Nothing can ruin a meal like heartburn. That burning sensation from reflux can make you cut meals and dinner parties short. But have you ever thought about what foods give you heart burn and how you can avoid the inconvenience instead of pounding Tums every time you eat? Antidote Health is going to let you in on a few little secrets to help you avoid that horrible sensation that can really ruin an otherwise perfect evening.
Which Foods Cause Heartburn?
To start, we have identified 7 main types of food that cause heartburn:
· Alcohol
· Certain types of starch like pizza dough
· Spices like black pepper
· Herbs or herb extracts like peppermint
· Coffee and other caffeinated drinks
· Citrus fruits and other acidic fruits and vegetables like tomatoes
· Chocolate
Now that you know which are the 7 foods that cause heartburn, we can move onto helping you avoid this unpleasant symptom.
The most Obvious Tip of All: Moderation
Although this is common sense, no guide that can claim to help you avoid heartburn could ignore moderation. Chemists tend to joke that humans can put any substance into their bodies, because what is really harmful is the quantity. That applies to food and heartburn – and for food and any other condition really.
Make sure you:
· Drink in moderation
· Avoid adding to much condiment to your food
· Eat the right amount of citric or acidic fruits and vegetables
· Avoid caffeinated drinks as much as possible
· Cut down on the amount of chocolate you eat
· Be careful with the quantity of herbs you use
· Avoid eating too much dough of any kind
Balance your Diet with Alkaline Foods
The next tip involves understanding what heartburn is. Heartburn is acid reflux. To treat acid reflux people often use Tums, Mylanta, or other acid neutralizing agents to take care of the rising acidity in their stomachs.
There are some types of food that can have the same effect. To avoid acid reflux, you can balance moderate consumption of the 7 foods that cause heartburn by adding alkaline foods to your dish. Some of these foods you can balance your meals out with are:
· Avocado
· Almonds
· Tofu
· Cabbage
· Carrots
· Cucumbers
· Mushrooms
· Spinach
· Sweet potatoes
There are many more alkalizing foods you can eat to help regulate your heartburn. The ones above are probably the most common ones.
Hydrate!
After you moderated your consumption of the 7 foods that cause heartburn, and you paired them with alkalizing foods, you can enhance your protection from acid reflux by drinking more water. Water helps dilute the acid that causes heartburn, and it also aids digestion, which allows acidifying foods to be processed quicker.
What Happens when you Have no Control Over the Ingredients of the Food you are Eating?
By now you must be thinking “what do I do if I have a cocktail party, or a friend invites me for dinner?” Obviously, you cannot control what is served at a party or at your friend’s house, but you can control the amount of food you eat and the amount of water you drink.
If you suspect that you are being served something rich in any of the 7 foods that cause heartburn, do the following:
· Moderate how much you eat as much as you can
· Drink more water – it is available everywhere!
Now you Know!
If you follow the tips above, chances are you can put your heartburn medication in the medicine cabinet for good. You will also benefit from an improvement to your diet in general.
Learning these tips by heart is also pretty easy, so from this point onwards, if you have heartburn, know that you could have prevented it, and keep that in mind the next time you eat!
