Since I was a little girl, I’ve been plagued with sore throats. Since ninth grade, those sore throats have included bouts of laryngitis. My voice either takes a vacation completely, or it turns me into a dead ringer for Peppermint Patty – so much such that my father would ask me at least twice a day to say, “Hi, Chuck.”
In college, a nurse at Binghamton University’s Student Health Services once recommended that I drink plain pineapple juice whenever I suffered from a bout of laryngitis or a sore throat. She explained that pineapple juice has a lot of vitamins but low acidity, so it was better for a sore throat than high-acid orange juice. The nurse had heard the advice from a vocalist, and had been dispensing it to suffering college students ever since.
Who treasures their voice more than a singer? I figured the advice had to be legit, and it was.
Since then, I always keep a six pack of pineapple juice cans in my refrigerator. Recently, I’ve found a combination that works even better than pineapple juice alone: pineapple juice and green tea. I drank a glassful of it the other night when my throat felt like the Great Chicago Fire and I could barely talk. I headed straight to bed after downing a glass of this mix, and woke up with my voice back full force and no sore throat the next morning (unfortunately, the rest of the cold still had a hold on me full force.) Coincidence? I think not.
I mix a can of pineapple juice with green iced tea. Trader Joe’s makes an excellent unsweetened green and white tea mix, and that is what I’ve been using for this mix.
I fill my sports glass of the moment with ice (today’s selection: a 1980s Buffalo Bills – Coca-Cola glass), pour in the entire can of pineapple juice (you don’t have to use the whole can, but try at least half), and then top off with the green tea.
Volia! Down this, and you’ll be chatting up your friends, significant other, or in my case, your cat, in no time.