Alkaline Foods for Acid Reflux?

Acid reflux or heartburn is a condition wherein excess acid from the stomach flows back to the esophagus causing a mild to severe burning sensation. In most cases, acid reflux is attributed to a weak esophageal sphincter (LES), the valve the stops the backflow of acid.

However, those who suffer from acid reflux today is mainly due to the overabundance of acid in the digestive system, thus overpowering your LES and letting it spill up your throat.

For those who suffer from too much acid in their system, resulting to acid reflux; it is advisable to modify their diet to include alkaline food which is the best way to combat this problem, and at the same time, keeping your body fit and healthy.

Alkaline 101

Before we go into alkaline foods for acid reflux, it is best to define what alkaline is to better understand how it would help your heartburn problem.

For starters, acid in our stomach has a pH balance of below 7.0. Alkaline has a pH balance of above 7.0. This means that alkaline can easily counteract excess acids in our stomach thus effectively removing the possibility of heartburns from ever occurring.

Those who suffer from constant acid reflux or heartburns are individuals who have high acidity levels in their digestive system. Meaning, the only way to combat this problem is either through medications, like taking in antacids, or to modify your diet to include alkaline food to balance it out.

Acid Reflux Diet

An acid reflux diet is simply the modification of your eating habits to include foods that are rich in alkaline. Example of alkaline foods includes:

Fruits: berries (blueberries and strawberries), banana, apples, watermelon, papaya, grapes, lemon, avocado, and almonds.

Vegetables: turnip, beetroot, asparagus, artichokes, lettuce, radish, turnip, chives, beets, green beans, potatoes, broccoli, cucumber, cabbage, celery, and spinach.

Take note that the above examples are just some of the alkaline rich foods for an acid reflux diet. As you may have noticed, these foods don’t have to be integrated into your basic meal. In fact, most of these can be for snacks like the selections of fruits above. The vegetables, like asparagus and lettuce are great in-between snacks or as a side-dish.

Preparing Your Acid Reflux Diet

Most of the alkaline foods listed above don’t require too much preparation. You can easily snack on the fruits during or in between meals. As for the vegetables, you can either have it steamed or eaten raw depending on your preference.

However, if you plan to cook then you need to make sure that you’re using the right ingredients.

What you need to remember when preparing an alkaline-rich meal is to make sure that you’re using the right ingredients. Olive oil or coconut oil is preferred when sautéing vegetables. If you’re planning to use spices then avoid pepper or anything remotely spicy. Garlic or ginger is preferred to add to the taste. You can even utilize seeds to add to more flavor, like sesame seeds or soy products. Tofu is also a great side-dish to add to your alkaline diet if you’re looking for variety.

Be Careful

Of course, not all the alkaline foods listed above might be good for you. In terms of acid reflux, there is something we call “trigger food” that can aggravate your condition, making it worse instead of getting rid of the problem. You can either find out through trial by error, keeping in mind all the food you eat and determine which ones produce a heartburn, or you can ask your dietician or doctor to help you come up with an alkaline-rich acid reflux diet plan to avoid problems later on.