Acid Reflux Diet
Eliminate Foods From Your Diet That Cause Acid Reflux
If you are prone to acid reflux, you may have been told to follow an acid reflux diet, to help you avoid suffering from this painful and inconvenient disorder. Acid reflux disease can be caused by many different factors but one of the leading triggers is an improper diet. When a person suffers from acid reflux, they feel a burning sensation in the stomach and chest area as the stomach acids rise up into the esophagus. Sometimes, this phenomenon is caused by eating too fast and other times, it is caused simply by eating certain kinds of foods.
Best Reflux Diet
One way of creating a reflux diet is to simply eliminate the culprit foods from your regular diet. However, you do need to put in a replacement for these foods to keep your meals balanced. Generally, the foods that you have to avoid in order to prevent reflux are those that are high in acid content, such as citrus fruits that contain a lot of ascorbic acid.
The best acid reflux diets are those that incorporate healthier alternatives to the foods that you need to take out. For example, you may need to eliminate acidic and fatty food but you also need to increase your intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk, whole grain cereals and lean meats. If you need a specific example of what kind of menu is acceptable in a reflux diet, just search online — there are dozens of such diets that you can follow and modify to your own preferences.
As you go about your search, you might see some reflux diets that allow the use of caffeinated beverages like coffee and sodas. However, it is not really a good idea to keep drinking these beverages because they can considerably increase the risk for acid reflux. You should also quit smoking because this only intensifies the symptoms of acid reflux. Besides, smoking is really bad for the health and does nothing but damage to your body.
The only problem about reflux diets is that you can never be sure that they will work for you unless you try it. Acid reflux is caused by different foods in different people. In other words, the diets you find may still include foods that trigger your reflux, while other harmless foods for you may have been eliminated. You can create your own acid reflux diet, in consultation with your physician if you prefer, that fits your own needs perfectly.
Drinking Whole Milk Can Harm Your Acid Reflux Diet Plan
Did you know that high fat dairy products can actually make your acid reflux problem worse? In fact, if you are on an acid reflux diet plan and you eat and drink high fat dairy products, you can cause your symptoms to flare up. Now, you might be wondering how the coating properties in many of these high fat dairy products can cause a problem, but in order to understand what happens when you consume these foods, you have to first understand the body a little more.
It Takes More Acid
Some foods require more acid to properly digest them and high fat dairy products are no exception. In the past it was thought that if you drank a glass of milk, it would coat the stomach, and while this is true, in the long run that can be problematic in dealing with acid reflux. It can actually make it worse and only feels like it eases the problem very temporarily.
When you are working to fight your acid reflux, you might be surprised to find that the common “cure all” of days gone by isn’t such a cure all at all because of its coating properties. A good rule of thumb to remember is that it takes more acid to digest high fat foods, so a big glass of milk on top of an already full stomach, especially when the esophageal sphincter is working to heal can do you more harm than good.
This is because it’s the high amount of fat in the milk that is coating the stomach. So, when you drink a glass of milk and the fat coats the stomach, the body adds more acid to the stomach so that it can digest the “coating” of the stomach and this might make your heartburn flare up again in a short time.
You Can Still Have Dairy Products With Your Acid Reflux Diet Plan
Now, just because you might find that high fat dairy products are harmful to your acid reflux diet plan, you should know that non fat milk or low fat cheeses don’t have this effect. The reason? It’s not the dairy product which causes you to suffer from heartburn, it’s the fat in the dairy products, so if you are working on a healthy diet plan to fight your acid reflux, you should make the switch to low or no fat dairy products.
In fact, you might be surprised to find out how many dairy products you can find now that are low or no fat, so if you love milk and need the calcium, you don’t have to worry that drinking it will cause your acid reflux to flare up, because the less fat there is in your foods, the less likely you are to suffer from acid reflux.
In the end, the way you deal with your acid reflux is going to be up to you. However, when you follow the right acid reflux diet plan and know the right foods to eat to prevent you from suffering while still making sure that you get all the essential nutrition your body needs. You’ll likely find that you not only feel wonderful, but you are able to fight your acid reflux all the time.
