Acidity and heartburn are one of the most common digestive disorders across the globe. Every 3 out of 5 people have experienced acidity and indigestion issues at least once in their lifestyle. Acidity or GERD is a disease that cannot be treated mildly as if left untreated, it might invite some critical diseases afterwards.
You might have feel a burning sensation in your throat or chest after eating some spicy or cold food or beverages and you are belching and feeling nausea or vomiting like. These are the main symptoms of acidity. Sometimes, people might feel stomach cramps, chest pain and abdominal pain too. Most of the times, people generally avoid consulting the doctors as there is no awareness of acidity and its complications if left untreated.
What is acid reflux?
Your stomach produces acid to digest foods you eat. Acid reflux occurs when your stomach acid travels up into the oesophagus. Oesophagus walls are highly sensitive to stomach and if you are a severe acidity patient, you might become a victim of oesophagus ulcer or oesophagus cancer too, if left untreated.
With certain lifestyle and diet changes, you can control acidity. This is a good news. You can also opt for some medications such as antacids which prevent stomach from making too much acid. However, it is not advisable to take medication for a long time as it also has some side effects. The best way to fight acid reflux is to make dietary and lifestyle changes that can prevent acidity and heartburn. For example, spicy and sore foods lead to acidity and heartburn. However, when you remove these foods from your plate, you will surely feel better. Also, you need to chew food properly to help stomach to digest it properly. Eating too fast can also lead to acidity and indigestion.
One of the main things is your food, what you consume throughout the day. There are some foods that trigger acidity and avoiding these foods might help you to get rid of acidity and heartburn.
Here is a list.
High fat foods
When you eat foods that are high on a fat portion, it takes time to empty your stomach. When your stomach is full, it creates pressure on lower oesophagus sphincter, which, in turn, results in acid reflux. Moatly, deep fried foods such as fish and chips, meats are foods that are high in fat and you should totally avoid them if you are a patient of severe acidity and indigestion.
Spicy foods
Yes, spicy foods trigger acidity symptoms and mostly aggregate too. However, researches don’t support this claim, but there are individuals who think that when they eat spicy foods, they feel acid reflux symptoms. You need to ask whether your digestion system reacts good with spicy food items or you feel pain and discomfort digesting these items. It’s your choice to make.
Citrus
Here too, the results are debatable. Citrus simply means food that contain acids such as orange, lemon and other food items. These items produce more acid than expected and produce acidity symptoms including heartburn. You need to keep a tab on citrus rich foods and avoid taking them, at least in night.
Garlic and onions
Studies have proved that garlic and onions have properties to alleviate acid reflux symptoms and should be stopped consuming. Garlic, when taken in a moderate amount should not be a problem. However, onions are aggregators of acid reflux problem and should be avoided by all means.
Peppermint
One of the issues with the peppermint is that it relaxes the LOS which might lead to acid reflux if you are taking it after the meal. However, for a normal person, an after-meal mint tea might help to digest food, for an acid reflux patient, it might worsen the symptoms. Avoid mint tea and other forms of peppermint which might trigger acid reflux.
Chocolate
Chocolate might become a problem for acid reflux patients when you consume an excessive amount of it. If you are not taking chocolate or supplements in excessive quantity, you should not having problems. However, there are some evidences that show chocolate consumption might trigger acid reflux symptoms.
Alcohol
It is a big no if you are suffering from acidity and indigestion. Alcohol does not only relaxes the LOS, but also increase stomach acid production. It might worsen the case and produce heartburn and acid reflux symptoms. Stop it if you can.
Coffee and tea
You might be a caffeine addict, but let me tell you, it is something that will trigger your acidity symptoms to a great extent. However, tea and coffee in a moderate amount will not harm you, but when you consume them in an excessive amount, it will irritate your LOS and lead to acid reflux, heartburn and gastrological diseases. Drinking coffee and tea on empty stomach is not recommended. It will kill your appetite.
Avoid smoking and other forms of tobacco
We all know that smoking kills and yet we end up smoking 2 or 3 packets of cigarettes every day. Well, apart from hazardous effects on your lungs and heart, smoking also irritate your throat and might produce acid reflux symptoms. Some individuals prefer chewing tobacco which is as harmful as smoking. There are hundreds of harmful chemicals we swallow when we chew tobacco and it worsens your stomach linings and oesophagus too. The irony is that we all know that tobacco is dangerous and yet we fail to quit. Consult a doctor or a community group for tobacco quitting and get rid of this addiction as soon as possible if you want to live a healthy and disease-free life.
Also, you can make some lifestyle changes to reduce acid reflux problems. Exercising every day will help you. Also, if you are overweight, reducing weight will help you in indigestion and acid reflux. Also, you can avoid overeating if you want not to trigger acid reflux and heartburn symptoms. Your stomach’s size is of your clinched fist and it shows how much portion of food you need to eat in a meal.