If you are having a suspected pancreatitis episode (for lack of a better way of putting this), the primary thing you have to do is stop eating. You switch to clear liquids, a category that includes black coffee (thank God) and Jello and broth but not most nutrient drinks (the one I mostly drink is called Orgain).1 You do that for at least a full day and then you start trying things like yogurt and protein shakes and so on.
This is the procedure that my doctors and I follow, anyway. The reasoning is that it lets your pancreas, an organ that has probably been utterly silent for all of your life but now has a lot of opinions, rest. And it works. It works so well I’ve sometimes wondered if I should just have a regular fast day, like on Fridays or something, but nobody seems to think that’s necessary.2
But I haven’t had to do it in a w…