How can you help your acid reflux without using pills or medications? Many people may get relief by changing their way of eating.

Acid reflux may act up if you eat your normal three large meals a day. A different approach would be to eat more often but smaller meals. Eating smaller meals puts less strain on your stomach and consequently your stomach does not need as much acid in order to digest your food. Acid reflux may also be helped by eating foods that are high in complex carbohydrates. You may want to eat food like rice or pasta or bread. These foods do not aggravate the stomach.

Acid reflux may bother you if you eat high fat foods. It is best not to order food from the well-known fast food eateries. These high fat foods linger in your stomach and need more acid for digestion.

Acid reflux just loves to see you overeat. All of that food just begs the stomach to produce more acid. The more you eat the longer the food remains in your stomach. This requires more acid in order to break down all of the food.

Another dietary change to help prevent acid reflux would be to stop eating and drinking caffeine containing foods. That's right, you need to cut out or cut way back on coffee, tea and chocolate. Acid reflux is also very sensitive to alcohol. Beer is one of the worst drinks to consume if you are suffering from acid reflux. It stimulates your stomach to produce double the amount of acid.

Acid reflux can be helped if you change your eating habits. Another helpful hint would be to remain sitting up while eating (no laying in bed for midnight snacks) and remain upright after you are finished eating for about forty-five minutes. When you do lay down, you might want to tilt the top half of your bed up about six to eight inches. Some people place telephone books under the mattress to elevate it.

Acid reflux is a problem for many people. Because we are overeating at dinner we are already over producing stomach acid. So, many people try a glass of milk to help with the acid reflux before they go to sleep. Unfortunately this does not help. The milk actually encourages the stomach to produce more acid which in turn leads to acid reflux. You may want to try having a smaller dinner and then a light snack before bedtime. Crackers would be a great snack choice before going to sleep.

It is possible to ease your acid reflux. If you are brave enough to change your habits, you can save yourself money and pain. It may not be easy to change, but the pain of acid reflux is worse. Remember - eat smaller meals (you can eat more often), eat high complex carbohydrate foods (bread, rice, pasta), stay away from high fat foods (no fast food), don't overeat and stay away from caffeine and alcohol (especially beer).

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Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Acid Reflux
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