Special Water Pudding

I'm a bit stronger than yesterday, but still running a fever and having a bit of intestinal difficulties. The loss of body fluids, together with a thin fluid restriction creates a special problem for me. To fix this problem, I was given a special homemade water pudding.

Special Pudding Recipe

Ingredients:

1 qt cold water

3 heaping tablespoons flour

3 heaping tablespoons sugar

pinch of salt

Mix flour with cold water in large sauce pot. Add pinch of salt. Bring to boil on medium heat and simmer on low heat, mixing constantly until mixture thickens. Add sugar. Mix thoroughly until all sugar has dissolved. Pour onto large wide plates for rapid cooling, or into shallow soup bowls for use later.

This special water pudding provides much needed water. The cooked flour helps bind loose bowels, the sugar provides much needed glucose, the salt provides some electrolytes.

Be sure to add potassium elsewhere in the diet to compensate for potential loss of electrolytes. Possible sources of potassium include eating a banana for anyone who can tolerate it, or some cooked smashed plantain for those who are a bit more delicate. The starch in these can also provide some binding. To add more binding, feel free to add an extra heaping tablespoon of flour or two. Also, potentially useful for binding are apple sauce, and rice.

Salt can be adjusted to accommodate low-sodium diets for hypertensive individuals, but ought not be omitted entirely unless a bit of sodium is present elsewhere in diet, in order to provide for possible electrolyte deficiency.

Sugar can be adjusted for diabetic individuals, or replaced entirely with sugar substitutes or omitted if absolutely necessary for reasons of blood glucose levels. For everyone else, the glucose in the sugar provides much needed nourishment.