GERD Diet for Gastroesophageal reflux disease
Written by Gloria Tsang, RD
Published in November 2004
(HealthCastle.com) Most people will take over-the-counter antacids for a quick ease of GERD. Indeed for most people, a proper eating habit may help fixing the problem.
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GERD Diet
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- First of all, try to eat small frequent meals instead of 3 big meals a day. Small amount of food each time would exert less workload on the stomach and therefore requires less acid secretion for digestion. Make sure to include foods that are high in complex carbohydrates in each meal. These foods, such as rice, breads and pasta, are able to tie up excess stomach acid and are often easy on the stomach.
- Avoid high-fat meals such as those from the fast food chains. High fat foods will remain in the stomach longer in which more acid is secreted to digest them.
- But remember, don't overeat! Eating too much of any foods will stimulate the stomach to secret more acids for digestion.
- Avoid or limit alcohol.
- Maintain upright position during and at least 45 mins after eating
- Try elevating the head of bed 6 - 8 inches when lying down.
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Don't think that beverages just quickly flow through your stomach without affecting acid production. Surprisingly, a lot of beverages stimulate acid secretion, such as coffee, tea, beer, wine and pop. The worst of all is beer. It could double your stomach acid within an hour.
GERD Diet Myth
A lot of people try drinking milk to ease acid reflux before sleep. But often, it ends up causing reflux during sleep. To understand the whole situation, we have to realize that the problem roots from eating too much at dinner time. As mentioned above, eating a big meal at dinner causes excess stomach acid production. Drinking milk could be a quick fix to the reflux problem. Unfortunately, milk has a rebound action and would eventually encourage secretion of more stomach acid, which causes the reflux. To solve the problem, try eating a small meal at dinner and have a small snack such as crackers before sleep.
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