Nailing Down the Perfect Acid Reflux Diet

Staying true to the name of the blog, I wanted to put a post together detailing the perfect acid reflux diet plan. There are two things we will look at in particular: trouble foods and trigger foods.

Trouble Foods


Trouble foods are foods that many people across all genders and nationalities seem to have trouble with. When eaten, these foods lower the pressure of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) and seem to trigger heartburn in a large number of people. Your acid reflux diet should make an effort to avoid these foods:

• Mints
• Citrus (oranges, lemons, and their juices)
• Alcohol (of all types, the higher the proof, the worse it is)
• Chocolate (all types - including dark chocolate)
• Sugar (cane sugar, HFCS, it's all bad!)
• Caffeine and Tobacco
• Coffee (even decaffeinated coffee!)
• Tomatoes (and sauces)
• Full-fat dairy
• Spicy (hot) foods, sauces, and flavorings
• Oily fish (though if tolerated, these are actually quite healthy)

All of these foods either lower the pressure exerted by the LES or increase the body's production of stomach acid. Regardless of the path of action, most people will find that these foods do not belong on their acid reflux diet plan.

Trigger Foods

Trigger foods are highly individual foods that give you heartburn every time you eat them. Everyone has different trigger foods and they could be related to either the genetics or your environment. For example, perhaps you trace your ancestry back to tribes which lived along the waters and primarily ate fish. You might not tolerate the high carbohydrate American diet, simply due to genetics, and may experience heartburn as a result.

On the other hand, trigger foods can also be learned. Have you ever ate something that made you sick? When this happens, we often develop aversions to the last thing we ate and associate it with sickness. After consuming these foods again we may feel sick and get heartburn, even if the food was completely cleaned.

The only way to tell your trigger foods from another person's is to write down what you eat and whether it gave you heartburn. If you make an honest effort to do this over the weeks you will find that you have a couple foods which you know to eliminate (see our fast food reflux diet plan as well).

What you can then do is after you have been acid reflux free for a few months, re-introduce each trigger food to see if it gives you problems. Some foods will be re-introduce-able whereas a few may not be.

Common Causes of GERD

Gastroesophageal reflux disease, commonly known as GERD, is one of the most common chronic conditions in the world today. This is typically defined as experiencing reflux frequently and for a long period of time, at least a few weeks and several times per week.

There are a lot of common causes to GERD, although typically it is a combination of some or all of the factors below:

1. Excessive or Regular Alcohol Use

Out of everything on the list, alcohol is probably the only thing that can single-handedly lead to clinical GERD, even in otherwise healthy individuals of an appropriate weight. Even young individuals who abuse alcohol will develop GERD. Nearly every alcoholic has GERD.

A night of binge drinking may lead to heartburn for a few days, and if this is done once a week, it can end up as GERD. Drinking causes a lot more health problems than most people would care to admit, especially when done on a daily basis, or in excess once every week or two.

2. Obesity

Obesity is another top cause of acid reflux. In particular, obesity likes to team up with some of the other factors (such as food intolerance, smoking, and alcohol use). Think of obesity as a catalyst; people who are overweight are much more susceptible to heartburn if they drink, smoke, or eat something that upsets their stomach.

3. Smoking

As alluded to above, cigarettes and tobacco both can lead to increased rates of acid reflux. The problem with smoking is that it inflames tissues all over the body, including the stomach and esophagus, making acid reflux likely to occur. Nicotine is also a stimulant and can cause heartburn much like caffeine.

4. Food Intolerance

For many of us, heartburn is triggered by certain foods to which we have an intolerance to. This could be a common heartburn food or it could be a learned aversion. For example, if you ate a food and then got food poisoning, it is possible that that same food then will lead to acid reflux and dyspepsia the next time you consume it. Many people do not realize that food aversions have taken place and continue to eat foods around when they got sick.


Be sure to avoid the foods that bother you, quit smoking and drinking, and lose weight, and at least 90% of the people reading this post would not even have to deal with GERD.

If you think you might have GERD, you should check out this youtube:



Many people who have chronic coughing and wheezing, they may have GERD rather than asthma. Quite interesting!

Tips for Helping Daytime Heartburn

While nighttime heartburn is the most common type of reflux, some people do indeed suffer from reflux in the daytime. This type of acid reflux is an entirely different animal from nighttime reflux. The main reason is that nighttime reflux takes very little to trigger (since you are lying down, its much easier to get reflux) compared to daytime reflux. Something really has to stress out your stomach in order for you to start getting daytime reflux.

The good news here is that since it takes something major to cause acid reflux during the day, it is usually easily corrected. Another interesting thing to note is that daytime reflux is most common in men; acid reflux in women is much less common during the day (except in the case of pregnancy, but that is another topic altogether).

Really, if you get heartburn during the day but do not get it at night odds are your problems boil down to one of two things: clothing and work.

Clothing as a Cause of Heartburn:

This one takes a lot of people by surprise, but it is a very real cause of heartburn. The real culprit here is dress pants, in particular men's slacks. Men hate to shop and will try to cycle through the same set of dress pants for their entire adult life, with usually their spouse ending up buying them new pants to avoid embarassment.

While it does save some money, the problem with this is that men of a certain age tend to gain weight, but refuse to buy new pants. The end result of this is that men wear pants way too tight for them, this pressure is exerted on the stomach (especially after lunch) and this needs to heartburn and bladder problems. This is actually been dubbed as "Tight Pants Syndrome" in many parts of North America, simply because men were having so many health problems due to wearing tight pants!

As a result, if you've put on a little weight, you either need to buy some new pants or lose some weight (preferably both). Running around in pants that are too small for you is a great way to get daytime heartburn.

Work as a Source of Heartburn

It is well-known that many stressful events can lead to heartburn. However, destressing at work is not always so easy, but necessary if you want to lose weight. The two things that I like to do are going for a walk at lunch and practicing "straw breathing" twice a day.

Going for a walk is self-explanatory - bring a pair of walking shoes and walk around the building for 15-30 minuets during lunch. It's a great way to burn some extra calories (to work on part 1), as well as a great way to de-stress and even reduce heartburn from the motion itself.

Another good technique is straw breathing. To execute this, breath in deep through your nose, only allowing your stomach to expand. Then, purse your lips and forcefully exhale, again keeping your ribcage still and only moving your abdomen. This is a great stress reducer and helps reduce the upper neck and traps which we often associate with stress.

Try adding these techniques and you will be surprised and how quickly your daytime heartburn resolves!

Some Unusual Research - Advances in Acid Reflux

In this quick article, I wanted to just give you a few cool new bits of information I have found out recently about heartburn. The list is in no particular order, just some cool pieces of research I have found out about acid reflux recently that I thought 1) most people wouldn't know about 2) might change the way you look at your heartburn.

• Many researchers have found recently that unless your diet is extremely high in fat (some 45% or more of your total daily caloric intake), you have no increased risk of heartburn or acid reflux. This sort of flies in the face of the notion that you need to eat a really low-fat diet to stop avoid heartburn. Sure, you don't want all your calories from fat, but if you eat 2500 calories a day, 75g of them coming from an assorted blend of healthy fats is not going to be a recipe for heartburn like once thought.

• H pylori, a bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers, seems to actually be considered a negative risk factor for GERD. In other words, people who have H pylori are LESS likely to have GERD, and NOT having H pylori seems to increase the average person's risk rate for GERD. We have always considered this bacteria to be quite harmful but it turns out it may have some usefulness for humans. Only time will tell.

• Eating a lot of fiber lowers your risk for esophageal cancers. It is unclear whether fiber itself reduces rates of heartburn or whether simply people who eat a lot of fiber have something in their diet that helps protect the esophagus. Either way, it's a good idea to eat a lot of fiber, and the best source of fiber is from fresh fruit and vegetables. Psyllium husk is a decent supplement if you cannot get in enough fiber.

• Many developing countries have lower reported rates of heartburn than industrialized nations, despite having higher rates of stomach illnesses. Between obesity and lifestyle, there is something about the modernization that significantly increases our rates for heartburn, which may be negatively affecting our overall health.

Hope you found these 4 tidbits on acid reflux interesting, I know I sure did when I first read them!

Eating Out With Acid Reflux - Finding the Right Food

Welcome to my quick guide on how to pick out the best places to eat when you are on the road and what to get when you are out to ensure that you pick the right foods and avoid heartburn on the road.

Types of Cuisine Bad for Reflux

The two places you will struggle to find food on the menu that you can eat are places that serve Mexican (Tex-Mex variety) food and barbeque. Both of these are terrible for reflux and there is very little you can eat on the menu that is safe. If you do choose to eat Tex-Mex, go light on the spices in order to prevent acid reflux.

You also have to be careful with portions at Tex-Mex restaurants. Overeating is an easy way to get a lot of heartburn, so you have to be careful about how much you eat. One thing you can opt for is the chicken fajitas, focusing on eating the rice, beans, and meat, while skipping over the peppers and cheese. This is often a safe meal, at least compared to the other things on the menu.

At barbeque houses, generally you can order a steak prepared without barbeque (or a chicken breast) with a side of steamed vegetables. This is an easy meal that works and you can even get this in most American restaurants as well.

Eating Fast Food with Acid Reflux

Finding a place that has decent fast food is even tougher if you have acid reflux. Try to find somewhere that offers low carb meals or choose the low-carb option. Salads are your best bet. When you are on the road, a place like Panera or Cosi is generally a good place to go, because the portions are controlled and you can get a lean salad instead of a fatty fried sandwhich.

Although some more mainstream fast-food restaurants are starting to offer salads, you have to be careful about dressings with trans-fat. Trans-fat finds its way into many sauces including mayonaise and salad dressing at many popular chains. This is starting to be phased out, but it really depends on what part of the world you live in. Many places in the USA still use trans fat in their fast food, so it is best to avoid them all together.



The video above shows off Panera. Skip the bread and get an apple on the side with your salad, and you can get a nice healthy meal on the road for a low price.

As stated, some of the higher-end sandwhich shops offer decent salads with trans-fat free menus. With that said, sandwhiches are generally not a safe bet as the sodium nitrate found in many preserved meats and the general high fat status of sandwhiches can lead to problems.

Treating Heartburn Naturally

One of the biggest concerns people have when they look into reducing their heartburn is whether or not they can treat their heartburn naturally. Well, that depends. First off, when approaching things holistically, I do not like to use the word "treat" because that implies as if a home remedy was the same as a medical treatment, and that is not the case. A natural treatment is simply trying to stop heartburn without the use of prescription medications.

I also am not a big fan of the world "natural" - after all what does that even mean? Let's face it - there's nothing "natural" about eating frozen, processed meals which come from the grocery store or deep frying everything in oil. It's anything but natural, so to suggest that some sort of treatment is natural is kind of a misnomer because whatever I am about to recommend might not necessarily be natural.

I would say one of the easiest natural fixes for heartburn is to simply eat healthy food, maximizing your intake of fruits and vegetables, getting in a good portion of quality protein (free range eggs and grass-fed meat), and adding in some healthy oils or nuts as well (almonds, olive oil, fish oil). I am not a big fan of grains - whole or not whole, when it comes to helping out acid reflux. I find that many people do better by getting a lot of fiber from fruits and vegetables rather than relying on grains to get fiber. Grains have a lot of anti-nutrients and are inflammatory in nature, unlike the majority of fruits and vegetables which are quite nutritious and loaded with nutrients that reduce inflammation.

Another natural cure you can use to stop your acid reflux is to elevate your bed and place it on an incline. This way you get to lay on an incline which has a good chance to help reduce any sort of heartburn at night.

Finally, you can also try losing weight. I have mentioned this many times on this site but it is just so important that you understand just how much heartburn can be reduced by losing weight. Excess fat causes heartburn to be increased on so many fronts, from increasing inflammation to physically compressing the stomach. Being overweight is bad news for heartburn, as well as for your overall health. The chocolate may be delicious but you will just end up with acid reflux afterwards!

Completely Natural Heartburn Remedies - Glutamine

Have you ever heard of glutamine? This is a completely natural substance which has shown a lot of promise in helping out digestive orders. Note that by completely natural, I mean that it is an amino acid found in a lot of protein sources (though it is fairly low in plant proteins).

Glutamine is the preferred fuel for many of the cells that line the digestive tract. They love glutamine and need it to thrive. As a result, when we start supplementing with glutamine, the cells have the fuel they want and start running better. This leads to good digestive motility and can help reduce heartburn.

What you want to do is find a decent quality glutamine amino acid powder (this is quite cheap) and just take a gram (or a few grams) with each meal of the day. Like I stated before, glutamine is an amino acid and there is usually a gram or two in a serving of meat. Add it in additionally even if you do normally take meat. You want to give your digestive tract a little more than it is used to, because clearly if you are reading this post you are having some sort of digestive problem!

You should give glutamine, one of the best natural heartburn remedies, 6 weeks before you judge whether it is effective or not. Cells that are fed properly will take some time to start showing improvements, so even if your digestion is better you may not recognize the positive effects until after taking the supplement for some time. Fortunately since it is just an amino acid it is really cheap and a month's supply is under 10 bucks. You can pick it up in bulk pretty much anywhere, and it is much cheaper as a powder than it will be as a pill.

As mentioned, glutamine is naturally found in meat, so if you already eat a very high meat diet, this may not be a miracle cure for you. This works particularly well in women, vegetarians, and people who eat a lot of processed or frozen foods that may not necessarily get a high protein diet.

One easy way to take your glutamine is to mix the powder with a mild flavor of crystal light and add to a big jug of water. This way you can sip your glutamine throughout the day, stay hydrated, and not have to gag over the taste!

Fixing Your Heartburn Without Wrecking Your Life

Listen, I get it. You already know that if you lose weight and polishing off a bottle of wine each weekend you probably will stop getting heartburn. And yes, I hear you, you might not want to make that kind of sacrifice. Well, first off, I have to get it out of the way that your health is hardly sacrificing, and if your unhealthy lifestyle choices are causing you pain and suffering, it doesn't really seem rational to continue on that track.

However, I can introduce to you the 90/10 rule. If you are familiar with business at all, no doubt you have heard about the 80/20 rule, which states something like 80% of your profits come from 20% of where your time is focused. Not really relevant to our 90/10 rule, except that they are both rules with fractions!

The 90/10 rule is one which states if you are following a certain diet plan, generally you can get away with doing what you aren't supposed to 10% of the time. Note that this does not apply to serious health conditions (diabetes, brain cancer, etc) but more from a body composition and a general health stand point.

The bottom line is simple: if you eat 3-4 meals a day, you have 21-28 meals per week. As a result, 10% of the time (i.e. 2 meals out of the week), you can probably eat what you want and get away with it. Chronic heartburn is more likely to be the result of consistently eating bad things until the stomach can no longer function. If you diet all week, going out to dinner on Friday night and having a few glasses of wine is not likely to set you off. However, you can't binge all night Friday and into Saturday and Sunday and expect to have any health benefits.

You also have to give your stomach to recover from your previous bad lifestyle. After you drop a few pounds and follow a good acid reflux diet for awhile, you will see that eating out once in awhile is likely to be something you can handle.

For example, drinking a few glasses of alcohol regularly can lead to gastritis, which is known to cause reflux (the bad kind of reflux that hits you all day). It will take a few weeks (or maybe even a few months) of not drinking in order for your stomach to heal up. Your body is resilient, but its healing processes are not instant - just something to remember.

The point of this quick article is just to know that you aren't married to your heartburn - just be good most of the time and you will likely find that a night or two out on the town each week won't ruin your holistic plan to reducing your reflux.



Yeah, sure, this 90/10 rule isn't exactly about acid reflux in the video above, but the principle applies. Serve your body 90% of the time, and 10% of the time you can get away with what you want!

Five Easy Meals for Acid Reflux

In this article I'm going to give you five easy meals that you can use to start reducing your acid reflux. The first meal I'm going to give you is something that you can use for lunch or pack to take to work.

Meal 1: My favorite thing to take to work is a protein shake, an apple and a handful of almonds. This combination is great because it is high in protein, has a lot of due to fiber and it does not need to be cooked. While you know that I like to take my time while eating, that does not necessarily mean I am not a busy person or have the time to whip up a four course meal for work!

Meal 2: Marinated chicken breast. While I have mentioned this in other posts, this is one of the best meats you can eat in terms of its effect on heartburn, plus it is delicious. Mild meats like chicken breast are not likely to trigger heartburn, and in fact high protein meals help tighten the LES to ensure you are not suffering after you eat.

Meal 3: Another great meal you can eat is fat free greek yogurt mixed with raspberries. I like this meal for a lot of reasons. First off, it is high in protein and fiber, two of the best things you can add to your diet if you are suffering from reflux. Also, greek yogurt is rich in natural bacteria and enzymes which may improve your digestion. Talk about hitting heartburn from all fronts!

Meal 4: Grilled salmon and broccoli. This meal is rich in omega-3 fatty acids. While fatty foods were once thought to be a major trigger for heartburn, it turns out that omega-3 fatty acids in particular are solid choices when it comes to minimizing the serious effects of excess stomach acid. These are strong anti-inflammatories that help improve our neural functioning on one hand and at the same time help reduce inflammation. The broccoli is also a nice source of fiber, helps improve digestion, and otherwise is a good compliment to salmon from a taste perspective!

Meal 5: The final meal I think is a great addition for heartburn sufferers is a few hard-boiled eggs and a banana. Bananas always seem to have a soothing effect for many people's digestive tracts, and hard-boiled eggs are also a great source of a lot of nutrients, protein, and are quite portable as well. These two soft foods are not known for triggering heartburn!

What is GERD and What It Means

One of the most recent changes to the whole heartburn field recently is the introduction of GERD. GERD is basically the medical term for heartburn if you did not know. Technically, it stands for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, and the definition of it is typically that you have to get heartburn twice a week (or more) for an extended period of time. Different health organizations of course make different requirements.

Doctors have been using the term GERD for decades, but it is only been in the vocabulary of every day people like myself (and probably you as well) for the past 10 years or so. Why the sudden shift?

The truth is that heartburn is now GERD because of the invention and integration of prescription (and expensive over the counter) heartburn medication into mainstream society. We've known that long-term heartburn is bad, so it's not like this is a recent development designed to alert the public about the dangers of GERD.

GERD can lead to serious health problems (even cancer) so it is not to be taken lightly, so do not get the wrong message. What I am saying though is that the reason we hear GERD so much now is that consumers are not necessarily motivated to spend 100$ a month on "heartburn" but are much more likely to spend money on "GERD". It is much more effective for advertising of proton pump inhibitors to promote them as a treatment for "GERD" rather than a treatment for "heartburn".

It's common sense really - GERD sounds serious whereas heartburn sounds harmless. It is not as if heartburn mutated into some new disease in the past decade, it's just that we can easily charge a few dollars a pill for a brand name PPI but no one would pay that kind of money for an antacid.

Now, again, I am not necessarily saying that we should not take PPIs or H2-blockers, as these medicines have been proven effective. What I am saying though is we probably do take them too much in place of healthy lifestyle changes like weight loss and dietary modifications. We would be better off in all aspects of our lives if we just managed chronic conditions via improving our overall health (eating healthier, not being obese, sleeping enough, avoiding alcohol, etc).

So there you have it. GERD is acid reflux that occurs regularly over a period of time, whereas heartburn is just a symptom of acid reflux. Clear enough?

Stop Heartburn With Small Changes To Your Diet

If you want to learn how to quickly and easily stop heartburn just by making small changes to your diet, this is the place. In this article, I will be revealing to you my three simple tips for stopping heartburn with just three small changes to your diet and the way you eat and prepare your food.

1. Only eat while sitting, and take your time when eating each meal.

Researchers have noted that taking the time to chew your food significantly lowers your rates of heartburn and acid reflux. One particular study reported that groups nearly 86% of people who suffered from acid reflux did not chew their food adequately, and conversely, less than 20% of people who thoroughly chewed their food ended up getting reflux.

To further add to this, researchers have also noted that people who eat at while standing or driving are much more likely to suffer from stress and reflux. Make sure you take some time out of your day to actually sit down and eat. I guarantee this break time will boost your productivity. I run my own business and I am always sure to take time out of my day to eat lunch and dinner.

A day that I am too busy to sit down and actually have a meal in the evening is a day I am way too busy!

2. Boost Your Fiber Intake

By adding fiber to your diet, you can not only reduce the chance you get acid reflux, but you can also protect your esophagus as well. People who eat a fibrous diet are much less likely to get Barrett's Esophagus (a precursor to esophageal cancer) than those who eat less fiber. Fiber is also great for the variety of health benefits it provides such as improved blood triglycerides and cholesterol and improved regularity.

A few easy ways to get fiber are by adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet or supplementing with psyllium husk. I would note that the fibers found in grains may not be nearly as beneficial as those found in fruits and vegetables; in these studies, people who ate more fiber had less health problems, but these studies do not control for fiber source. As such, many of the "high fiber" participants are people who ate more fruits and vegetables, not necessarily more bran.

3. Ditch the Hot Stuff

Many spices can be eaten by those suffering from acid reflux without stirring up your problems, but very "hot" spicy food really can trigger heartburn. The "hot" spices activate pain receptors in the esophagus and stomach and may cause abnormal function of the LES. This will lead to heartburn.

I know spicy foods may be tasty, but you do not have to sacrifice flavor. There are a lot of great spices and flavors which do not require you to burn your skin to enjoy. Besides, really hot spices are typically used to cover up cheap meats and spices! Buy quality food and enjoy not only reduced acid reflux but better health as well.


Here is a video demonstrating a good steak marinade you can use to get flavor without all the hot stuff:

The Most Powerful Ways to Stop Heartburn

While in some of my previous posts I have been ranting on about the basics of heartburn, in this one I really wanted to give cover some powerful and effective ways to stop heartburn. While losing weight and charting trigger foods is necessary for long term heartburn success, they take forever to actually kick in. In this article I wanted to give you some powerful things you can do right away to start helping out your heartburn.

Bed Wedge Pillows

I think that these are great and are necessary for anyone who sleeps in the same bed as their significant other. This allows you to lie on an incline, helping stop heartburn at night. Most heartburn at night is unrelated to it being at night but rather related to body position; lying down makes heartburn worse!

By lying on the pillow, you prevent  acid reflux from "rolling downhill" and entering the esophagus. These pillows are my secret weapon and I do not like to sleep without one.

The thing is you can also just elevate your bed on one end and get the same effect. Your spouse however may not be comfortable with this, so the bed wedge pillow works great when that is the case.

Medicines

While not always perfect for long-term use, medicine from the doctor really can help, especially when you are trying to turn things around. Prescription medicine not only stops heartburn but promotes healing of the esophagus, so it can help reduce your symptoms and give your esophagus some time to heal as you work on losing weight and fixing your diet.

Some people who just happen to produce a lot of stomach acid do well on these medications even for the long term due to this. You should talk with your doctor and make an informed decision on the use of such medication.

Gum

I love popping a piece of chewing gum in my mouth if I happen to go out to eat and have something that I "shouldn't have". This always seems to do me very well in terms of preventing heartburn. I have read on another site that this is because the act of chewing seems to increase the production of saliva and speeds up the process of digesting.

If you didn't know, a sluggish digestive tract really can increase your heartburn, so anything that improves gastric motility is good in my book. It's not a coincidence that individuals who suffer from GERD also often suffer from constipation. For more information on GERD, check out this video:

The Beginner's Guide to Curing Heartburn

In this post, I wanted to go over all of the basics behind stopping heartburn. If you have dealt with heartburn before, you are no doubt interested in learning the basics. I would recommend reading over this beginner's guide and learning a little bit about each way you can stop heartburn before continuing on to other guides.

Step 1: Weight Loss

If you want to tackle your and acid reflux for the long haul, you need to think about losing some weight. Being overweight is like signing your life away to acid reflux, and it also causes a lto of other health brpoblems that you would be best just to avoid in the first place.

Naturally, this may not always be the case if you were pregnant; weight loss may just not be possible at that time. Also if you are already a healthy weight, then obviously weight loss is not going to help. However, you need to be honest with yourself about what a "healthy weight" really is - a lot of people like to think that they are at a "healthy weight" just because they are comfortable with their own bodies. While I am happy that you are able to accept yourself, just because your brain does not offer an objection to being fat, your stomach might! Acid reflux and belly fat go hand-in-hand.

Step 2: Plan Your Acid Reflux Diet

The next thing you need to do in order to stop heartburn is to plan out an acid reflux diet. You want to avoid all the usual suspects, such as citrus, alcohol, tobacco, coffee, mint, tomatoes, sugar, and chocolate. While I know a lot of these foods are delicious, they are not the best for acid reflux!

Step 3: Don't Just Change What You Eat, But How And When You Eat As Well

One of the biggest mistakes people make when changing their diet is to just change foods while completely ignoring some of the other great ways to slow down acid reflux through their food. Research has shown that chewing your food more completely actually reduces reflux rates. As a result, you always want to take time to eat slowly.

Additionally, since heartburn at night is such a problem, make dinner the last meal of the day. You do not have to have that late night snack! Skip it and you will thank me later as you will have to deal with way less heartburn!

My Favorite Various Varieties of Remedies For Heartburn

Have you ever forgotten what it felt like to have a great night's rest? Simply being able to wake up refreshed in the morning, ready to get started? Can you visualize sleeping the entire night without having that burning sensation in the middle of your chest?

I know what it feels like. I suffered kind GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) for a long time. Victims of this terrible illness know what I am talking about. For me, it started after my first child. As I worked to figure out what was wrong with me and how I could fix it, I finally figured out some great remedies that I could use in order to stop heartburn in its tracks.

The number one thing I recommend doing is trying to figure out what foods cause you discomfort. While this is not an exact remedy per se, it is much easier to avoid heartburn in the first place than it is to get it and then deal with it later. I recommend making a list of what gives you heartburn and keeping track of this over time.

You might even notice that unusual things, such as certain flavored drinks, or even rituals (such as brushing your teeth) end up giving your heartburn. Sometimes our heartburn memories are so strong that we make associations between certain actions and heartburn. When we do those actions in the future, we then too get heartburn.

Think of it like Pavlov's dogs; these dogs always heard a bell ringing right before they were fed. After awhile, the sound of the bell was enough to cause the dogs to salivate. Likewise, if you are used to getting heartburn after dinner, your body may be conditioned to this and even expect heartburn, even after changing to an acid reflux diet.

For that reason, I recommend being as patient as possible when it comes to acid reflux. You really need to take your time and give your diet at least 2 months before you make a decision on whether it is effective or not.

Now, for the last part of this article I will give you a taste of my favorite heartburn remedy, and that would be vinegar. Some people hate it, but I love it. It makes my food taste better and if I have heartburn and I take a spoonful of vinegar, I feel better instantly.

Perhaps you could say at this point I am conditioned to have vinegar take away my heartburn :). Not everyone reports a benefit though, so you will have to try out it yourself to see whether this is good or bad for your individual case.