Argh….a headache. Again. It happens. To me it seems to happen a lot. I get really dehydrated when it’s warm out, and especially when it’s warm out and I have to teach for 2.5 hrs straight, which basically means talk-nagging-talk-begging, talk-listening (yes, I do that too) without stopping in a class of 28 eager undergrads. And yes, they really are eager. Hence all the questions. Plus it’s a lab so they have to pay attention because they actually have to DO something in order to get out that day. No skating by with your head in your hand, cocked to the side like you are looking intently when really you are asleep.
I also get headaches when I eat garlic. I don’t mean to eat garlic, but let’s face it, garlic is pretty hard to avoid. I went to Delta of Venus in Davis last night for dinner. Fabulous food, and I would go back. The food was so good I wish that I had a camera handy to take a pic. It was Caribbean food and even came with a sautee banana atop the rice. Double YUM! But I am pretty sure it had garlic.
Of all my food issues garlic is what gives me immediate trouble. Within 2-3 hrs I feel literally like I’m on fire on the insides. I also feel like I’m trying to pass 1,000 tiny razor blades through my GI tract but they won’t budge. Good times. The worst effect of all, however, is the bizarre and very unique headache I get. It makes me feel like my eyes are on fire and that little laser beams are having a shooting match in my brain. No wonder yogis and monks don’t include garlic in a meditative diet. The way I feel right now is far from at peace.
But, before you go and feel too sorry for me, there is a remedy and that remedy is cool, crisp peppermint tea. Oh yeah. I can’t live without it. Hot or chilled, it’s the cooling effect of peppermint that I need to quench the fire and blunt the GI razor blades and call a cease-fire in my brain. It works, along with some Naproxyn (hey, I wish I could go all natural here too but a girl has got to live!). The Naproxyn alone is pretty good, but the soothing nature of the peppermint tea actually does the most good in the GI.
Yogi teas, Stash, and Trader Joe’s are my favs, probably because they are the least expensive and just make a solid product. Peppermint works best for me but I prefer spearmint or a mint mix if I can find it.
To me, this little garlic quandry-solved-by-peppermint-tea is just yet another example of mother nature’s balance. Garlic is know for it’s heating, dispursing nature (like dispursing heat to my body and brain) and peppermint has a downward and cooling nature. Yin and Yang going on right inside me at the moment.
I am in balance 🙂
Off White Living 
I just love your easy way with words and, while I would be quite depressed if I became garlic-sensitive (it’s one of my favorite foods), it’s nice to know there would be a remedy waiting. Thanks for your blog and your food wisdom. Not sure how “naggy” you are with your up-and-coming yogis, but you are very down to earth in this blog, and if you were a “purist” I doubt that I could take it. Sometimes I just have to have…well, whatever it might be that day, with very few “absolutely nots” on the list. Sometimes even a headache is worth it!
Thanks Pat, I appreciate your support. I agree that minimize the ‘absolutely nots’ is really helpful and just realistic!