Stabilize Your Blood Sugar Levels
Eating white bread, cookies, candy, and other carbs with high glycemic indexes will likely cause blood sugar levels to spike, then fall quickly.
This rapid blood sugar fluctuation has been shown to promote hunger and can lead to overeating .
Choosing foods with lower glycemic indexes will help prevent blood sugar spikes and may reduce overeating. Beans, oats, and brown rice are all great options.
Summary Eat foods that help keep blood sugar levels constant. High-glycemic foods like candy and white bread can make blood sugar spike then drop, which may lead to overeating. Instead, choose foods like beans, oats, and brown rice.
A Pharmacist Can Help With Heartburn And Acid Reflux
Speak to a pharmacist for advice if you keep getting heartburn.
They may recommend medicines called antacids that can help ease your symptoms.
It’s best to take these with food or soon after eating, as this is when you’re most likely to get heartburn. They may also work for longer if taken with food.
Although antacids help symptoms in the short term, they will not cure the problem and should not be taken regularly for long periods.
If youre pregnant, a pharmacist can advise you about medicines you can take.
What To Drink For Acid Reflux
Acid reflux and gastroesophageal reflux disease can cause stomach acid to travel into the esophagus. This may result in uncomfortable symptoms like heartburn and acid regurgitation.
If you have acid reflux or GERD, certain foods and beverages can make your symptoms worse.
Symptoms of acid reflux and GERD can include:
The terms acid reflux and GERD are often used interchangeably, but they have different meanings. Acid reflux refers to symptoms that occur occasionally, while GERD is defined as the chronic reoccurrence of acid reflux.
This can happen if you have a weakened or dysfunctional lower esophageal sphincter that allows stomach acid to flow backward into the esophagus. Over time, untreated GERD can cause inflammation or damage in the esophagus.
Don’t Miss: What To Do When Your Stomach Hurts At Night
How To Rebuild And Support Hydrochloric Acid Levels Naturally
HCL supplementation is an excellent way to help improve your digestion for the short-term and as-needed. However, the goal should be to rebuild your HCL levels naturally so you dont have to rely on a supplement your whole life. Here are 11 evidence-based ways to support and help restore healthy HCL levels:
Avoid Eating From Containers
Eating chips out of the bag, ice cream out of the carton, or takeout straight from the box can lead to consuming more food than is recommended as a serving size.
Instead, portion out a single serving size on a plate or in a bowl to help control the number of calories you consume in one sitting.
Use measuring tools to train your eye on what a normal portion should look like for different types of foods.
Summary Instead of eating food straight from the package, portion it into a dish. Try measuring out appropriate serving sizes to help train your eye to identify how much food is recommended as an average portion.
Also Check: Why Is My Upper Stomach Bloated And Hard
What Foods Can Prevent Acid Reflux
The Current Medicinal Chemistry review vouches for the Mediterranean diet and the low carb diet as ways to manage GERD. The review also recommends leaving longer periods between eating and sleeping, with dinner at least four hours before bedtime to lower your risk of experiencing GERD symptoms overnight.
Lee says that a high fiber diet can also help with GERD management. Sufferers are likely to benefit from increasing the fiber content of their diet. Foods such as oatmeal, which is high in fiber, have been shown to reduce the concentration of gastric nitrites, she says. Nitrates, often taken by those with heart disease, are known to worsen reflux symptoms. Fiber rich foods include those made from unrefined grains: brown bread, brown rice and brown pasta.
It is also important to increase your fruit and vegetable intake. However, opt for non-citrus fruits such as bananas, melon, peaches, and pears, and root vegetables such as sweet potato, carrots, and beetroot. Full fat cows milk has been shown to worsen reflux, so semi-skimmed or skimmed is preferable. Plant-based milk is a low-fat alternative. Drinking coconut water may also be helpful, says Lee.
Dr Mahmood agrees that a high-fiber diet is best for GERD, and that alkaline fruits and vegetables can be helpful.
If You Dont Suffer From Acid Reflux:
Take 1 capsule during or after the meal and see if you notice a mild burning sensation in your stomach, chest area. This is a mild experience of indigestion or heartburn. When you notice this with 1 cap of HCL, it is a sign you are producing enough HCL. If not, you are not producing enough HCL. At your next meal, try taking 2 caps and continue this until you find how much it takes to induce the indigestion/heartburn.
If 4 caps induces indigestion, then take 3 caps with your larger protein meals . Once you begin feeling indigestion with 3 caps, drop it to 2, etc.
Don’t Miss: Why Does My Stomach Feel Tight And Bloated
What Foods And Drinks Cause Heartburn
- Alcohol: Alcohol can relax the lower esophageal sphincter.
- Coffee and orange or other acidic juices are some of the beverages that can worse or trigger heartburn.
- Fatty foods, fried foods, and some acidic foods as well as spicy foods can cause heartburn.
- Additional foods that make heartburn worse.
Every person reacts somewhat differently to specific food groups. To track what foods worsen your symptoms, keep a food journal. In this journal, you should keep track of what you eat, the time you ate, any activity that worsened or made the heartburn better, and indicate which days you have heartburn symptoms. Over time, you will be able to correlate the offending foods with heartburn events. Print this and take this with you to your next doctors appointment to discuss possible causes of heartburn you may be experiencing.
Pregnancy tends to aggravate heartburn because the lower esophageal sphincter is weakened during pregnancy. This weakened resolves after delivery of the baby. Pregnancy also distorts the organs in the abdomen and the increased abdominal pressure from the growing fetus causes heartburn. These changes promote the reflux of acid and heartburn.
Approximately 17% to 45% of women who become pregnant will suffer from heartburn.
Management of heartburn during pregnancy consists of many of the same home remedies and lifestyle changes for a person with heartburn who is not pregnant .
What Aggravates Acid Reflux
Acid reflux occurs when the sphincter at the base of the esophagus isnt working well, allowing fluid from the stomach to enter the esophagus. The worst foods for reflux can worsen painful symptoms, while other foods can soothe them, says UH gastrointestinal surgeon Leena Khaitan, MD
Diet changes can significantly affect acid reflux and allow you to avoid other treatments, Dr. Khaitan says.
Dont Miss: What Causes Sour Stomach And Gas
You May Like: Can Aleve Upset Your Stomach
Foods That Help Acid Reflux
Would Foods/drink Should I Avoid
Certain foods and drinks pose a high risk when it comes to acid reflux. Its important you learn how to avoid your triggers and narrow down the exact cause of your symptoms.
Foods to avoid include:
- High fat foods avoid fatty and fried foods these can cause the LES to relax, meaning that more stomach acid builds up into the oesophagus.
- Spicy foods some studies say that spicy foods can trigger abdominal pain. However, the evidence of this is mixed. When consuming spices, be aware of your own spice tolerance.
- Chocolate chocolate contains caffeine which can cause acid reflux. Chocolate is also high in cocoa, which also triggers reflux.
- Coffee this popular beverage can trigger acid reflux as it relaxes the sphincter muscle between the oesophagus and the stomach that normally prevents acid from regurgitating. So if youre a coffee fan and suffer from acid reflux, it could be a good idea to cut back on how many cups you drink.
- Alcohol alcoholic beverages can increase stomach acid production, worsening acid reflux.
Read Also: What Can I Take To Stop My Stomach From Hurting
A Few Lifestyle Changes Are Worth Trying Before Resorting To Drugs For Controlling Gastroesophageal Reflux
If you are sounding a little hoarse and have a sore throat, you may be bracing for a cold or a bout of the flu. But if you’ve had these symptoms for a while, they might be caused not by a virus but by a valveyour lower esophageal sphincter. That’s the muscle that controls the passage between the esophagus and stomach, and when it doesn’t close completely, stomach acid and food flow back into the esophagus. The medical term for this process is gastroesophageal reflux the backward flow of acid is called acid reflux.
Acid reflux can cause sore throats and hoarseness and may literally leave a bad taste in your mouth. When acid reflux produces chronic symptoms, it is known as gastroesophageal reflux disorder, or GERD. The most common symptom of GERD is heartburnpain in the upper abdomen and chest.
Three conditionspoor clearance of food or acid from the esophagus, too much acid in the stomach, and delayed stomach emptyingcontribute to acid reflux, says Dr. Jacqueline Wolf, a gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and author of A Woman’s Guide to a Healthy Stomach: Taking Control of Your Digestive Health.
Reframe Your Whole Snack Attack
Because there are too many factors to determine just how much acidity is too much for your stomach, youre better off focusing on the snack adjustments you KNOW will have your back stomach.
Best says, bananas, nuts, cauliflower, melons, and fennel are good to work into every meal or snack. She also recommends adding high fiber chia and flaxseed.
And Richards says, bananas can help reduce the impact of reflux by coating the lining of the stomach.
Also Check: Why Is My Lower Stomach Hurting
How Is Gerd Diagnosed
Tell your parents and visit your doctor if you’ve had heartburn that doesn’t seem to go away or any other symptoms of GERD for a while.
The doctor will do an exam and ask about your symptoms. If the doctor suspects GERD, you might go see a pediatric gastroenterologist. This is a doctor who treats kids and teens who have problems of the gastrointestinal system.
Doctors sometimes order these tests to diagnose GERD or rule out other possible problems:
What Are The Side Effects Of High Stomach Acid
Having high levels of stomach acid can increase your risk of developing other stomach-related health conditions. These include:
- Peptic ulcers:Peptic ulcers are sores that can develop when gastric acid begins to eat away at the lining of your stomach.
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease :GERD is a condition in which stomach acid backs up into your esophagus.
- Gastrointestinal bleeding: This involves bleeding anywhere in your digestive tract.
Also Check: Why Does My Stomach Stay So Bloated
How Do We Solve Hypochlohydria
As I just discussed, low stomach acid causes a host of digestive problems. But what is the underlying cause of hypochlohyria?
The vagal nerve.
When we smell food and sit down to our meal, our brain is supposed to send a signal to the digestive organs via the vagal nerve. This nerve connects to the brain stem and attaches to each digestive organ, including the stomach.
The vagal nerve is like a muscle if your vagal nerve is weak, it cant do the heavy lifting of turning on digestion. Yes, Im calling a nerve a muscle, but stay with me through this analogy. It is the most accessible way to understand this concept. If you think of the vagal nerve as a muscle, it can have strong vagal tone or weak vagal tone.
In summary, weak vagal tone means your brain cant turn on stomach acid production. That leads me to my primary recommendation to address hypochlorhydria:
Treatment For Acid Reflux
If your GERD or acid reflux has not responded to dietary changes, other remedies and medications may offer relief.
It may be best to contact a doctor for acid reflux, especially if its recurring. They can prescribe a treatment plan that fits your symptoms and test for any related issues.
Over-the-counter treatments for acid reflux can include:
- temporary use of OTC antacids, such as calcium carbonate
You May Like: Why Is It Every Time I Eat My Stomach Bloats
Think About The Food You Eat
There are certain types of foods that will require more stomach acid than others. This is especially the case with fats and proteins.
While your body needs them, it doesnt need as much as you would think. To start with, protein is an excellent way to keep you feeling fuller. It breaks down slowly and is used up by the body over the course of a few hours. If you eat too much, your stomach must work harder to break it down, and that means creating more stomach acid.
When eating any type of protein, take a break half way through your meal. Determine if you really need to eat the rest, by listening to your stomach and not what your brain is telling you based on sight. If youre still hungry, eat a little more and take another break.
The breaks dont just give your stomach a chance to tell your brain that youre full. These breaks will give your stomach a chance to break down the food that youve eaten. As it breaks down some of it, the stomach creates room for the next amount that you will eat. This allows the stomach acid levels to remain the same.
Fatty food tends to add to the acid in the stomach. When youve had heartburn, youve likely found that it is made worse by anything fatty, and that includes healthy fats!
Treatment For Heartburn And Acid Reflux From A Gp
If you have acid reflux, a GP may prescribe a medicine called a proton pump inhibitor that reduces how much acid your stomach makes.
PPIs include:
You’ll usually need to take this type of medicine for 4 or 8 weeks, depending on how serious your acid reflux is.
Go back to the GP if your symptoms return after stopping your medicine. You may need a long-term prescription.
You May Like: How Do You Fix Bad Breath From Your Stomach
Drink A Glass Of Milk
If you feel like stomach acid reflux or heartburn is a problem, you will want to tackle the symptoms. While these dont necessary help to balance out the stomach acid , they can help to line the esophagus and limit the discomfort that you experience. Some of them will help to keep the stomach acid levels down slightly.
Milk is the best option. Its easy to drink, cold, and will help to line esophagus and stomach quickly. Youll also get plenty of calcium in your diet by using it.
Theres no fizz to milk, which also helps to keep the heartburn and stomach acid symptoms to a minimum. You can benefit from almond and soya milk if you want, but youll need to keep some to a minimum. Unfortunately, soya has been known to cause heartburn in limited cases.
When you dont want milk, why not opt for some yogurt? You can enjoy it with some non-acidic fruit to help balance out the levels in the stomach or have it on its own. Opt for plain yogurt, as the fruity options will have extra sugars.
If you opt for any type of milk or yogurt, make sure it is low fat. Watch for the sugar levels in these, but you should be fine with most skim milk, almond milk, or Greek yogurt.
Which Foods Can I Eat And Drink
Eat a variety of healthy foods from all the food groups. Eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat dairy foods. Whole grains include whole-wheat breads, cereals, pasta, and brown rice. Choose lean meats, poultry , fish, beans, eggs, and nuts. A healthy meal plan is low in unhealthy fats, salt, and added sugar. Healthy fats include olive oil and canola oil. Ask your dietitian for more information about a healthy meal plan.
Also Check: How Can I Lose Stomach Fat Fast
Foods To Limit When You Have Acid Reflux And An Ulcer
Some people who have an ulcer also have acid reflux. In some people, certain foods can relax the lower part of the esophagus, known as the lower esophageal sphincter or LES. A relaxed LES makes it easier for acid to back up into the esophagus and cause heartburn, indigestion, and pain.
Foods that may make acid reflux worse include: