Health Care

By Gerri Stone

Are you one of millions of people who suffer from irritation from acid reflux? Do you find that eating certain foods results in a burning pain that creeps up behind your breastbone? Or maybe it's the gas and bloating that accompanies your meals that you would love to eliminate. Whatever symptoms you suffer, these five steps will help you create a diet for acid reflux that will minimize, or eliminate the symptoms that cause you distress.

Step One

Recognize that you really do need to change your eating habits. Lifestyle changes are more difficult that simply taking a medication, but your body is trying to tell you that it is time to make some changes. Take it one meal at a time, and you will feel the improvements quickly.

Step Two

Keep a food diary for seven days. Write down what you ate, when you ate it, and how you felt after eating. This will help you identify your trigger foods. Several foods commonly cause acid reflux symptoms. Keeping track of your personal foods will help you discover the foods that you need to stay away from for a personalized diet for acid reflux.

Step Three

Add more raw fruits and vegetables to your diet. Your stomach does not create as much stomach acid to digest raw fruits and vegetables as it does to digest meats and heavier, fatty foods. Less stomach acid is less ammunition for acid reflux to bother you with after your meal.

Step Four

Eat smaller meals, more often through the day. Large meals can give your stomach acid nowhere to go but up your esophagus, creating irritation. You will also produce more stomach acid to help digest a large meal, which increases the risk of suffering from acid reflux after eating. Split up your regular meals into smaller portions and try to eat every four hours. If you normally have fruit and cereal in the morning, have the fruit as a mid-morning snack instead. Or try having a smaller lunch, and a mid afternoon snack of cheese and fruit. One word of warning here- don't just add snacks to your regular sized meals, or your expanding waistline will create other health problems for you.

Step Five

Never eat within three hours of bedtime. When you lay down, it is easier for stomach acid to travel up your esophagus, creating nighttime acid reflux, and disturbing your sleep. When you miss a good sleep, stress is likely to bother you more the next day, and you will be more tempted to reach for food that triggers acid reflux. This cycle can destroy even the best resolve to stick with an acid reflux diet.

These five steps will help you create a personalized diet for acid reflux. Discover what your trigger foods are, and replace them with something that you find satisfying. Make the necessary lifestyle and diet changes that control your symptoms. A few small changes over the next two weeks can make acid reflux a thing of the past.