This post is sort of a follow up to the “food is the best acid reflux home remedy” post from last week.
In the reflux world, the biggest, I mean the hugest trigger for reflux is fatty foods. I really can’t reiterate that enough. If you eat a lot of fatty foods, I can guarantee that cutting it out will also lessen your reflux significantly. Literally anytime I get reflux of any sort, it’s because I’m consuming something with a high fat content. And it sucks really bad too, because I think a little bit of fat can really improve not only the taste of a meal but it can make you feel better mentally as well.
Fat can really sneak up on you. Just last week I was eating a delicious home cooked tomato free pizza (gluten free, of course) and I noticed some familiar reflux symptoms come up. I was thinking to myself: how is this possible? I’ve eaten this same pizza before with virtually no symptoms! But then I realized: oh crap, it’s the cheese. This time around I bought an off brand of cheese that was a mixture, and peering at the fat content of said cheese left me in horror. Yep, there’s the catalyst right there. These acid reflux symptoms I’m experiencing right now are because of my love of cheese.
So what can you do? You find substitutes. For cheese, stick to the very low fat cheeses (and keep cheese to a minimum anyway as it’s generally very fatty). Feta, goat cheese are OK in moderation. If you’re going to cook food on a skillet, use some extra virgin olive oil and only use enough to decently coat the skillet. When cooking your food, cook it for just a little while longer than you normally would to try and get that extra little bit of fat out. Try to stick with the lean meats (chicken and fish are my primary meats) and if you must have red meat, cook it well.
A low fat life can suck, but keeping the reflux under control makes it worth it. If it helps, pick out a day of the month where you will allow yourself to pig out on fatty foods. This will help you from going crazy. Give yourself permission to pig out on this day (and this day only), but every other day in that month you must follow a strict low fat diet. Pretty soon you’ll learn to live life without the fatty foods, and it actually isn’t that bad at all. And the reflux you get on that day of pigging out will reinforce in your mind how important it truly is that you’re following your new diet!
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