Tanya’s Tasty Tips: Managing Acid Reflux
Recently, while reading the Wall Street Journal I came across an article about gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Surprisingly, they were talking about GERD in babies — not adults. More commonly known as “acid reflux,” GERD is a digestive disorder that occurs when acid from the stomach backs up into the esophagus (the tube that food travels to from your mouth to your stomach). This results in a backup of acid, which irritates the esophagus and causes the main symptom of heartburn — burning pain that may be felt in the chest and/or the back of the throat. The condition will repeatedly irritate the lining of the esophagus with refluxed stomach acid. This can lead to serious complications including esophageal ulcers and even cancer of the esophagus.
Every day, I see at least one new patient who suffers from GERD. More than 60 million Americans experience GERD symptoms at least once a month and about 25 million have symptoms every day. This interrupts a person’s work day and his or her everyday life. While there are many over-the-counter and prescription medications that can cure acid reflux, diet can help as well.
How to prevent GERD:
• Eat small, frequent meals that are low in fat
• Eat slowly
• Sit up while eating
• Don’t lie down for 1 hour after meals
• Avoid eating and drinking within two to three hours before bedtime
• Don’t drink alcohol
• If you are overweight, losing weight can help improve symptoms
• If you are a smoker, quitting can also reduce outbreaks and prevent symptoms
• Wear loose fitting clothes
Problematic foods for most people who experience GERD:
• Caffeine
• Carbonated beverages
• Chocolate
• Peppermint
• Tomato and citrus fruit
• Fatty and fried foods
• Spicy foods
• Garlic, onions, peppers
• Whole milk and whole fat dairy and meat products
Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD is a nutritionist and the creator of The F-Factor Diet™, an innovative nutritional program she has used for more than ten years to provide hundreds of her clients with all the tools they need to achieve easy weight loss and maintenance, improved health and well-being. For more information log onto www.FFactorDiet.com.
Tags: acid reflux, esophogus, gastroesophageal reflux disease, gerd
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One teaspoon of apple cider vinegar stops acid reflux on the spot and keeps it away for days. Eat anything you want.
well if you have a attack and don’t want to use meds or they are too slow.. half and half works best… coats and cools the burning.. if it is real bad might have to drink a bit but the releaf is worth it.. one word of warning here if you drink too much you will be constipated that is no fun.. either..
Ok, so what do you do with a 3 month old baby? My daughter is on prevacid and just got her dose doubled to try to keep her happy. She is breast fed. Based on this, I can’t eat anything.
Chocolate milk worked for me when I was pregnant.
In my experience, wheat can be problematic for a large percentage of people with GERD. The pasta sauce gets blamed when it’s really the pasta. Simply eliminating only wheat can sometimes relieve GERD.
Ok, vinegar can work but not a good long term solution. Half and half and milk products can have an immediate soothing effect on the stomach, but after a few minutes, they have a counter effect as the stomach produces more acid. Have done a lot of researching various remedies and the only one that has had a positive long term effect on indigestion and reflux is to take probiotics and digestive enzymes. My husband had been on over the counter acid reducers for years…..twice a day. Would help at the time, but he always had to continue taking them to have continued relief. After taking the probiotics before every meal for one week, he no longer has symptoms. These are the same as eating yogurt with active cultures, but also includes necessary digestive enzymes. Visit your local health food store that has knowledgeable employees, or visit trivita.com. These are the ones he has used, our daughter used another brand. My husband still takes these as needed, they are actually something good to put into your body, rather than medicine. I take them everyday for the health benefits.
Severe cases are effectively cured by ‘training’ the valve between the esophagus and and the stomach to strengthen, and thus stay shut. This prevents stomach acid from climbing back into the esophagus. So, how do you ‘train’ this valve? After meals, or at times of the day when you are commonly affected, chug a tall glass of water and then, standing on your toes, drop several times (abruptly) so the weight of the water in the stomach pulls contents downward. Stay vertical for 15-20 minutes after this exercise. Be faithful – effectiveness increases over 4 – 6 weeks. Of course no technique can be guaranteed to work for everyone equally, but I speak from firsthand experience that it has eliminated the need for both medication and surgery. And water is cheaper than surgery – good luck!