Get Rid of Heartburn Naturally
This is a little off my usual beaten path, but what the heck? It’s my blog and I can write about anything I want to! It IS about food, so here I go…
A couple of weeks ago, sipping coffee with my sweetheart in the newest coffee shop near our home, I briefly scanned a magazine article about reducing heartburn and balancing your PH levels.
Sadly, I don’t recall which magazine I was reading and I can’t find the same on the internet. I DO recall the author — Dr. Jack Challem, and have found out a little about him. He has written several books and is known as The Nutrition Reporter. He’s got some great ideas about changing our diet that are worth checking out: The Nutrition Reporter.
This particular article caught my eye because my dear sweet husband often gets heartburn and I have always been confused about the cause of it. It would seem like the most mild of foods, such as potato soup, could bring on a nasty case of heartburn for him instead of really acidic foods.
Well, to keep this on the short side, I will get to the point of this article I read:
It is not the level of acidity in the food that is causing the heartburn, it is the body’s response to the food that brings on the acid and causes heartburn. This is completely backward from everything I knew (which is pathetically little) about having acid reflux. Basically, highly alkaline foods, such as beef, bacon, dairy products (particularly hard cheeses), and refined starches trigger an acid-producing response in our bodies, causing our stomachs to have too much acid.
On the other hand, when we eat something acidic, like kiwi, pineapple, bananas, asparagus, (you get the idea — the fruits and veggies we all know we should be eating anyway) there is less of an acid-producing response and more of an alkaline-producing response, hence, no heartburn.
This thought pattern made so much sense to me I had to try something right away. I myself had been having some heartburn. It’s a little hard to describe, but it didn’t feel like heartburn to me, just sort of a bad taste some days. Hubby convinced me it was heartburn. I tried eating more fruit for a couple of days. Voila! When I ate fruit, I had no heartburn. This confirmed Dr. Jack Challem’s position in the article I had read.
Click this link to the best list of Acid vs. Alkaline Foods that I can find. Know someone who deals with heartburn regularly? Or are YOU dealing with heartburn? Try changing your diet before taking little purple pills.
Add comment March 19th, 2007