Treat Your Acid Reflux - Change Your Diet
If you have acid reflux disease, then you already know what it is: it's that painful burning sensation you feel when the acid from your stomach breaks through the barrier between the stomach and the esophagus. Over time, the acid can cause scarring around the base of the esophagus, which causes the acid reflux patient to experience a choking sensation.
Controlling What You Eat
Acid reflux is a disorder of the digestive system, so following an acid reflux diet and changing eating habits can have a significant effect on reducing the symptoms of acid reflux. Most patients prefer to attempt these conservative treatments for acid reflux disease before they consider more drastic treatments like prescription medication or surgery.
Don't Eat Before Bedtime
Your stomach makes acid to digest the food you eat, so the more you eat, the more acid gets produced. Therefore, one major acid reflux diet change you can make is to restrict your food before bedtime. By waiting three hours after meals before you go to bed, your stomach can empty and acid production will slow down or cease, giving you a more comfortable night's rest - without heartburn.
Avoid Triggers
Certain foods are thought to trigger excessive acid production that causes acid reflux disease. By avoiding these foods entirely, you can reduce the chance that you will experience heartburn. This is a drastic acid reflux diet change, but if you can control your acid reflux disease without resorting to medication or surgery, it will be worth the sacrifice.
Generally speaking, eating smaller meals will reduce the production of acid in your stomach. Don't eat a lot of food at once; large meals will trigger acid and the heartburn that goes with it.
Avoid fatty and greasy foods, as these will trigger acid production. Animal products contain saturated fat, so avoid fat meats, fish, poultry, butter, eggs, milk, and cheese. Plant based foods are your friend when you are on the acid reflux diet.
Chocolate is also said to be a trigger for acid reflux disease. Your acid reflux diet should exclude chocolate, caffeine, mints, mint-flavored food, spice foods, citrus foods, and tomato-based foods. Because of the high acidity content in all these foods, they should not be part of an acid reflux diet. Drinking alcohol also tends to make stomach acid back up, so alcohol should be avoided on the acid reflux diet.
If you are concerned about the dietary restrictions required to control your acid reflux disease, try making changes gradually. Keep a diary of what changes you make and whether they were effective, so you will know what acid reflux diet changes work and which changes don't work.
