I was just diagnosed with GERD about 6 weeks ago, and started taking 40 mg. of Prilosec about a month ago. (Is it helping? Maybe...) After further research, I'm thinking that what I've really got is LPR rather than GERD. (No heartburn, just sore throat, weak or hoarse voice, and occasional cough)

I know that the standard advice re. GERD is that it's important to make dietary changes, avoiding caffeine, chocolate, foods high in fat, alcohol, spicy foods, etc. And I'm amazed to discover, after reading through the various postings on the Acid Reflux board, that most of you seem to be pretty religious about restricting certain foods from your diet. Good for you!

As for me, so far I'm having a hard time following this advice, and haven't yet been completely cutting most of these foods out of my diet (for instance, right now I'm sipping on a highly caffeinated latte!) - perhaps it's because I haven't yet noticed a direct connection between what I eat and an improvement or worsening of my symptoms.

I'm wondering if, perhaps, those of you who have the classic GERD symptom of heartburn are - in a strange way - at an advantage over those of us who don't get heartburn because you know within an hour or so after eating that you've eaten the wrong food because now you've got heartburn! With LPR - and maybe it's just me - I don't think that connection is as easy to figure out.

I'm hoping that some of you who have more experience with LPR can speak to this: Do you ever notice an immediate worsening of sore throat or cough or hoarseness or closing of the throat after eating certain foods? - just as those with GERD might notice an immediate heartburn? Or does it take more time to do its damage, making it more difficult to figure out what you did wrong?!

Can you tell I'm not quite ready to accept that I need to change my eating habits? Hasn't that been a hard thing for anyone else? I love food!

hi -
i agree with you completely and have been dancing around this one myself.
I don't restrict myself from the most common offenders but do stay away from what I know will cause me problems, most often, beer or anything carbonated EXCEPT for lightly carbonated mineral water, I can drink that.
anything alcohol is a problem and although I'm hardly an alcoholic I do occasionally want to enjoy a glass of wine or a beer!

other than that i can eat tomatoes, and drink a cappuccino every morning.
My symptoms are the same as yours, so I guess I can say I have the same questions.

Many others have expressed that some days you have symptoms no matter what you eat, and other days you can have pizza without any problems so it's a constant mystery. and a frustrating one at that.