What Are The Foods That Cause Acid Reflux?

• Sugar
• Fatty foods
• Caffeine – coffee, tea, chocolate
• Alcohol – especially stronger drinks
• Sodas – i.e. any fizzy soft drink
• Meat – especially fatty cuts and processed meat
• Very acidic fruits – oranges, grapefruit and other citrus
• Very acidic vegetables – raw onion, tomatoes.
• Dairy foods – these effect some people
• Very dry food - this will cause heartburn for some.

These foods that cause acid reflux are mostly unhealthy foods and drinks that are best kept to a minimum anyway. They are mostly acidifying foods – that is they raise your body pH . Caffeine, alcohol and the additives found in soda drinks are all toxins. Your liver has to work hard to clean them out of your body. Cutting down on these foods that cause acid reflux might be enough to avoid acid reflux, and will help your health in other ways.

Other causes of acid reflux include

• Stress
• Eating large meals
• Eating just before going to bed
• Certain medicines – particularly some antidepressants and sedatives
• Not drinking enough water

Regular attacks of acid reflux can lead to damage to your esophagus – scarring and inflammation, even bleeding. So don’t just put up with it – it’s really important to make some changes in your diet, now.

What is acid reflux?

Acid reflux happens when some of the contents of your stomach come up into your esophagus (your gullet – the tube that carries food from your mouth to your stomach).

Acid from your stomach causes a burning pain, felt in your chest or the back of your throat. Other symptoms of acid reflux include a sour taste in the mouth, bad breath, frequent belching and difficulty swallowing. A congested feeling in the back of the throat can make you feel that you can’t breath properly.

The chest pain is felt in the region of your heart, which is why it’s misnamed ‘heartburn’. Sometimes people have such intense pain they feel they’re having a heart attack.

People more likely to suffer frequent attacks of acid reflux are those who are overweight, and pregnant moms. In late pregnancy, the size of the womb squeezes everything else, pushing the stomach upwards. In overweight people it’s their fat that puts pressure on their stomach. The problem is going to be worse when lying down – when you’re upright, you have gravity on your side to keep your stomach contents from coming up.

Acid reflux treatment

Drugs are the orthodox treatment. Taking antacids as a remedy for heartburn is so common that these drugs are available over the counter and many people think it quite normal to keep these in stock at all times.

Antacids will ease the immediate pain, but in the long run they make thins worse. Your body reacts to having its stomach acid neutralised by making more, so that you’re more likely to have heartburn again the more you take the antacids.

If you regularly suffer acid reflux and heartburn, your doctor might prescribe a drug that makes your stomach produce less acid. Some people take this medication every day to keep the symptoms of acid reflux away. This is an example of the craziness of modern medicine. You need that stomach acid to digest your food. If you don’t have enough you’re going to have other digestive problems.

All drugs have side effects. Some affect more people than others.

Here’s what Gastroenterologist Dr Todd Eisner says of two common types of acid reflux medicines:

“Proton pump inhibitors generally have very few side effects. The most common are headache and diarrhea which occur in about 5 percent of patients. Other rare side effects are abdominal pain, constipation, itching, dizziness, swollen ankles, muscle and joint pains, blurred vision, rash and dry mouth. H2 blockers are very safe as well. Most common side effects include headache, dizziness, diarrhea and muscle pains. Rarer and more severe side effects include severe skin rash, severe itching, unexplained fever, enlarged or painful breasts, hallucinations, confusion and impotence. Additionally, with both H2 blockers and proton pump inhibitors, as stomach acid helps kill bacteria in the stomach, by inhibiting acid, use can lead to a growth of bacteria in the stomach.”This last leads to an increased risk of illnesses such as pneumonia, as shown in a few studies in recent years.

He calls these medications ‘safe’ because they only affect 5% of patients – that’s one person in 20.

And it’s so unnecessary. We’ve seen that there are foods that cause acid reflux. If you change your diet to avoid these foods you will avoid acid reflux. I know it’s not easy to give up foods you like - I’ve had to give up foods that used to be my favorites. But it’s so worth it to avoid pain and discomfort.

Home remedies for heartburn include cider vinegar and baking soda. Baking soda obviously neutralises your stomach acid as antacids do, but is much gentler and safer than pharmaceutical antacids – all drugs have side effects.

• Cider vinegar is a traditional remedy for many ills. Take a teaspoon of cider vinegar in a small glass of water. In spite of being an acid, it helps to alkalize your body. But you must use raw, unfiltered vinegar with the ‘mother’ – this contains many helpful bacteria. Lemon juice is also very good – a squeeze of lemon in a glass of water is a wonderfully refreshing drink with many health benefits.
• Various herbs and spices are helpful for acid reflux, including lavender, ginger, fennel, anise and licorice. All these can be drunk as herb teas.
• Papaya and pineapple both contain enzymes that seem to help with heartburn. (Incidentally, these enzymes are also powerful anti-cancer factors.)
• Aloe Vera juice can be very helpful. It’s a marvellous remedy for burns, so it heals the damage caused by the stomach acid.
• Warm chamomile tea is wonderfully healing and soothing for many disorders
• Some people find eating an apple after a meal helps.

Some people recommend milk as a home remedy for heartburn. While milk will relieve the immediate pain, it can cause even worse symptoms shortly after as the protein in it causes production of more acid in your stomach.

As well as avoiding the foods that cause acid reflux, there are two simple things you can do to help yourself - eat smaller meals, and drink more water. Water is the most basic and effective natural heartburn relief.

For good health, balance the five food groups in your diet.

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