A Good Diet is the Best Natural Cure for Acid Reflux
Many who suffer from acid reflux disease try many homemade remedies and over-the-counter antacids to try to get some relief, but unfortunately, they often find these to be ineffective.
Rather than load up your body with harsh chemicals and elements that sometimes do more harm than good, you may want to consider adjusting your diet as a natural cure for acid reflux. By avoiding foods that trigger acid reflux and filling up on other foods that help your digestive system, you can treat and even eliminate this disease altogether.
Adjusting your diet as a natural cure for acid reflux may seem like a terrible prospect for many, as they would sometimes rather do anything than give up the foods they love! But when you make adjustments to your diet as a natural cure for acid reflux, you are actually protecting your health overall. Many of the foods that cause acid reflux are actually unhealthy for you and are difficult to digest in the first place.
For instance, cutting down on red meat is part of your natural cure for acid reflux and many nutritionists agreed that red meat is not very good for you. The acids that are in the meat and the difficulty that your body has in breaking it down are hard on your system overall.
While some love their red meat and find that a diet high in protein may help them keep their weight down, cutting down on red meat is going to help with your natural cure for acid reflux. You may find that substituting lean protein such as turkey, chicken, and fish will not only help with your flare-ups of acid reflux but can also make you feel better overall.
There are many fruits especially that are very high in acid content and should be avoided as part of your natural cure for acid reflux. These include lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruits, strawberries, cranberries, and tomatoes (yes, tomatoes are technically fruits!). While fruit is very good for you, there are many others that you can enjoy as part of your new dietary adjustments for a natural cure for acid reflux.
For example, there are apples, melons of all sorts, grapes, and bananas just to name a few. Of course, there’s no point in making adjustments to your diet as a natural cure for acid reflux if you ignore your own body’s signals and reactions.
If certain fruits and other food items cause your acid reflux to flare up, then you need to make note of that and avoid those foods. On the other hand, if there are certain foods that we’ve mentioned that don’t seem to bother you, then go ahead and have them but just in moderate amounts.
Water also needs to be part of your natural cure for acid reflux, as this helps the digestive process by breaking down your foods more thoroughly, and also helps to neutralize all the acids in your system.
Appropriate Acid Reflux Diet Today
Acid reflux can become very serious if it is not appropriately treated and can even lead to severe complications. The factors responsible for causing acid reflux are multiple: low pressure in the region of the oesophagus, inappropriate activity of the lower oesophageal sphincter (a muscular valve at the union between the oesophagus and the stomach), excessive production of digestive acid or physiological abnormalities of the oesophagus.
Acid reflux may also occur due to inappropriate diet, stress and an unhealthy lifestyle. The best way of controlling the condition is through the means of a good acid reflux diet. An appropriate acid reflux diet greatly contributes in preventing and controlling the condition.
Due to the fact that excessive production of stomach digestive fluids aggravates the condition, an appropriate acid reflux diet should contain only foods that don’t add to the stomach’s acidity. A good acid reflux diet should exclude: foods that are rich in fat, citrus foods, tomato products, milk, caffeine-based products, spicy foods, fried foods, peppermint, alcoholic beverages and cigarettes.
First of all, avoid eating large amounts of foods that contain fat. By restricting the amount of fat in your acid reflux diet, you help normalize the activity of the stomach. When large amounts of fat-rich foods are ingested at once, the stomach can’t manage to digest it properly and attempts to dissolve it by secreting more digestive acids.
Exclude spices and other irritants (preservatives, colorants) from your acid reflux diet and replace fast food with home-cooked meals. Although it is believed that dairy products have a calming effect on the stomach, milk can eventually increase the amount of gastric acid. Milk has a rebound action on the stomach, neutralizing the levels of digestive acid at first, only to increase the amount of digestive acid further on.
It is very important to avoid smoking and the consumption of alcohol. These factors are proved to increase the production of gastric acids inside the stomach and therefore can aggravate acid reflux. Also, try to reduce the consumption of foods and beverages that contain caffeine (coffee, cola, black tea, and cocoa, chocolate). Although, it is not exactly known how caffeine affects the normal activity of the stomach, it is best to exclude it from your acid reflux diet.
Foods considered to be appropriate for people who suffer from acid reflux are: apples, bananas, cabbage, carrots, beans, peas, potatoes, rice, low-fat meat, bread, pasta and cereals. Include more foods that are rich in carbohydrates in your acid reflux diet (price, pasta, bread, cereals, and potatoes) and try to reduce the intake of protein. You may eat light meats such as chicken or fish, but try to place meat products on a secondary level in your acid reflux diet.
Follow a good acid reflux diet and you will quickly improve your condition. In some cases, an appropriate acid reflux diet can even be a substitute for medication.
Acid Reflux Diet And Preventing Night-time
If you frequently suffer from acid reflux symptoms, then you know that they are usually worse at night-time. But there are things that you can do about this – here are some tips for acid reflux diet and preventing night-time heartburn.
You have two key objectives from your acid reflux diet: (1) reducing the amount of acid content in your stomach from what you eat, by eliminating acid reflux trigger foods (2) reducing the amount of time it takes to digest your food, because this will require more acid to be made.
Now, consider this in the context of night-time heartburn – dinner is the meal that is likely to have the most acid reflux diet problems, along with night-time also being when you have additional habits that make the reflux problem worse.
Dinner is typically the biggest meal of the day, so by quantity alone it will take longer to digest the food. Then add to that the fact that this meal will probably be full of many of the foods that bring on heartburn. For instance, does this meal sound familiar: meat with a baked potato and sour cream, vegetables with a tomato sauce, chocolate cake for desert.
You have just eaten a meal that is essentially all acid reflux trigger foods, and then what do you do after eating? Now, it’s time to go sit on the couch and drink a beer while you are watching TV, but alcohol and especially beer is very bad for heartburn.
And then since you are tired after a long day, a big meal, and your beer you lie down on the couch. Now, the gravity that was at least helping to keep all that extra acid content in your stomach, is more easily able to move back into your oesophagus and give you heartburn – especially considering that beer has the tendency of relaxing a valve that is supposed to remain closed when you are digesting your food.
If you have heartburn problems that get worse while you are sleeping, then try sleeping on what is called an acid reflux wedge pillow. This is a pillow that has been specially designed for raising both your head and your torso in a way that can keep your stomach acid from moving up into your oesophagus.
Do note that raising your head by sleeping on a big stack of pillows is not going to do the same thing. Besides probably giving you a bad stiff neck, you really need to have your body angle adjusted and not just your head raised, for this to be an effective solution.
Acid reflux diet and preventing night-time heartburn is about making changes, both for the types of food that you eat for dinner and the amounts. Along with that drink plenty of water throughout the evening to help neutralize the acid, and don’t lie down for a couple of hours after you have finished eating – this will all go a long way in preventing night-time heartburn.
Acid Reflux Diet
Acid reflux disease is not something that you have when we are born. This is a condition that very often occurs because of life style. You just cannot live with elevated stress levels, 10 hours sitting at a desk and then no exercise or physical activity, and poor diet and eating habits – that just happen to include many of the problem acid reflux trigger foods.
Diet is a primary reason for acid reflux. And it does make sense that since this is the case, than you might very well be able to control this through an acid reflux diet that is designed around eliminating or avoiding the most problematic foods.
Ultimately, with an acid reflux diet, you are going to have 2 objectives:
(1) Not eating foods that have additional secretion of acid.
(2) Not eating foods that need more enzymes to digest it.
To begin with, you are going to want to stay away from the most acidic foods, as well as foods with high fat content, as these are foods that will increase acid when the food is being digested.
Some of the foods with the highest acid content will be citrus fruits and juices like oranges, grapefruits, and lemons. And tomatoes have a lot of acid, and are one of the major acid reflux trigger foods since they are used in so many common things like soups and sauces.
Foods with a lot of fat have the effect of relaxing the LES [lower oesophageal sphincter] muscle, so, instead of staying closed while digesting the food, the stomach acid is able to get back through into your oesophagus. As well, these foods digest more slowly. This means that besides fatty foods increasing stomach acid, the acid is going to also stay in longer.
What foods have a lot of fat in them? You can pretty well figure that the more you like eating it, then the fatter it will contain; remember that this is going to include fried foods too
This brings up another point about acid reflux disease and an acid reflux diet – it is going to seem to be highly restrictive. To an extent it is, but it’s not like there aren’t lots of great foods out there to eat. And you have to make a choice, additionally keeping in mind that many of these acid reflux trigger foods have other health issues as well.
Do you want to get rid of the horrible heartburn and acid reflux problems, or do you want to keep eating the same way, along with turning into bad health problems requiring medicines and even surgery?
Now back to the acid reflux diet.
Besides, the foods with high fat content and the highly acidic fruits, there are other acid reflux trigger foods. You will want to stay away from highly spicy foods or sauces in general, which would include hot chillies and peppers, onions and garlic, and no more hot wings. Also, eliminate highly processed foods with lots of sugar and white floor, as these are known to cause an acidic reaction.
A large number of the foods to avoid on an acid reflux diet are actually liquids. Alcoholic drinks can burn the lining of the oesophagus, and the fermented drinks like beer or wine are also shown to increase stomach acid – beer is possibly the worst, and has been shown to as much as double the acid in your stomach in an hour..
Any caffeinated drink like soft drinks, or coffee and tea, may be a problem. And do note that coffee is acidic in general, so decaf wouldn’t be a substitute. Also, drinking non-caffeinated or sugar free soda can still be a problem because of the carbonation.
And then there is milk. This has long been thought of as something that will calm the stomach after eating too much, and for a short period of time it might be. But later on, like while you are sleeping, milk has a tendency to cause to cause stomach acid secretion, which in turn will lead to more acid reflux.
Ok, so what can you eat?
Before considering the foods, do consider some eating habits. For instance, don’t eat so much at a time, especially at dinner. Regardless of the food type, smaller amounts of food at a time will need less acid to digest, and thus lessen the chance of acid reflux. Also, don’t lie down right after you eat, because this promotes acid reflux; stay upright for an hour or more.
And now let’s eat. If you will think nutrition and heart healthy, you will find that you have a very wide variety of foods available. The key is to stay away from the acid reflux trigger foods, and get your acid reflux and heartburn under control, if possible from a dietary change.
Once that is accomplished, try some of those foods that you like and miss. Just eat small amounts at a time and write down what you are eating – if you find that that you can tolerate something, great, and if you find that you can’t, then you will know to avoid it.
Diet Plan to Overcome Heartburn
Certain foods can worsen your heartburn symptoms, and when planning your diet, it’s better to avoid foods and drinks that result in acid reflux. On the other hand, there are a few good foods that do not cause any heartburn problems.
1. Heartburn Safe Foods
There are a lot of foods that do not cause the unwarranted acid production in the stomach. Foods on the safe list included cottage cheese, yogurt, sweet potatoes, fat free cheese, baked chicken, bananas, lean ground beef, and white or multigrain breads. The safe food list is not something that applies to all.
Foods that are known heartburn producers do not cause heartburn in all persons. For instance, orange juice might cause abrupt and intense aches but having spicy Mexican food might just leave you without any symptoms. So keep a note of foods to add to your diet and the foods to avoid.
2. Foods to Shun
A lot of foods are actually triggers of heartburn. Such foods have certain ingredients that are tough to digest. Garlic, citrus fruits, tomatoes, onion and spicy foods can cause heartburn. Junk food high in fat content and grease make you feel overfed, amplifies pressure in oesophageal sphincter and can cause tiny amounts of acid to go back into your oesophagus.
Drinks elevated in caffeine or carbonation are known offenders. Like high fat content junk food, carbonated drinks might cause bloating and increase pressure on the oesophageal sphincter.
3. High Protein Diet and Heart Burn
Picking the right high protein diet may help solve your heartburn problems as long as you choose the foods cautiously and don’t consume high fat foodstuff, which can have the opposite effect. In truth, a healthy high protein diet can play a major role in combating heart burn symptoms.
4. Heart Burn Quick Remedy
Drinking half a cup of skim milk can alleviate heartburn if you don’t have any antacids on hand for fast relief. Skim milk assists in neutralizing acid in stomach. Drink just little; drinking too much might promote secretion of acid and cause acid reflux. And keep yourself straight at least thirty minutes following drinking the skim milk.
Acid Reflux Food and Its Purpose
Acid reflux is a state wherein the oesophagus becomes tender or swollen due to acid backing up from the stomach. The oesophagus, also known as the food pipe, is the part of the tube located from the throat to the stomach. The moment an acid reflux food is ingested, it moves down the oesophagus.
The stomach creates hydrochloric acid after a meal to aid in the process of food. The inner lining of the stomach counters corrosion by this acid. The cells that line the stomach make huge amounts of defensive mucus. Also, the lining of the oesophagus does not add to these opposing features and stomach acid can damage it.
The term heartburn was derived to portray the feeling of acid burning in the oesophagus. This is also because the oesophagus lies just after the heart. Specific acid reflux food can aggravate the symptoms of heartburn, and when planning your acid reflux diet, it is exceptional to limit or avoid entirely those foods and drinks that direct in acid reflux.
There are numerous foods which have little or no potential for causing heartburn. Nonetheless, not everyone reacts the same way to the food they take in, so there is no right or wrong diet. You will identify the effects you experience individually and the best way to do that is to start with a food journal.
When you dine to a restaurant, and order chips and salsa, lots of cheese, and hot sauce, then eventually, you have terrible reflux symptoms. Pay attention of the feeling, the food ingested and the projected time the symptoms happened. When you do this, you will be prepared for future attacks.
Know which foods to control and which foods you can eat in large amount. The prevailing way to spoil a night out with pals is going to dinner then feels atrocious by eating acid reflux food, regretting that you should not have eaten and end up unhappy.
The most frequent acid reflux food are those which are high in fat, like fried foods, fatty meats and high fat dairy which can be ice cream or cheese. There are also other foods that are trouble. Examples of these are spicy foods or those high in acid like citrus fruits. The vegetables which have elevated acid content are tomatoes and onions.
It is advisable to evade drinks with caffeine because this could also be a factor. Smoke, citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruits, tomatoes, chocolate, alcohol, caffeine, mint oils, and deep-fat fried foods all minimize pressure on the LES. Hence, it makes it easy for your stomach contents to travel back up into your oesophagus.
Fascinatingly, the LES have improved quality and tightness when plant proteins are placed into the diet. That is why restoring some of your total animal food intake with high-protein plant foods may also assist. You will eventually find out that scheduling a diet around your acid reflux disease is vital not only to your reassurance, but for the more grave problems that acid reflux disease can cause.
As you are knowing more about acid reflux food and what you should and should not ingest, include your doctor or a dietician, making them aware what you are learning. They will show you and make sure that you are receiving all the good nutrients in your diet.
Acid Reflux and Food Consumption
At a number of times in your life, you will suffer from acid reflux or stomach issues. Acid reflux comes to happen when more than a few of the highly acidic stomach content flows back into the oesophagus. Through understanding the workings of the oesophagus and its control valve, the LES, you can prepare better decisions on how to deal with any stomach disturbances or with acid reflux.
The oesophagus is a muscular channel or tube that runs from the back of the throat to the elevated part of your stomach. This channel surface is plated with smooth delicate cells labelled “epithelial cells”. The muscles along the oesophagus start contracting as food enters the oesophagus and propels the food downward toward your stomach. These contractions are called peristalsis. It takes about 5 – 10 seconds for food that you swallow to travel via the oesophagus and reach your stomach.
At the omega of the oesophagus is a closed valve call “Lower Oesophageal Sphincter” or LES. This valve or LES relaxes when food reaches it and opens to let food into your stomach. When food has passed through, it closes tightly as a result that food cannot travel back up or reflux. It is essential for this valve to open and close only to let food flow in one direction, into the stomach.
When you have acid reflux, food and acid from the stomach flows back up into the oesophagus causing a burning feeling. When acid reflux or heartburn occurs a few times, this is not a grave issue. But, when it comes about over a long period, for that reason it is possible that an oesophageal ulcer or cancer can propagate.
The closing pressure of the LES value at its resting point is approximately 20 mm of mercury. When you eat food a signal is sent to the LES valve to open and consent food swallowed to pass into the stomach. As the stomach contracts to process hot food, the LES closes to shelter the oesophagus from authoritarian stomach acids.
Every once in a while, though, the LES valve might have a diminution in closing pressure. The LES valve relaxes beyond normal and the pressure from the stomach gases are sufficient to open it. When this occurs, food and stomach acid can reflux back into the oesophagus. This strange sudden decrease in LES pressure is called “Transients LES Relaxations or TLESRs. The amount of times TLESRs takes place varies from person to person and researchers don’t really know why this comes to happen. Those people who have more chronic TLESRs are more sensible to acid reflux or heartburn.
It seems to me that these TLESRs can be a discontinuity or weakening of your defence mechanism or immune system. It is these systems that are accountable for protecting you from disruptions in your body functions. But when physical or emotional forces place an abundance on your defence and immune systems, not enough energy is ready to keep valves shut or valves open as required for normal body functioning.
The simple opening and closing of the LES value is necessary for average health. Eating excess food or mixing many foods at one meal can enhance the pressure in the stomach forcing the LES to open. Your TLESRs times are affected by the usage of your eating habits and by means of your immune system strength. Learn how to eat acceptably and discover what foods keep your LES valve strong and healthy.
Food That Cause Acid Reflux
Taking and giving food should be checked first. Not all foods are healthy. The most loved food but unhealthy are the ever popular junk foods. Derived from its name, the word “junk” only proves that this kind of food should be taken away and should be considered as junk.
There are several foods to be avoided when you are ill just like in the case of acid reflux.
Acid reflux is a condition wherein the gastric acid from the stomach reaches the oesophagus because of the stoppage of the functioning of the lower oesophageal sphincter (LES). This disease is quite serious when remained untreated for a long time.
Acid reflux has distinct symptoms like souring of taste, burning sensation at the chest or may be also at the upper part of abdomen, excessive breathing, breathing difficulties, tightness of chest, difficulty in swallowing of food and sometimes unwanted odour of breath.
There are certain foods and beverages that cause and triggers acid reflux. These are: coffee, fatty and fried foods, chocolate, fruit juices, spearmint or peppermint, onions, citrus fruits, spicy foods, alcoholic drinks, tomato-based products, caffeinated drinks or beverages, and foods and beverages alike.
Changing the eating lifestyle might save us from getting acid reflux. It may seem so hard resisting delicious but unhealthy foods at first, but if you are really eager to be healthy you can do it.
To start having a healthy diet such as an acid reflux diet, provide and keep a record of your food intake. By having this, you can be updated on which of the foods you’re taking may cause or trigger acid reflux.
Every time you experience burning sensation or pain on the chest area whenever after eating meals, better take a look on your record and try to figure out the acid reflux-causing food you’ve just eaten. To make it easier for you, try to post the record on the refrigerator or just in a place where you can always notice it.
Changing the food lifestyle seems to be difficult for some. Try to seek for a dietician or any doctor who can help you to make it easier. Focusing on your goal can be a great motivation to be successful in undergoing the changes in your lifestyle.
A person should always take small meals. Doing this will help your digestion a lot easier and may prevent you from having acid reflux.
It is very important to avoid unhealthy vices like smoking cigarettes and frequent drinking of alcoholic beverages. It can be easier if you’ll stop it slowly so that your body will not also feel the abrupt changes of your lifestyle.
Undergoing a diet should have a strong discipline. Without this can only cause you in going to your old healthy lifestyle.
Above all of this, it is very vital that when you are already experiencing the symptoms, it is better to immediately seek for the doctor’s help.
Acid Reflux Foods To Eat
Many acid reflux victims, perhaps yourself, have questions about specific food plans that cut out foods causing a degeneration of an acid reflux condition and let you win out over your medical condition. Is there a food plan that will alleviate symptoms of acid reflux?
Before talking about nutritional programs that can alleviate symptoms of acid reflux, let’s quickly review the basic physiological reasons behind acid reflux.
When food moves from the oesophagus into the stomach, a muscle is momentarily relaxed to allow the passage of the food. This muscle is the LES or lower oesophageal sphincter, a valve-like muscle situated at the junction of the oesophagus and the stomach. After passage of the food into the stomach, the LES shuts once more, to retain the acids and juices inside the stomach.
If the LES fails to shut properly (owing to different external or internal problems), stomach acid splashes back into the oesophagus, causing corrosion and inflammation of the lining, which then makes for the disagreeable pain and burning feeling which we call heartburn.
Doctors tell us that, above all, in patients over 60, one of the causes of oesophageal cancer is in fact gastro oesophageal reflux disease. Ignoring or postponing treatment of a GERD problem can mean that scar tissue, generated after corrosion and inflammation, can narrow the oesophagus. Afterwards, bleeding or ulcers of the oesophagus can happen.
Combining nutrition recommendations with additional diet guidelines can have a positive influence on your acid reflux symptoms and on your general well being and health.
Doctors and paraprofessionals together have the belief that certain alterations in lifestyle, comprising the addition of certain foods to one’s dietary plan and the abolition of others, can bring benefits to GERD victims:
1. Intake of high-fibre foods (vegetables, whole grains, fruits, among others) can benefit your digestion, halt ulcers and remove toxins to reduce your susceptibility to gastro oesophageal reflux disease.
2. Fish and fish oil, which have effective anti-inflammatory agents in their omega-3 fatty acids, can therefore beneficially intervene for acid reflux.
3. More frequent eating of smaller meals and snacks, to improve the operation of the digestive system: larger meals cause a more difficult digestion.
4. Less fatty foods reduces intestinal cell lining inflammation. Removal of fatty and high calorie foods taking longer to digest and to eliminate from your body decreases the risk that acid will splash back up into your oesophagus.
5. Limiting your consumption of coffee, chocolate, alcohol and tomatoes which tend to weaken the oesophageal sphincter and therefore aggravate e phenomenon of acid reflux.
The afore-mentioned dieting guidelines and others can bring considerable benefit to sufferers of acid reflux if followed correctly, yet they are but a minor component of the overall all-natural approach which targets the fundamental causes of acid reflux. The only possibility for permanent healing and prevention of acid reflux recurrence is the disappearance of all factors either internal or external that contribute to acid reflux by using the holistic approach.
Following a holistic approach together with a food plan for the right nutrition for acid reflux will give you the chance to halt acid reflux symptoms and stop its return permanently. You now know that your discomforting and distressing acid reflux condition can be eliminated forever by adhering to an overall holistic solution.
Acid Reflux Food to Avoid
What acid reflux foodstuffs should I avoid? The majority of sufferers from acid reflux are baffled by this question. Preferring healthy foods based on selective eating between what to increase or decrease can bring long-term health advantages to acid reflux sufferers. Changes in lifestyle and diet are considered to be parts of a long-term holistic acid treatment and are integral and inseparable.
What food we eat plays a key role in maintaining the delicate and natural internal equilibrium of our bodies. Because specific dietary habits and nutrition have been found to provoke indirectly or directly the worsening of acid reflux, reducing consumption and making new dietary habits particularly for optimizing digestion when suffering from heartburn could bring about an enormously positive effect on your current condition of acid reflux. Examples of such kinds of foods are:
1. Coffee and other drinks containing caffeine result in increases in acidity, so avoid large quantities of coffee. Limit your consumption each day to two cups of coffee or less if possible. When you can, divide your cup of coffee into two half cups and drink less coffee before bedtime.
2. The stomach can also be irritated by alcohol that at the same time relaxes the LES muscle, resulting in more acidity and reflux.
3. Among the worst offenders for acid reflux symptoms are foods that are high in fat. Longer to be digested and more difficult to eliminate from your body, they push up the probability that acid refluxes into your oesophagus. Exceptionally, however, fish and fish oil omega-3 fatty acids are in fact strong anti-inflammatory agents.
4. Containing large amounts of caffeine and fat, chocolate may also increase acidity, making digestion worse, and is therefore to be avoided. If you are a chocoholic, choose dark, organic types and limit your consumption to two or three small squares two or three times a week.
5. Milk and products based on milk that contain a large percentage of calcium are also to be avoided before bedtime.
6. Acid reflux symptoms can be aggravated by mints such as peppermint and spearmint. Avoid strong mint in food and also mint-based herbal tea.
7. Foods high in acid (oranges and tomatoes for example) and cruciferous vegetables (such as cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, Brussels sprouts) trigger opening of the oesophageal sphincter leading to more acid reflux.
So, which acid reflux food is to be avoided? By making these changes in your diet and with the right motivation to change your lifestyle, you can move to vanquishing acid reflux and enhance your well-being and quality of life.
No matter what your acid reflux level is, when you take the decision for better quality of life, you literally have the choice to tackle acid reflux and stop it recurring, by taking the holistic approach. The power to do that will be yours.
Acid Reflux Bland Diet – Your Foods Can Still Taste Good!
No one wants to hear the words “bland diet.” The idea of eating foods that have practically no taste is enough to make you not want to eat at all. On the other hand, when in the midst of a full blown acid reflux attack, you will be willing to do anything to keep from experiencing this ever again.
The acid reflux bland diet is often recommended for this problem as well as many others. This diet will consist of food that is easier on the stomach and does not produce as much acid as other foods can. Highly seasoned and fried foods will require more stomach acid to digest and this can cause a killer acid reflux attack.
By limiting the foods you eat you will find heartburn or acid reflux does not occur nearly as often. The choice is not a popular one because most people cannot resist the temptation to eat that piece of chocolate cake. But when they begin to suffer in an hour or so, they really wish they would have listened to the voice of logic.
There are many foods that you can eat on this acid reflux bland diet that are good. For one apples and applesauce are good and very nutritious. Even dried apples and apple juice are easy on the stomach.
Many people have problems from drinking milk. Avoid this problem quite easily by purchasing soy milk. The sound is much worse than the taste. Soy milk is actually quite good.
When buying your meat for dinners, choose the leanest ground beef you can find. This will eliminate the grease that causes your stomach to get in such an uproar. The greasier the food you consume, the more often you will have acid reflux. Sometimes it seems these types of food just sit in your stomach and cause it to start churning.
Skinless chicken breast is another good meat for those on a restricted or acid reflux bland diet. They can be cooked in a variety of ways. Just do not fry it and you will be fine. Fish is another good food for those who have to be conscious of what they eat.
Avoiding alcoholic beverages will also reduce the risk of acid reflux. This is in addition to coffee or tea. If you find yourself absolutely needing a snack of some sort that you know you will be paying for shortly, try something a little healthier.
A fat-free cookie or potato chips that have been baked, not fried can be good snack foods when you are on an acid reflux bland diet. Additionally, you will not have to worry about consequences. The foods you eat can make a difference and once you get used to them, they are not so bad.
There are many ways of adding a little taste to your food rather than eating it bland and without taste. The use of sea salt rather than regular iodized salt will also help to control heartburn or acid reflux. Just by using a little imagination you can come up with foods that will be easy on your stomach. There are foods that you can enjoy without feeling you are forever doomed to a world of egg substitutes and rice cakes and without cringing when you hear the words acid reflux bland diet.
Main Rules to Find Acid Reflux Foods
The first and most important rule is to remember not to eat carbohydrates and proteins at the same time. This is so because they need two different types of enzymes that tend to neutralize each other when released at the same time.
Carbohydrates are foods such as pasta, rice, bread and potatoes. Proteins are foods such as milk, eggs, fish and meats. So, for example, eating pasta with meatballs and pizza are not necessarily good acid reflux foods because they will take a long time to be digested and will increase the risk of an increase of acid reflux.
What you can do is to mix any of these foods with green vegetables. Green vegetables are great because they are healthy and they can be combined with either type. This is so because they are easy to digest due to the fact that they are high water content foods.
In addition, eat fruits by themselves. When eaten separately, fruits do not need to stop by the stomach to be processed. However, when you eat fruits with a meal, they stay a long time in the stomach and get fermented producing dangerous toxics.
Finally, remember to chew your food very well. This is not about food combining but doing only this can have a great impact on how effective you digest your food.
As you can see, you don’t need to worry so much about acid reflux foods and you need to spend more time thinking about how to combine different types of foods. If you do spend a little time, you will see a great change in your acid reflux symptoms.
Eat Alkaline Foods To Neutralize Acid Reflux
Eating more alkaline foods is a great way to balance your diet and reduce the effects of acid reflux disease. In fact a highly acidic diet can be the cause of many other health problems in addition to acid reflux disease. A low alkaline diet makes the cells and fluids in the body too acidic.
This is a major problem in many western countries, especially in North America where the normal high-fat, high-sugar diets can cause Acidosis. Diets that are low in alkaline foods are also blamed as the cause of many diseases, especially rheumatic and arthritic diseases.
Symptoms of Highly Acidic Diets
Alkaline diets have been developed to combat a wide range of health problems including diabetes and obesity and can aid weight loss. These alkaline foods diets should also be used in conjunction with a healthy eating plan that includes smaller meals throughout the day as opposed to only a couple large meals.
The correct alkaline-acid balance varies slightly from person to person and also depends on your level of activity. Typically the more active you are the more alkaline foods you need to eat. Generally the ratio of acidic foods to alkaline foods should range between 2:1 and 4:1.
Alkaline Foods include; almonds, coconut, buttermilk, yogurt, raisins, melons figs, olives, bananas, chocolate, avocado, grapes, potatoes, pumpkin, spinach, lettuce, artichokes, broccoli, cucumber and mushrooms.
Foods high in acidity include; beans, butter, cheese, vinegar, coffee, tapioca, eggs, meats, plums, prunes, blueberries, wine and other alcoholic drinks. Tobacco and recipes that include ash are also considered acidic.
In addition to acidic foods and alkaline foods there are also a large number of neutral ph foods. These include; sugar, honey, syrup, margarine and cooking oils.
Acid reflux happens when the sphincter between the stomach and oesophagus relaxes when it should not. This allows stomach acid to flow up into the oesophagus. When this acid reflux occurs often, it is called acid reflux disease or gastro oesophageal reflux disease (GERD). This can eventually cause erosion or sores to develop in the lining of the oesophagus.
There are a number of different types of drugs and medicines that are commonly used to combat heartburn and other symptoms of acid reflux disease, but certainly eating right and ensuring you consume a diet high enough in alkaline foods is essential not only for these health problem, but for the whole body.