Acid Reflux - Food to Avoid Heartburn Symptoms
Food to avoid heartburn symptoms is often misunderstood and badly researched.
For example, it was long thought that milk was the best way to soothe and heal stomach ulcers.
Of course, it is only more recently that milk has in fact been found to make heartburn symptoms worse.
These misconceptions have continued to spread, with many people believing that spicy food or any food with a strong flavour is the cause of heartburn symptoms.
These people restrict themselves to boring bland diets in order to cope.
Sure, these types of food make the sensation of heartburn worse, but they are not the cause of heartburn and in particular acid reflux.
Let me just explain for a moment the distinction between heartburn symptoms and acid reflux.
Heartburn is the sensation of burning felt in the chest area, whilst acid reflux is, in the majority of cases, the cause of this burning sensation.
For the purposes of this discussion let us focus on the foods that cause acid reflux.
By far the biggest culprits for causing acid reflux are foods which are often called "refined carbohydrates", or "fast carbs" as they are more popularly known.
The most well-known 'fast-carb' is sugar.
Sugar appears in so much of the pre-prepared foods we find in the supermarkets and in quite large quantities.
Look at the labels of the foods you buy and you will be surprised by the amount of times it appears.
Not only that, it is usually high up on the list of ingredients which means there is a lot of it in that food.
'Fast carbs' ferment quickly inside your digestive system and push stomach acid up and out into your throat.
This is acid reflux in action.
The constant bombardment of sugary food builds up until you end up suffering heartburn symptoms every day.
Check all your food, especially pre-prepared and pre-packaged foods, and avoid anything with sugar in it for a while.
Unfortunately the list is slightly longer than that as different types of sugars are also found in alcohol, most fruit and milk products.
It is difficult to produce an exhaustive list and equally difficult to stick to such a long list, but avoiding the main culprits for just a few weeks should show significant improvement in your heartburn symptoms.
The good effect adds up, so the longer time you can stay off the sugars, the less likely you are to have heartburn symptoms when you do have something sugary.
For example, it was long thought that milk was the best way to soothe and heal stomach ulcers.
Of course, it is only more recently that milk has in fact been found to make heartburn symptoms worse.
These misconceptions have continued to spread, with many people believing that spicy food or any food with a strong flavour is the cause of heartburn symptoms.
These people restrict themselves to boring bland diets in order to cope.
Sure, these types of food make the sensation of heartburn worse, but they are not the cause of heartburn and in particular acid reflux.
Let me just explain for a moment the distinction between heartburn symptoms and acid reflux.
Heartburn is the sensation of burning felt in the chest area, whilst acid reflux is, in the majority of cases, the cause of this burning sensation.
For the purposes of this discussion let us focus on the foods that cause acid reflux.
By far the biggest culprits for causing acid reflux are foods which are often called "refined carbohydrates", or "fast carbs" as they are more popularly known.
The most well-known 'fast-carb' is sugar.
Sugar appears in so much of the pre-prepared foods we find in the supermarkets and in quite large quantities.
Look at the labels of the foods you buy and you will be surprised by the amount of times it appears.
Not only that, it is usually high up on the list of ingredients which means there is a lot of it in that food.
'Fast carbs' ferment quickly inside your digestive system and push stomach acid up and out into your throat.
This is acid reflux in action.
The constant bombardment of sugary food builds up until you end up suffering heartburn symptoms every day.
Check all your food, especially pre-prepared and pre-packaged foods, and avoid anything with sugar in it for a while.
Unfortunately the list is slightly longer than that as different types of sugars are also found in alcohol, most fruit and milk products.
It is difficult to produce an exhaustive list and equally difficult to stick to such a long list, but avoiding the main culprits for just a few weeks should show significant improvement in your heartburn symptoms.
The good effect adds up, so the longer time you can stay off the sugars, the less likely you are to have heartburn symptoms when you do have something sugary.
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