Heartburn diet

Heartburn occurs periodically, after eating, but not immediately, but about an hour after the meal. Especially if the amount of food was excessive, and the food was seasoned with hot spices and sauces. Therefore, a diet for heartburn is not a luxury, but a necessary preventive measure.

Heartburn is a discomforting sensation behind the breastbone, going from the epigastric region upwards, or in the cervical region, arising after eating. Heartburn is accompanied by a burning sensation or heat in the stomach area, abdominal pain, belching.

Heartburn is a fairly common phenomenon: about a third of the world's population suffers from it. Heartburn accompanies the course of such diseases as gastritis with high acidity, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer, cholecystitis. Heartburn appears with a diaphragmatic hernia and intolerance to certain food components. Pregnancy in women can also cause heartburn. Stress, neurotic and anxious states are provocateurs of heartburn.

Wearing tight clothing such as belts, lifting heavy objects, and exercising may trigger heartburn symptoms.

Causes of heartburn are not only gastrointestinal diseases and other above-mentioned. The tendency to overeat and eat unhealthy, heavy food also provokes heartburn. The habit of sleeping after a hearty meal can lead to a burning sensation in the stomach and belching. Excess weight is also a common cause of discomfort and the appearance of excess gastric juice.

Therefore, a diet for heartburn is one of the most effective means of curing this disease. If you set a goal to improve your health and follow the recommendations of your doctor, you can not only improve your own condition, but also, in some cases, completely forget about heartburn.

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Treating Heartburn with Diet

An unhealthy lifestyle and poor nutrition are among the main causes of heartburn. Therefore, caring about the quality of life and diet are the most important factors in the prevention and treatment of heartburn.

There are several recommendations that should be followed when symptoms of heartburn appear:

1. It is necessary to exclude alcoholic beverages from consumption.
2. It is worth giving up such a habit as smoking.
3. Carbonated drinks and coffee cause heartburn. Therefore, you need to replace them with juices and weak tea.
4. The above mentioned drinks and tobacco lead to irritation of the stomach lining, increased acidity and relaxation of the stomach valve.
5. Passion for large amounts of citrus fruits, tomatoes and products that they contain also lead to heartburn. It is necessary to limit, and at first to minimize, the consumption of these types of products.
6. Pickles and canned foods are one of the causes of heartburn. Therefore, it is worth giving up your favorite pickles and marinated tomatoes for the sake of restoring your health.
7. Fresh bread and baked goods provoke heartburn. Therefore, you should not abuse warm and soft bakery products, but switch to stale options.
8. Fried pies and other food prepared in a similar way also lead to heartburn. In this case, you should avoid frying dishes and steam, stew or bake food in the oven.
9. Some medications provoke heartburn. For example, aspirin, orthofen, ibuprofen and some others lead to the appearance of heartburn symptoms. In this case, it is necessary to consult with the attending physician and change the prescription of medications.

Treating heartburn with diet is effective because it can prevent many of the underlying causes of discomfort. Dietary nutrition does not irritate the gastrointestinal tract mucosa, nor does it stretch the stomach itself. This does not provoke excessive secretion of gastric acid, relaxation of the gastric valve, and reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus.

The essence of the diet for heartburn

People who often suffer from a burning sensation in the stomach and esophagus after eating, belching, often ask the question: “What is the diet for heartburn?”

Experts recommend changing your diet for heartburn in the following way.

• Enrich your daily diet with plant proteins and reduce the amount of animal proteins.
• You need to reduce or even completely eliminate the consumption of sweets. They can be replaced with sweet fruits and juices.
• Sour and fermented milk products should be excluded from the diet, as they provoke an increase in the acidity of gastric juice, which leads to heartburn.
• Semi-finished products are a very undesirable product for heartburn, so you should avoid eating them.
• It is better to replace animal fats with vegetable fats: sunflower, corn, olive oil. Vegetable oils should be unrefined, unfried, extra virgin.
• Eating dry food and various snacks can also provoke heartburn. Therefore, various types of fast food are prohibited. And between meals, every two to three hours, you need to eat a sandwich of toasted bread with butter. It can be varied with unsalted cheese or sausage, but only not smoked, but boiled.

Diet for heartburn and gastritis

Gastritis is an inflammatory process of the mucous tissue of the stomach. Gastritis with high acidity can provoke the appearance of heartburn. Therefore, the diet for heartburn and gastritis is aimed primarily at curing the symptoms of the underlying cause - gastritis.

For patients suffering from gastritis, an effective diet called diet No. 1 was developed back in Soviet times. Strict diet No. 1 is prescribed for the treatment of gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer, as well as for manifestations of acute gastritis. A gentle version of this diet can become the basis of a healthy diet for the treatment of chronic gastritis and, accordingly, heartburn.

The diet for heartburn and gastritis is based on the following principles:

1. Eliminate very hot and very cold foods (ice cream, drinks with ice) from your diet.
2. To restore the gastric mucosa, food must be boiled, steamed or baked without a crust.
3. It is necessary to limit the consumption of salt, since excessive consumption leads to irritation of the gastric mucosa.
4. The number of meals per day should be at least 5-6 times. You need to eat small portions, chewing food thoroughly.
5. The caloric content of the daily diet should not exceed 2800 - 3000 calories.
6. Avoid first courses based on fatty meat broths, as well as fish and mushroom broths. It is best to eat vegetable soups with the addition of various cereals and rice. You can add a small amount of cream or an egg to the finished dish, which will make the soup taste unusual and attractive.
7. Fresh bread should be replaced with crackers or dried bread. They can be eaten not only with tea, but also added directly to first courses.
8. You can't eat fatty meat. The best options are lean chicken or rabbit, baked veal or turkey.
9. As for fish dishes, you can allow yourself to cook steamed cutlets from lean fish several times a week.
10. You can eat soft-boiled eggs or omelettes prepared with the addition of milk.
11. Porridges are very useful for patients suffering from gastritis and heartburn. They need to be boiled well before consumption. The exception is millet porridge - it is not recommended for consumption with increased acidity.
12. Boiled, stewed or baked vegetables are useful for gastritis. But raw vegetables should be excluded from the diet for a while.
13. For gastritis with high acidity, you can eat pears, bananas, and non-acidic apples.
14. Products that are prohibited for gastritis and heartburn are white cabbage, rye bread and puff pastry, fatty meat, smoked meats, hot sauces and marinades, mayonnaise, ketchup, salted cheeses, canned goods, mushrooms, sorrel, onions, cucumbers, spinach. Of drinks, you should avoid drinking carbonated mineral and sweet water, black coffee.

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Diet for heartburn and belching

The diet for heartburn and belching is the same as for heartburn and gastritis. Since gastritis with high acidity (and sometimes with low acidity) can provoke symptoms of heartburn, as well as belching.

Some folk remedies help with heartburn and belching.

1. With increased acidity, it is good to use honey. For example, you can mix aloe juice and honey in a one-to-one ratio and leave it to settle. You need to use the mixture three times a day, one teaspoon at a time.
2. With increased acidity, a herbal infusion helps. You need to mix rhubarb root, St. John's wort, valerian root and marsh cudweed. Three tablespoons of the mixture are poured with one liter of dry red wine and left in the sun for three weeks. After that, the infusion is filtered and three tablespoons of golden mustache are added to it. The resulting infusion is taken in the morning and evening, two tablespoons at a time.
3. Also, with increased acidity, a good remedy for belching and heartburn is burdock. You need to take one tablespoon of dry burdock leaves, pour one glass of boiling water and leave for two hours. After this, the infusion must be filtered and taken two tablespoons after each meal.

Low stomach acidity can also sometimes cause heartburn and belching. The following remedies will help alleviate these symptoms.

1. A mixture of honey, cocoa, butter and aloe leaves is not only a healthy remedy, but also a tasty addition to your diet. It is prepared as follows. You need to melt the butter and mix it with honey. Then grind the aloe leaves and add to the mixture. Dilute the cocoa in a small amount of water and add to the previous ingredients. Then put the resulting mixture in the oven for three hours at a low temperature. It is necessary to ensure that the product does not burn. Then, after preparing the medicinal mixture, you need to carefully remove the remaining aloe from it with a slotted spoon. After this, the medicine is poured into dark glass containers. The resulting mixture is taken three times a day before meals, two tablespoons at a time.
2. A drink made from the following herbs will be useful in treating heartburn and belching. You need to take one part yarrow, one part St. John's wort, two parts chicory, three parts fumitory. A tablespoon of the mixture should be poured with one glass of boiling water and infused until cool. Then the infusion is filtered and three tablespoons of golden mustache are poured into it. The resulting medicine is used before each meal half an hour before eating.

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Diet for heartburn during pregnancy

Heartburn during pregnancy is a common occurrence. The burning sensation or belching occurs due to changes occurring in the female body. During pregnancy, hormonal levels change, which leads to relaxation of the sphincter between the stomach and esophagus. Such changes contribute to the penetration of gastric juice into the esophagus and cause heartburn symptoms. The constantly growing uterus is also one of the causes of discomfort. The pressure exerted by the growing fetus and placenta on the walls of the stomach leads to the appearance of heartburn symptoms. After the birth of the child, heartburn symptoms disappear and no longer bother the woman, provided that she monitors her own diet and leads a healthy lifestyle.

The diet for heartburn during pregnancy includes the following rules:

1. It is necessary to eat frequently but in small portions. Such precautions will help to avoid stretching of the stomach and penetration of gastric acid into the esophagus.
2. In the first trimester of pregnancy, you need to eat 4 times a day; in the second - 4-5 times a day; in the third trimester of pregnancy, you need to eat 5-6 times a day.
3. You need to eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly. The processing and absorption of food begins in the mouth, since enzymes contained in saliva are also found there. Well-chopped food will be digested faster in the stomach, which will reduce the risk of heartburn.
4. Dinner should be moved to an earlier time, at least three hours before bedtime.
5. After eating, you should not immediately lie down. It is best to sit upright for some time, for example, in a comfortable chair or on a sofa. During this time, the food will have time to digest, and the gastric juice will not cause heartburn symptoms.
6. During meals, you should not drink large amounts of liquid. Drinking dilutes the gastric juice, which reduces the efficiency of digestion.
7. The drink should be taken between meals, for example, an hour after a meal or twenty to thirty minutes before a meal.
8. Among the drinks that are useful when heartburn occurs, it is necessary to mention clean, filtered water and still mineral water. Carbonated water, as well as sweet carbonated drinks are prohibited, because they tend to cause heartburn.
9. There are special herbal teas that can help with heartburn, such as fennel tea. The only caveat is that you should not overuse fennel tea during pregnancy, it should be taken in small quantities. Chamomile and ginger teas are also good for relieving heartburn symptoms.
10. Fried foods should be excluded from the diet. Food should be stewed, steamed, boiled or baked in the oven.
11. Avoid fatty and spicy foods, sauces and seasonings during pregnancy. You should remove sour cream, mayonnaise, cream and lard from your table for a while. A small amount of butter is acceptable. When it comes to meat and fish products, you should give preference to lean meats and fish.
12. During pregnancy, you should avoid first courses prepared in rich, fatty meat, fish and mushroom broths.
13. Fermented milk products can cause heartburn in some cases. Therefore, it is worth limiting the consumption of kefir, fermented baked milk, and completely eliminating yogurt. Cottage cheese should be bought non-acidic.
14. You should avoid eating sour vegetables, fruits and berries, such as apples, sauerkraut, and tomatoes.
15. If heartburn occurs during pregnancy, you can eat porridge (oatmeal, semolina, buckwheat), vegetable puree soups, boiled meat, cheese, stewed vegetables.
16. If you experience heartburn symptoms, you can try to relieve the attack by chewing raw oatmeal, grated carrots, hazelnuts or almonds. Raw sunflower or pumpkin seeds also help. You can take one tablespoon of unroasted sunflower oil.

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Heartburn Diet Menu

An approximate menu for a heartburn diet looks like this:

1. Breakfast – boiled oatmeal or buckwheat porridge; lean turkey bacon or boiled chicken; low-fat, non-acidic cottage cheese with a small amount of sour cream or low-fat cheese; sweet fruit juice or compote without added sugar.
2. Second breakfast – a portion of low-fat yogurt or kefir; half a glass of fresh sweet fruit; weak green tea without sugar with crackers made from bran bread.
3. Lunch – vegetable soup or pumpkin porridge with rice; a sandwich of toasted wheat bread with butter and lean boiled meat or steamed cutlets (meatballs) of lean meat; raw carrots or other permitted raw vegetables; sweet fruit compote.
4. Afternoon snack – bran crackers; low-fat and unsalted cheese; sweet apple or other sweet fruit; dried fruit – dried apricots, raisins, dates; weak green tea without sugar.
5. Dinner: boiled porridge (buckwheat, rice) or boiled lean fish; raw vegetable salad or stewed vegetables; toasted wheat bread with butter and unsweetened weak green tea.

Diet for heartburn by day

To properly organize the transition to a healing diet for heartburn, we will provide a weekly diet, scheduled by day.

1 day

• Breakfast: boiled oatmeal; baked cheesecakes made from low-fat, non-acidic cottage cheese; a glass of weak green tea without sugar.
• Second breakfast – half a glass of fresh sweet fruits.
• Lunch – buckwheat soup; steamed meatballs; carrot puree; a glass of dried fruit compote.
• Afternoon snack: weak tea without sugar; bran bread rusks.
• Dinner: steamed fish cutlets; stewed vegetables.

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Day 2

• Breakfast: boiled buckwheat porridge; cottage cheese soufflé; a glass of weak green tea without sugar.
• Second breakfast – a serving of low-fat yogurt.
• Lunch: cream of zucchini soup with croutons; steamed meat dumplings; vegetable stew of potatoes, onions and carrots; banana.
• Afternoon snack: dried fruit compote with wheat flour bread with bran.
• Dinner: lazy dumplings, a glass of weak green tea without sugar.

Day 3

Breakfast: pureed milk rice porridge; a glass of weak green tea without sugar; a sandwich of toasted wheat bread with butter and a piece of unsalted, low-fat cheese.

• Second breakfast – carrot and apple soufflé.
• Lunch: carrot puree soup with croutons; boiled veal; vegetable side dish; fruit jelly.
• Afternoon snack – a glass of weak green tea without sugar; dry biscuits.
• Dinner: baked fish; boiled potatoes; a glass of herbal infusion.

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Day 4

• Breakfast: cottage cheese casserole; a glass of weak green tea with crackers.
• Second breakfast – fruit jelly; toasted croissant.
• Lunch – pureed chicken soup; baked chicken with rice; baked apples.
• Afternoon snack – a glass of kefir; dried fruits.
• Dinner: boiled meat with mashed potatoes; some raw vegetables.

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Day 5

• Breakfast: egg soufflé; mashed oatmeal; a glass of weak green tea without sugar with crispbread.
• Second breakfast – sweet fruits – bananas, pears or sweet apples.
• Lunch – beef meatballs; buckwheat porridge; stewed vegetables; apple mousse.
• Afternoon snack – dried fruit compote; dry biscuits.
• Dinner: boiled potatoes; steamed fish cakes; some fresh herbs.

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Day 6

• Breakfast: semolina milk porridge; a glass of weak green tea without sugar with crackers.
• Second breakfast: two soft-boiled eggs: a couple of pieces of toasted wheat bread.
• Lunch – vegetable soup with cereals; boiled chicken with fresh vegetable salad; fruit jelly.
• Afternoon snack – fruit soufflé.
• Dinner: minced meat with vegetables; cottage cheese pudding.

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Day 7

• Breakfast: pumpkin porridge with dried fruits; jelly with a toasted croissant.
• Second breakfast – cottage cheese and beetroot pancakes; a glass of tea.
• Lunch: oatmeal soup; beef stroganoff with boiled meat and wholemeal noodles; dried fruit compote.
• Afternoon snack – sweet fruits.
• Dinner: buckwheat porridge with stewed vegetables; soft-boiled egg; glass of tea.

The diet for heartburn by day shows how varied the menu can be for the above-mentioned ailment. Therefore, there is no need to be afraid of a dietary ration that can be tasty and nutritious.

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Heartburn Diet Recipes

Here are some recipes for dishes that can be prepared when heartburn occurs.

The recipes for the heartburn diet are simple and the dishes are prepared quite quickly.

• Strained pearl barley soup with vegetables

You need to boil pearl barley in water and then strain it. Stew chopped vegetables – carrots and potatoes – in water until done and then strain it. After that, mix the strained vegetables with the cereal, add salt and bring to a boil. When serving, you can add a piece of butter.

Ingredients: pearl barley – 25 g; potatoes – 75 g; carrots – 24 g; butter – 10 g.

• Boiled beef

The beef should be placed in a whole piece in a saucepan and filled with hot water so that it slightly covers the meat. The saucepan should be covered with a lid and put on the fire. When the water boils, it is necessary to remove the scale, then boil the beef on low heat for 1.5 - 2 hours. Half an hour before the end of cooking, peeled and chopped vegetables should be added to the meat - celery and parsley root, carrots, and salt to taste.

Ingredients: beef – 110 g; carrots – 10 g; celery root – 5 g; parsley root – 5 g.

• Lazy dumplings

The cottage cheese needs to be rubbed and mixed with eggs. Add sugar and salt to the resulting mixture. Then you need to form small sausages and cut into 7-8 pieces. Boil the water, and then throw the dumplings into the boiling water. After that, bring the water to a boil again and remove the pan from the stove. After five minutes, you need to take the dumplings out of the pan and serve, greased with a piece of butter.

Ingredients: cottage cheese – 100 g; wheat flour – 10 g; eggs – ¼ piece; butter – 10 g; sugar – 10 g.

• Vegetable puree

Boil the potatoes and cauliflower. Stew the carrots in a small amount of water. Then combine all the vegetables and mince or blend. Add melted butter or vegetable oil, salt.

Ingredients: potatoes – 60 g; cauliflower – 60 g; carrots – 60 g; butter or vegetable oil – 25 g.

• Carrot and apple soufflé

The carrots need to be cut into small pieces and stewed in water until done. Then the apples together with the cooked carrots need to be minced or chopped in a blender. Then you need to add semolina, sugar and raw yolk, melted butter and whipped egg white. The prepared mixture needs to be lightly kneaded and placed in a form greased with vegetable oil. The soufflé needs to be steamed.

Ingredients: carrots – 75 g; apples – 75 g; semolina – 10 g; butter – 15 g; egg – ½ piece; sugar – 10 g; vegetable oil – 1 tbsp.

A diet for heartburn is a necessary measure that needs to be taken when the symptoms of the disease progress. Of course, you will have to make some efforts to significantly improve your health. But feeling good is worth the time and willpower, which you can see for yourself by switching to a healthy diet.

What can you eat if you have heartburn?

This burning question is of interest to heartburn sufferers. Because the symptoms of discomfort that arise force even the most conservative people to change their diet in order to alleviate their own condition.

So, when you have heartburn, you can eat the following foods:

• Lean meats (chicken, rabbit, veal, turkey).
• Lean fish.
• Heavily boiled porridges – oatmeal, buckwheat, rice (including brown rice).
• Vegetable soups with cereals.
• Stewed, steamed and baked vegetables, such as baked potatoes.
• Dried wheat bread, bran bread and rusks made from these types of bread.
• Corn flour products, corn bread.
• Non-acidic, low-fat cottage cheese and unsalted, low-fat cheese (goat, feta, soy).
• Boiled eggs.
• Raw carrots and other raw vegetables rich in fiber.
• Butter in small quantities.
• Sometimes you can drink a little kefir.
• Of the fruits and melons, you can eat bananas, pears, sweet apples, melons, and watermelons.
• As for drinks, you should drink weakly alkaline mineral water without gas, weak tea without sugar, and sweet juices.

So, having answered the question: "What can you eat with heartburn?", we notice that the diet for heartburn is exclusively dietary. Because it is impossible to get rid of the symptoms of discomfort without improving the condition of the entire gastrointestinal tract.

What should you not eat if you have heartburn?

The list of foods prohibited for heartburn is as follows:

• Alcohol.
• Products that cause flatulence include milk, cabbage, legumes, rye bread, and cucumbers.
• Fresh bread and pastries, puff pastry products, cakes and pastries.
• Pasta.
• Mayonnaise, ketchup and other sauces.
• Fatty meat and minced meat.
• Animal fats – lard, sour cream, cream.
• First courses prepared with meat, fish or mushroom broth.
• Hot spices, seasonings and vegetables such as peppers, raw onions, radishes and so on.
• Smoked and canned products.
• Pickles and marinades.
• Fresh citrus fruits and juices made from them.
• Fermented milk products, sour cottage cheese.
• Salty cheese.
• Sugar and products containing it, as well as chocolate products.
• Strong tea, coffee and drinks containing caffeine.
• Carbonated drinks, lemonade and sparkling mineral water.
• Sour drink, kvass.
• Sour vegetables and greens, berries and fruits, such as sorrel, spinach, apples, cranberries, cherries.
• Tomatoes and products made with tomatoes – juices, pastes, sauces, borscht.
• Mushrooms and dishes prepared with them.
• Fast foods and convenience foods.
• Peppermint, even in chewing gum and medicines.

Of course, answering the question: "What can't you eat with heartburn?", you need to rid yourself of a large number of delicacies and favorite dishes. But improving your health is worth trying to take control of your own diet and thereby improve your quality of life.