Another home remedy you should consider for curing your acid reflux is.. well.. what food you choose to eat! And more importantly, in what quantity you choose to eat it. Generally, the avoid foods you’ll see commonly listed on websites are as follows:
- Tomatoes
- Onions
- Garlic
- Fried foods (fatty foods)
- Spicy foods
From that list, the ones that give me the most problems are onions, excessive garlic, and fried foods of any kind. Tomatoes I can generally tolerate a small amount of. Fried foods of any kind will almost certainly cause some kind of reflux to occur, and if it happens to be a very fatty fried dish then it’s over. The following items also appear to cause reflux or other gastrointestinal upset in me:
- Foods containing gluten
- Legumes (peanuts, cashews)
- Dairy products (milk, butter, some cheeses)
Since cutting out foods that contain gluten, I’ve noticed my acid reflux and overall gastrointestinal issues to subside drastically. I have a gluten intolerance. I’ve essentially had to relearn to cook entirely since discovering this.. but I’m happier that I know now what’s caused me issues for a couple of years. Peanuts and other legumes in that family are difficult to digest in general — not just legumes, but any of the nuts as well. The goal here is foods that are relatively easy to digest in the grand scheme, and foods that don’t relax your lower esophageal sphincter. Milk is an absolute no go for me. Certain low fat cheeses appear to be OK in small quantities, but the higher fat ones have to be avoided like the plague.
Overall, I try to restrict the cheese intake to once a week tops. Any more than that and my acid reflux goes into overdrive.
I know what you’re thinking… wow that sucks. What on earth can I eat? Gluten intolerance, avoiding fatty foods, careful with the dairy and garlic.. really appears to limit things down. Luckily, there are a million websites out there catering to diets of this kind. You just have to get creative. I eat chicken and rice a lot, experimenting with different spices and flavors. Beans, potatoes, carrots, apples, peaches (which some list as a reflux food, but not for me) all of these are OK for me to eat. Even certain peppers seem to be OK as well. I generally eat higher protein, lower carb as carbs tend to take longer for me to digest and leave me feeling much “fuller”.
Once you buy some gluten free flour mix you can pretty much make anything that you can imagine — just last night I was eating some delicious home made burritos and the recipe was simple as hell. I won’t go into detail on exactly what the ingredients were, but I will say that it was delicious.
We’ve all just become so accustomed to the way that we eat, and it can be hard to break out of that routine. Ifyou’re used to really salty fried foods, cooking healthy foods will be a change and you won’t like it at first. But you stick to it for at least a month and I guarantee you won’t go back. You’ll feel 100x better, not to mention your reflux will subside if you follow your diet well. Your goal here is to record the foods that you eat (when you eat them, how fast you ate them, how large the meal was). You’re looking for a pattern here. Do this for a month and you should have no problem finding your trigger foods, then you can spend time looking for substitutes. Does milk give you acid reflux? Maybe you could try soy milk, or some other kind of milk. If wheat/grains tend to give you reflux, maybe try going gluten free for a bit to see if that clears things up. I have a theory that our bodies just aren’t used to the kind of conditions we are throwing them in, the kind of diets that we partake in.. and when we spend so long trapped in these kinds of diets, we tend to develop intolerances of certain foods because of it. It’s at that time that you need to dial back and stick to the foods that you know you can handle, so your body can heal and re-adapt.
Changing your diet to cure your acid reflux is essential, ALONG with herbal and other home remedies. Attack this thing from all different angles, and I guarantee that you will succeed.
Recent Comments