Fruits and vegetables for heartburn prevention.
When you're a GERD sufferer, not all fruits and vegetables are safe to eat. Let me dispel a myth here about acidic fruits:
There are some people who say that eating lemon, or drinking lemon juice will neutralize stomach acid, even though
lemon is an acidic fruit.
The theory goes that even though it is acidic, your body's metabolic process turns it alkaline.
This is true, but if you're suffering from GERD or heartburn, and your esophagus is inflamed or irritated, the lemon juice
will still be acidic when it gets there.
It takes a while for your body to process lemon into an alkaline.
So don't drink lemon juice or lemon water for heartburn if you want immediate relief.
There is a time when lemon juice, or lemon water will be beneficial though, and that's when you've eaten the correct
foods for a while, and your esophagus has had time to heal, or be a whole lot less inflamed.
Part of the end goal with an acid reflux diet is to shift your body's PH from acidic to alkaline. This has other major health
benefits as well.
A distinction needs to be made between foods that are alkalizing and foods that are alkaline when you're just starting
with this.
Stay with fruits and vegetables that are alkaline.
For those suffering from stomach ulcers, this doesn't actually contradict what I've written on my Stomach Ulcer Cure
page.
Fruit such as apples, grapes, and pears can be eaten quite safely whereas those that are high in citric acid, or even
contain a moderate amount should be left alone, especially if you suffer from chronic heartburn.
Oranges, pineapple, lemons, limes, or grapefruit are good examples of fruit that'll aggravate your GERD condition and
almost instantly give you heartburn.
So fruit, yes. Citrus fruit, no.
While the tomato is scientifically speaking, actually a fruit, most people think of it as a vegetable. In any event, tomatoes
and products made with tomato should be avoided as well, like tomato sauce for example.
The ketchup will catch up with you.
Vegetables for acid reflux.
Apart from the tomato, most vegetables are fairly safe for those who suffer acid reflux and other GERD symptoms.
The trick with vegetables is to make sure they're not cooked with oils, or anything that could add grease or fat to the
meal.
Creamed vegetables would be a bad choice.
Boiling them is one option, or even better still is to steam them.
Meat to eat for acid reflux.
If you're going to eat meat, it should ideally be lean meat.
In other words, no fat on the meat. The thing to remember with meat, is that it's more difficult for your system to digest.
The more work your stomach has to do, the more acid it's going to need to produce.
If you're going to eat chicken, it's best to eat the least fatty parts and make sure it's skinless.
Either bake, grill or steam the meat to avoid adding any unnecessary oils to your meal.
Other heartburn foods to avoid.
* Garlic and onion, especially raw. Onion is a lot more tolerable to the stomach if it's boiled.
* Pepper and chilli.
* Full cream dairy, icecream, milkshakes, cream, cheese etc. Rather go for low fat milk products if you must.
* All fats and oils, no matter how healthy it is. This includes olive oil.
* Alcohol, meaning spirits wine and beer.
* Coffee and Tea in all forms.
* Chocolate, carbonated sodas
recipes.
It also helps to keep in mind that curing your acid relux permanently requires something more than just changing your
diet, or popping some pills the doctor prescribed.
There is a better and more effective 5 step system - Here
Healthy eating is a good place to start when it comes to
controlling heartburn, but it's definitely not the whole story.
Acid reflux sufferers will definitely need to make some
modifications to the food guide pyramid.
The food pyramid is basically someone's bright idea of
arranging the different food groups into a pyramid, and
that's about where its usefulness ends, as far as I'm
concerned, but at least it's a good starting point.
There are two things we need to look at, in order to ease
the symptoms of GERD and lessen heartburn. This also
goes for stomach ulcers and gastritis as well.
1.) Your focus needs to be on foods that don't force your
stomach to make excessive stomach acid. This is a simple
concept, as the less work your stomach has to do to digest
the food, the less acid it makes.
