Okay, if bodily functions are something that make you squirm, stop reading here.  I'm going to be discussing something that is a little bit disgusting, but to me kind of interesting.

Over the holidays, I made a discovery.  I think I mentioned that I had a sinus infection AGAIN and that it prevented me from playing the drums.  What I didn't mention was that both infections (I also had one this past summer) also came with gastrointestinal upset, resulting in, how shall I put this delicately - mad sprints to the bathroom at a moments notice.  Get the idea?  I would have been ready for a colonoscopy.

Okay, so I thought that was just part of the infection.  Turns out, I was creating this problem for myself.  I have always tried to watch my sugar intake by using sugar-free products as much as possible.  Little did I know (but I sure know now) that some sugar substitutes called "sugar alcohols" can cause diarrhea.  I was using sugar-free cough drops like candy to try to tame my cough.  In the fine print on the back of the cough drop package was the warning that I wish I had seen earlier.  So how did I finally figure this out?  Over the holidays, I combined these cough drops with some sugar-free Hershey's chocolates.  The next day - well, you really don't want to know how I spent the next day, do you?  It was a Sunday, and I was wishing that the mirror in my bathroom was an HDTV that I could watch NFL football on.  It reminded me of how I spent a few days after a Mexican vacation.

So the moral of this story is that I will now avoid sorbitol and maltitol, and all of their nasty chemical cousins.  Unless I'm constipated.  TMI?