Acid Reflux Diet

Do you often get heartburn? An acid reflux diet can solve your problem. Let's start with the good news: 

Acid Reflux Diet: The Advantage Of Having Acid Reflux

Having heartburn has one advantage. It forces you to start living a healthy life.

Too many coffee,chocolate, greasy foods or processed food mess up your stomach. So to get better, you start paying attention at what you eat. It can also motivate you into an exercise routine. That is why I call it an advantage to have heartburn.

A built-in mechanism that helps you to remember take care of your gut flora and learn what your body needs. That is how you can turn your stomach's flaw into your body's strength.

Acid Reflux Diet: How To Eat

Don't Eat Too Much At Once

A healthy stomach valve stops all acid. If you have heartburn, your stomach valve isn't strong enough to handle the pressure coming from your stomach.  During digestion, your stomach muscles raise pressure inside for several hours after you've eaten.

So if you have acid reflux, you need to reduce the amount of food and calories you put in your mouth.  Digestion becomes  easier and quicker and your acid reflux  improves. 

Take Your Time

Relax and take your time to chew properly and eat slowly.  Chewing breaks your food down into smaller particles. That makes them easier to digest. 

Big, unchewed  food particles feed greedy bacteria in your intestines that expell gas and put pressure on your stomach. Small intestine bacterial overgrowth is a common cause of acid reflux.

Chewing also serves to mix your food with the digestive enzymes of your saliva. Fluid-like meals such as soups or porridge can give you heartburn for that reason.  They don't spend enough time inside your mouth so your stomach can't handle them well. 

Acid Reflux Diet: What to Eat

That is the big question of course.  Not only is it a big challenge to change your food habits. You also need to make sure that you that the changes you are making make sense. 

Eat Healthy Meals

Changing your diet is by far the most efficient way to stop acid reflux. Look at what you currently eat and make a change towards healthy and filling foods. 

Your meals should include complex carbohydrates such as natural oatmeal, sweet potatoes and brown rice. Manuka honey can be helpful to stop heartburn and to calm down food pipe irritation. 

Don't forget to consume enough lean protein. Proteins keep hunger at bay between meals. They help you to taking high calorie snacks between meals. Your source of lean protein should come from egg whites, chicken, turkey, lean red meat and fish (salmon, tuna, etc.) 

Simply reducing calories and following the principles of a healthy diet, like weight watchers, makes sense if you want to stop your heartburn. 

Allergies

If you have both acid reflux and allergies,  like asthma, eczema or hay fever, you need to treat you heartburn differently. Chances are high that you have food intolerances that contribute to acid reflux. A gluten free diet diet was considered longtime as the miracle solution to stop acid reflux. Now, one knows that the fodmap diet makes more sense. It is a diagnostic diet that helps you find out which foods are difficult to digest. Once defined, they can be re-introduced but without exaggeration.

If you have allergies, don't eat too much food with additives. Sweeteners, dyes, colors and preservatives trigger your body to release histamine. Histamine irritates your digestive system. If you have acid reflux combined with headaches, eczema, asthma or chronic sinusitis, you may be histamine intolerant. You need to follow an acid reflux diet with less processed foods, beverages and candy. 

Avoid Caffeine

Caffeine in coffee, tea and chocolate boosts your energy, but has a relaxing effect on your lower esophageal sphincter.  Drink water instead of coffee, and herbal tea instead of black tea. Your stomach valve will appreciate it.  Eat an apple instead of chocolate. It digests quickly and leaves your stomach valve alone. 

Rapid Improvement 

Your digestive system is very sensitive to dietary change. Acid reflux can improve within three or four days of a big shift in what you eat. To get better quickly, pay attention at what you eat.  Combine that with exercise for acid reflux, and acid reflux becomes a motivator to start leading a healthy life.  That is why I call it an advantage to have heartburn. Your weak stomach valve becomes your body's strength.