High Acid Foods?

[jwh1]

The last few days I've been searching for acid/ alkaline food listings. Some of the various food listings seem to override each other. Some list spicy foods such as garlic and onion not good for a low acid diet, while others list them as containg almost no acid?

From my own experience I've exlcuded some foods that have given me strong refluxes:

>oj
>blueberries
>whole grains
>tomatoes

Neither decaf nor regular coffee gives me any effect. Alcohol also cause no reflux.

What other foods should I exclude from my diet?

[HasLPRD]

I don't think the acidity of the food itself has that much to do with reflux.
Some foods cause your stomach to product a lot of acid. Fats are long molecules
and require a lot of acid to break them down, so fats tend to stimulate acid
production. Spicy foods seem to stimulate acid production too, but I don't
know why.

I think there's not very good information out there about this. I've seen
reputable medical sites say tomatoes cause reflux because of the acidity. I've
seen other reputable sites say tomatoes cause reflux because they weaken the
LES. We know some foods cause reflux in most people. In some cases we know
why (fats stimulate acid production, peppermint is a muscle relaxer which weakens
the LES), but in other cases people seem to assign them to one category or the
other without much in the way of scientific proof.

So, you can find all sorts of lists of "bad foods" out there on the web, but there
often isn't a good explanation of why it's on the list and, in the end, some people
seem to be bothered by some of these foods and others don't. I really wish there was
better scientific analysis of why certain foods cause reflux. If there was, we could
make more generalizations about what types of foods to avoid.


Mark.

[CharBerry]

Mark,

I agree with you. It's confussing because onions and garlic are supposed to help so many things including upper resp problems, which my LPR causes. But, when I try to eat them, I get worse. I feel I'm most bothered by fats more than tomatoes because I eat a lot of Healthy Choice Dinners and many are based with tomatoe sauce. They don't give me any problems. Even Coke is ok but Star Bucks coffee (that I adore) makes me cough and cough after drinking it. Your post interest me since you seem to have symptoms (and knowledge) of the LPR type of GERD. If you wish to call it that.
Might I ask how your symptoms started and how long you have had this problem? Sorry if that's been discussed.

Charla

[HasLPRD]

Charla,

I have a small hiatal hernia, which has caused me mild reflux problems for many years. It was easily controlled with standard precautions (raising head of bed, don't eat before bed, avoid problem foods, etc...). Every once in a while I'd eat something I shouldn't have but all it took was a Zantac 75 to fix things. Back then, all I'd get was some burping and, if I let that go on for too long, a feeling like I had a pill stuck in my throat. That was until last May...

Last May I started getting severe symptoms with no obvious lifestyle or diet change to account for it. I had sour post-nasal drip, hoarse voice and when I cleared my throat I had sour mucus. I started getting a tightness in my throat and eventually had difficulty swallowing due to the swelling. I still have these symptoms though I've gotten better at lessening them. I will be seeing a new gastroentrologist in three weeks. She specializes in reflux and maybe she can tell me why I have these new problems all of a sudden. My previous gastroenterologist wrote it off as stress. Both Omeprazole and Ranitidine didn't seem to help one bit and they actually seemed to make things worse so I stopped taking them.

Most any food on any "bad foods" list causes me problems now, but back when I had my original symptoms I noticed that some foods caused me problems and some didn't. For example, I could eat ice cream and cheese with no problem (I could eat alfredo sauce if it contained only dairy fat), but a few drops of a salad dressing that contained some type of vegetable oil would ruin my evening. Some of the usual suspects such as tomatoes, chocolate, or peppermint caused me minor problems, but it was really the vegetable oils that I had to look out for.

Mark.

[Vanessa74]

Perhaps it could be 'food allergy related' -- though I am NO expert and I understand how confusing all this is.....

I used to be able to eat a variety of things (including TOMATOS -- I miss them ... Now I am on a very restricted diet (self-imposed) - and it has really not helped that I can tell. I am still refluxing daily.....

However, I did observe after 'falling off the wagon' just a tiny bit for 2 days - I have been SUFFERING SO BADLY every since (which has been the past 4 days) -- burning and chest tightness and esophogus cramping......

I would love to find 'the answer' - but somehow I do not think it will be that easy for any of us.

At least we have each other

Mark,

How do you get the swelling down to be able to eat if the meds don't work for you?

Thanks!