be eating when you travel. 

Basically, the charcoal soaks up the toxins and gas in your stomach and helps control the culprit of the pain.  Be careful, because you can't take it immediately before or after you take other medicine because it will soak that up too and keep it from working.  Also, if you ever actually get tested for salmonella or E. Coli, which I have been, it can mess with the test results because of how it soaks everything up. (But it also meant I made it through until I got to the doctor).

You can find it in most pharmacies, but it may be with the herbal supplements.
I took some today, and it totally saved the day!  And, it allowed me to take part in my office's Phillippino Christmas lunch, prepared by our Phillipinno Momma (one of my coworkers).