Foods To Calm Holiday Heartburn (PHOTOS)

If you're prone to heartburn or have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), certain days may fill you with dread. What could be worse than a food-related holiday? Although it may seem like a recipe for heartburn pain, there are things you can do to help prevent acid reflux on the big day.

First, choose the right food (and drinks). Second, don't eat too much at once. A major cause of heartburn is overeating, which can push acid into the heartburn-generating danger zone.

1 of 6

Selecting A Salad

1 of 7

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

Salads are good news for those with chronic heartburn or GERD -- if you have the right salad dressing and ingredients, that is. High-fat foods are a known trigger for acid reflux, so the National Heartburn Alliance recommends avoiding creamy salad dressings, as well as oil and vinegar. Your best bet is a low-fat salad dressing, and avoid tomatoes, raw onions, and other acid-aggravating ingredients. (Want fruit in your salad? Choose apples, not oranges, if you want to avoid heartburn.) More From Health.com Surprising Heartburn Triggers 13 Foods That Fight Acid Reflux Heartburn Tip of the Day

Rush Limbaugh Advertiser Tax Resolution Services Co. Is Ninth Company To Pull Content From Radio Program

Syria Troops Begin Homs Ground Attack, 13 Killed To Save Journalist Paul Conroy

Bruce Beresford-Redman Murder Case: TV Producer In Mexico To Face Charges In Wife's Death

Story Of The Decade (2001-2010): Your Final Picks

Arizona Tornado 2010: Rare Twisters Hit Flagstaff Area (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Carl Probyn: Jaycee Lee Dugard's Stepfather Talks About Her Return (PICTURES)

Salads are good news for those with chronic heartburn or GERD -- if you have the right salad dressing and ingredients, that is. High-fat foods are a known trigger for acid reflux, so the National Heartburn Alliance recommends avoiding creamy salad dressings, as well as oil and vinegar.

Your best bet is a low-fat salad dressing, and avoid tomatoes, raw onions, and other acid-aggravating ingredients. (Want fruit in your salad? Choose apples, not oranges, if you want to avoid heartburn.)

More From Health.com
Surprising Heartburn Triggers
13 Foods That Fight Acid Reflux
Heartburn Tip of the Day

comments(10)

Total comments: 10 | Post a Comment

1 of 7

This Tip

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Pass Perfect

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Top 5 Tips

loading...

Top 5 Tips

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

Comments

[Trig]

04:55 PM on 12/24/2010

Some in the alternative community use betaine hydrochloride with meals to increase stomach acidic and thus improve stomach motility to prevent reflux and dyspepsia. Plus 6 milligrams of melatonin for is also a huge help for GERD and esophageal inflammation. Do a Pubmed on the limited body of research on GERD and melatonin. The use of PPI meds results in the elevation in gastrin which in turn results in rebound acidity in the stomach such that the stomach is hyper acid for several days after one has been on the PPI meds and then quits. PPI meds, H-2 acid reducers, and prescription motility meds can and do cause nervous system symptoms some are chronic headache when on the meds ranging to the permanent damage of tardive dyskinesia or bone weakening depending on the drug choices.

[eLucida]

10:55 AM on 12/29/2010

Interesting point.

Of course we will never see that suggested as a remedy because big pharma cannot patent melatonin.

Ricardo de Souza Pereira. 2006. Journal of Pineal Research 41: 195–200
Regression of gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms using dietary supplementation with melatonin, vitamins and aminoacids: comparison with omeprazole.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-079X.2006.00359.x/full

[vippy]

04:43 PM on 12/24/2010

I found magic when having a heartburn!  L-Arginine and L-Glutamine, chew it and then within 5 minutes heartburn is gone.  Tried it with other people and it worked.  All natural. 

[shuffleoff]

02:29 PM on 12/24/2010

It looked like there were worms in that salad! But if they helped GERD, I'd try them!

[CHMB]

12:54 PM on 12/24/2010

Some people have to be careful of salads, too.

[SitandStay]

12:52 PM on 12/23/2010

PICKLED GINGER. Absolutely amazing.
Plus it kills off some parasites. That is why it is used in sushi.

[localwonk]

12:36 PM on 12/23/2010

I've been on a mostly organic diet for the past 18 months now and have become far more used to it than I imagined. If I eat any processed foods (even organic ones), I start getting the sensation of something like a pre-heart burn if you will. I find that cutting out the processed foods and eating a nice baby spinache salad with a tablespoon or two of safflower oil really helps, but for a quick fix, organic yogurt is the balm.

[eLucida]

10:19 AM on 12/23/2010

Low-carbohydrate diets CURE heartburn (GERD) for many.

'HealthyWholeGrains' are the problem!

There is an interesting theory on why this works:
Carbohydrates that resist initial digestion feed intestinal microbes that produce gas.
This gas causes pressure to build up and push stomach acids into the esophagus.

Eliminate the carbs, stop feeding the microbes, no gas, no pressure buildup, no GERD.

Here are a few other things to consider.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/3-simple-steps-to-elimina_b_649609.html

[HerrMonk]

03:35 PM on 12/23/2010

Good post.

As soon I see someone recommend "low-fat" anything, I know BS is soon to follow.

[vippy]

04:46 PM on 12/24/2010

I find B-Vitamins work wonders with gas problem or simply eat yogurt, not the flavored type either. 
And for best yogurt or cottage cheese or sour cream go all natural with the DAISY BRAND.  I was amazed to see on a Weight Watcher Yogurt the corn starch added and you know where that goes.
People need to read the ingredient list on the back of the product and the shorter the list the better.