My stomach! Mylanta!

Earlier this week we covered the return of Hydrox, which has come back after being gone since 1999. Today we have a look at something you might take if you eat too many cookies, or too much anything else -- Mylanta.

ta da

Perhaps your family, like mine, took to Mylanta for the agita of life and the irritations of the stomach lining caused by outsiders and one another. It was introduced in 1961, the first antacid to contain gas-busting simethicone, along with aluminum hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide. Some antacids are designed to treat diarrhea, which you probably don't want if your stomach upset has not cause diarrhea or you'll be constipated (e.g., Pepto-Bismol). Somewhere along the way Mylanta was recommended by a family doctor, and the rest was history.

Until 2010, when Mylanta disappeared!!!!!

!!!

What happened was, someone suddenly discovered that Mylanta had an undisclosed ingredient -- alcohol. Less than 1 percent. It was under 2 proof. But it was not labeled that way, and so it faced an enormous recall, at a time when parent company Johnson & Johnson was already dealing with bad retail news. Apparently this caused them to run away like the knights in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and pull Mylanta from the market for years. We were left in a weird place where store brands (like this from CVS) were packaged in imitation of a product that no longer existed.

But they've brought it back now, and you'll be glad to know that the label now has benzyl alcohol as its top inactive ingredient. It tastes the same as it always did, which is pretty good for a medicine but not exactly a milk shake -- although it now also comes in vanilla-caramel flavor too. Which is probably also not exactly a milk shake. And, I figure if you drink 15 gallons of it, you might get a buzz, so it's got that going for it.