Acid Reflux: Lifestyle and Diet Remedies

(see also: Managing Acid Reflux)

In What is Acid Reflux I described what acid reflux is as a condition, and some of the harmful drugs that are sold and used for its treatment.

In this article I will list out some natural remedies which may assist you to alleviate your condition (I won’t say “cure” - I don’t think I’m allowed to say that word without a license!) Diet, lifestyle, and nutrition form a key factor in acid reflux treatment and acid reflux prevention.

Body Detox

Following a diet and a lifestyle that will help your body to detoxify can go a long way in assisting you to remedy your acid reflux.

Drink at least a gallon of water every day. One method of doing this easily is to simply keep lots of bottled or filtered water at your desk, at your work space, in your car, or wherever you spend most of your time. Drink water throughout the day. It has been said that drinking about a gallon of water a day, while taking probiotics, can assist greatly to return the body’s digestive functions to normal. Water also assists to dilute stomach acids.

Drink unrefined vegetable juices. Ideally from your own juicer. There are many recipes out there for homemade vegetable juices (particularly when from organic vegetables) in various combinations and they can be fun to make, while you can also create your own. Vegetable juices help to supply your body with the nutrients it needs, while helping the body to detoxify. They are also excellent for weight loss, if you are also trying to lose weight. But you don’t have to be overweight to benefit from vegetable juices! Anyone, with or without acid reflux, can have incredible benefits from vegetable juices – in appearance, health, energy, and general well-being.

Eat as much “live food” as possible. Foods which have real, live enzymes in them assist you to get your digestion working right, and this is a critical aspect to addressing acid reflux. In other words, eat uncooked foods – raw fruits and vegetables. Raw vegetable juices are a very good way to supply this. Enzymes help the body to digest food. But when they are heated and cooked, they lose that ability and they change their structure. Cooked foods are generally more difficult to digest, and require additional effort from your body for their assimilation.

Eat foods and fats that help your body to heal. Examples of these “healing foods” are avocados, seaweed, chlorella algae, spirulina, barley grass, chaparral tea (consult your physician before using this tea, it can be toxic if taken incorrectly), olive oil, lemon, maple syrup, niacin, calcium, magnesium, coconut oil, green tea, cayenne pepper, ginger, garlic, onions … there are many.

Eat foods that are rich in water, vitamins, and nutrition. Green leafy vegetables have also been said to benefit digestion and the gastro-intestinal system. Sprouted greens from buckwheat, sunflower, alfalfa, wheat, and red clover, are very good. Raw nuts, sprouted or even soaked, are very beneficial.

Avoid harmful foods: fast food, white flour, refined sugar and sweeteners, margarine, aspartame, pesticides, soft drinks, etc.

Cleanse your body. Do a good natural colon cleanse and follow safe and natural detoxification programs and any good detox diet.

In fact, doing a good colon cleanse could be one of the most important parts of your approach. Over time, the body accumulates a layer of hardened material around the linings of the intestines, as a result of eating unhealthy food, white flour, insufficient raw foods and fibers, etc. This material forms into a kind of a “glue” around the walls of your intestines – preventing toxins from exiting the body, and preventing nutrients from being absorbed, creating digestive trouble, and leading to a multitude of other conditions and illnesses. I will post further articles on this in the future.

There are other natural acid reflux remedies, and I will post further information on this. But the above basic guidelines should help get you off to a good start.

If you have a severe acid reflux problem, however, I suggest you get a book on Managing Acid Reflux.