Instant Heartburn Relief Naturally

Heartburn can be a monster : a raging dragon in our gut blasting out ferocious flames that leave our poor old food pipe agonisingly scorched. And fighting the dragon is hard.

Over the counter heartburn remedies and anti-acid treatments silence the monster temporarily but are not meant to be taken long term.

And lots of home remedies and anti-acid diets claim to be the silver bullet for instant heartburn relief naturally but don’t help. In fact, they leave us utterly confused as they recommend totally different weapons to fight heartburn.

Some anti-heartburn diets say starve the monster by avoiding all acidic food whilst others recommend drinking highly acidic vinegar and eating fermented food which is also acidic.

So what on earth are we meant to do?

Can we ever find instant heartburn relief naturally that really works?

Well, yes we can.

But only if we change the way we think about the monster in our gut and recognise we should be taming our stomach acid dragon and not fighting it.

I know that sounds folksy but stick with me because there’s some serious science in it that can help us combine apparently conflicting natural heartburn remedies for real longterm relief.

The next two sections dive into the real causes of heartburn. It is all helpful stuff but it is long so if you want to take action fast jump straight down to the Natural Heartburn Remedies.

PLEASE NOTE: I am not a doctor and this post does not provide qualified medical advice. Heartburn can have serious medical consequences and you should always seek medical advice if it persists or recurs frequently or is associated with nausea, vomiting, difficulty swallowing or weight loss.

Taming The Stomach Acid Dragon

So first things first : the stomach acid dragon is NOT our enemy and is actually on our side.

Stomach acid is meant to be incredibly acidic.

It naturally has a ph of 1 to 2 which is up there with battery acid and vinegar!!

The acid does two enormous jobs. It digests food and fights off unwanted bacteria. Lowering stomach acidity with long term heartburn medication can let dangerous bacteria such as Clostridium difficile and Streptococcaceae from the throat into our digestive system.

So we do need our stomach acid dragon and we need it to fight fiercely invading bugs.

But we can NOT let the dragon out of our stomach because it will scorch everything in sight. It has to stay locked behind a small but very smart gateway to our gut.

This gateway is a little set of muscles called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) connecting our food pipe and stomach. Working properly it lets food enter but doesn’t let the dragon out.

We get heartburn when the gate fails and escaping stomach acids burn our delicate food pipe.

Research suggests various things cause the gateway to fail and this explains why different people can get effective heartburn relief from apparently contradictory remedies.

We’ll come to the different causes of heartburn and different natural remedies that help, in a moment, but first we have to look at the damage the dragon causes when it escapes.

Both stomach acid – and some Doctors claim the digestive enzyme pepsin needed to break down proteins – can damage our food pipe (oesophagus) when they flare out of our gut past the LES. This damage kicks off a vicious cycle. An inflamed food pipe increases the chances the gateway will fail :

Esophageal mucosal inflammation may affect nerves and muscle that alter LES function and esophageal body motility. A vicious cycle of inflammation and impaired motility may cause progressive disease.

Nature.com

So to get heartburn relief naturally – instantly and long term – we need natural remedies that :

1. Repair the damage to our food pipe the stomach acid dragon has caused
2. Mend the gateway
3. And tame & nurture the dragon so it can fight the good fight for us safe behind the gateway and not repeatedly trample it down.

Again, that sounds super folksy but in practice it lets us combine different natural remedies and diet advice from both otolaryngologists – ENT doctors – and gastroenterologists – digestive specialists – PLUS some home remedies that do just work for some people.

In the next section I’ll cover the different causes of LES failure and heartburn – many of them involve dragon abuse!! – and then DIY remedies for instant heartburn relief naturally.

Feel free to skip onto the natural heartburn remedies but understanding all the different causes of heartburn can help us put together the most potent personal cocktail of remedies that will work best for us.

Different Causes Of Heartburn

The fundamental causes of heartburn vary.

Everyone with heartburn has problems with the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) connecting their stomach and food pipe but the causes of those problems may not be the same.

For some people it can be one single, simple cause that responds well to one simple remedy. But for many people there are a bunch of different causes that all need to be tackled.

And most of these causes involve torturing our poor old stomach dragon in evil ways. Unfortunately, too much advice on heartburn relief disguises what we do to our stomach.

We are often told acidic, spicy and fatty food “cause” heartburn but this is misleading.

Mediterranean diets full of acidic food didn’t used to cause heartburn. And neither did traditionally spicy Indian diets. Nor classic French diets rich in cheese, butter and cream.

The vicious ways we torture our stomach dragon come – mostly – from our modern industrial diet. The problem isn’t – most of the time – certain food groups, it is:

1. What’s done to our food
2. How we eat it
3. And how much of it we eat.

Use the list below to identify all the ways – some of them surprising – you could be torturing or neglecting your stomach dragon to work out the key causes and triggers of heartburn for you.

You can then use that personal checklist to identify the most effective remedies that will give instant and longterm heartburn relief naturally.

Processed Food

Most of us chuck huge amounts of processed food at our poor old dragon.

It’s quick, cheap, convenient and unbelievably addictive.

But much of it has almost no nutritional value and actually encourages us to over eat. And even the “healthy stuff” is full of synthetic chemicals our stomach struggles with. They can contribute to inflammation and reduce good gut bacteria.

Inflammation is closely connected with heartburn. Inflammation stops the LES sphincter muscles from opening and closing properly and so stomach acid escapes.

Our stomach uses good gut bacteria – along side stomach acid – to digest food. Without these friendly bacteria our stomach produces more acid to break down the processed food.

An over active stomach and inflamed LES muscles that can’t close properly, are a lethal combination.

For many of us, highly processed food is the big underlying cause of heartburn.

Acid reflux specialists who successfully relieve long term heartburn through diet changes believe their patient data shows cutting out processed food is essential for heartburn relief.

Food Preservatives

Since the 1970s more and more food has used ascorbic acid and citric acid as preservatives. They help protect food against some very serious bugs but are obviously highly acidic.

Some ENT specialists – such as Jonathon Aviv – believe these preservatives contribute to the big rise in heartburn.

But traditionally we used vinegar and acidic fermented food as preservatives without causing heartburn so again it is not straightforwardly the acid on its own that is the cause. The problem may be the sheer amount of food these acidic preservatives are now in including most sliced meat, processed cheese, cakes and bread like this supposedly healthy wholemeal loaf …

INGREDIENTS: Wholemeal British Wheat Flour, Water, Wheat Gluten, Yeast, Rapeseed Oil, Salt, Spirit Vinegar, Soya Flour, Preservative: Calcium Propionate; Caramelised Sugar, Emulsifier: Mono- and Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids; Palm Oil, Flour Treatment Agent: Ascorbic Acid.

The problem of using acid as a preservative in non acidic foods like bread is that it then has to be whacked full of sugar to make it taste halfway decent and sugar contributes to heartburn big time.

Sugar & Fructose Syrup

Eating lots of sugary food can cause inflammation all over our body including our digestive system. If an inflamed stomach puts extra pressure on an inflamed LES sphincter it is more likely to fail.

People with diabetes are more likely to have heartburn and it is suspected very high sugar levels may also do nerve damage that stops the LES from closing properly.

Much food now is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) rather than traditional sugar. HFCS seems to prevent the LES from closing properly and actually contains sulphuric acid.

It is basically a nightmare for heartburn.

Weight

Being overweight does increase our risk of heartburn. Slow digestion and over eating may put pressure on the LES sphincter but the underlying connection might actually be inflammation from processed food and sugar and from constipation.

Constipation

Our gut can get into a right old vicious circle from constipation – a highly processed diet and being overweight can cause constipation which in turn slows down our digestion which makes us more likely to be overweight!!

In turn constipation can contribute to heart burn because it slows down the emptying of our stomach resulting in bloating and too much pressure on the LES from below.

Sodas & Soft Drinks

So many of us love sodas and soft drinks.

But they are poison for our stomach dragon.

They are incredibly acidic – cola has a ph of 2 – and trigger a big release of the enzyme pepsin we need to digest meat and dairy. Sodas are obviously also full of sugar or sweeteners both of which are inflammatory.

So they basically give us an inflamed stomach full of excess pepsin that is highly likely to surge past our inflamed LES and burn our food pipe. Sodas and soft drinks trigger heartburn for 85% of long term sufferers.

Fruit Juice

Sadly, fruit juice causes some of the same problems.

We think a huge glass of breakfast OJ is healthy but we can have too much of a good thing.

It’s not the citrus fruit itself that causes heartburn. It’s how we consume it today.

Slowly digesting one orange we have to chew is not the same as blasting our stomach with gallons of acidic liquid. Glugging juice can also give us an inflammatory sugar rush because our overall sugar levels are already so high.

Alcohol

Alcohol in moderation does not cause heartburn.

There’s plenty of evidence wine can be good for our gut.

But many of us do not drink in moderation. Traditionally a glass of wine was 125ml and a glass every other day caused no digestive problems. But today’s glasses are twice the size and we end up necking a week’s worth in one sitting.

It’s no wonder our stomach dragon suffers.

Putting intense pressure on our digestion with big weekly drinking sessions can be a big problem for heartburn because once our LES fails, damage to our food pipe makes it more likely to fail again.

Deep Fried Food

Deep fried food is a big trigger for heartburn. We are told slowly digested fat is the problem.

But treating all fats as the same is again misleading. We don’t digest synthetic fats in the same way as other fats and some highly processed cooking oils can cause inflammation.

Although naturally fatty foods can be very good for us and do not on their own cause heartburn, our stomach dragon does need a break.

Much of our modern industrial diet comes from a high fat European diet. But the traditional European diet was highly seasonal. Europeans ate loads of fat in the winter to see off the cold when there was not much else around but then fasted religiously – avoiding fat – at the end of winter before eating a plant rich diet from spring to fall.

Chocolate

Chocolate triggers heartburn attacks for an estimated 68% of sufferers.

The connection between chocolate and heartburn is theobromine.

In small doses it is why we all love chocolate because it actually makes us feel better : it is a natural vasilodator that opens our blood vessels and stops our muscles from tensing up.

Unfortunately, gorged daily in industrial size chocolate bars it causes our LES sphincter muscles to relax too much so stomach acid and pepsin escape into our food pipe.

Yet again we have transformed something good in moderation into tummy torture.

Coffee & Caffeine

Coffee and other caffeinated drinks are significant triggers for heartburn.

Coffee is not highly acidic but caffeine very quickly triggers the release of lots of gastric acid in our stomach.

That can be useful for digestion. A small coffee after a meal – French style – can help digest food smoothly. Or a little stand up espresso – Italian style – early morning can help clear bowels from the previous day.

Blasting our poor stomach dragon with gallons of high caffeine coffee all day long is disastrous. Of course, it will belch out food pipe scorching flames, what do we expect?

And to make matters worse coffee leaves our LES gateway wide open because like chocolate it contains the muscle relaxing theobromine. It is a lethal combination for us and our dragon.

Tomatoes & Peppers

Tomatoes and peppers can also be major triggers for heartburn.

We are often told acidity is the problem but it is not the whole story.

Both plants contain solanine – as do potatoes & aubergines – which seems to be inflammatory for some people. It is a common trigger for inflammatory conditions such as psoriasis – it is definitely a problem for me – and arthritis.

But again the problem may be excess.

Lots of us eat huge amounts of tomatoes – and potatoes – at the expense of a wider range of vegetables and we eat most of our tomatoes pulped in highly concentrated tomato juice.

We also now eat tomatoes all year round. Even in Italy, tomatoes would traditionally have only been eaten seasonally. Seasonal breaks may have eased issues with solanine.

Onions & Garlic

Spicy food is a stereotype “cause” of heartburn.

But for most people the trigger is specifically onions and garlic.

This is unfortunate because they have all sorts of antibiotic and anti-fungal benefits and are good for heart health. But their anti-inflammatory powers can leave the LES too chilled out and open.

As we will see in the natural heartburn remedies below, many people get relief by avoiding onions and garlic whilst they are healing the damage to their food pipe but are able to enjoy their health benefits again once they cut out enormous over consumption of coffee and chocolate.

Nuts

Vicious torture of our stomach dragon, day in, day out from such high volumes of processed food, sugar, caffeine, synthetic fats and chocolate sadly seems to be giving us – or at least contributing to – problems with other food we’ve previously digested well.

Severe nut allergies in children have risen sharply and some nuts – especially macadamia and almonds – now trigger heartburn in an estimated 40% of long term heart burn sufferers. This could be an inflammatory response to the nuts.

Eating Fruit All Year Round

Fruit is obviously great for us being chock full of all sorts of vitamins and enjoyed moderately fruit does not cause heartburn even though it is all pretty acidic and some of it very acidic.

But once we have heartburn – from torturing our tummy – and have damaged our food pipe fruit acid can make it worse.

Fruits with a ph of 2 to 3 – lemons, limes, blue plums, some grapes, gooseberries & cranberries – may be a particular problem because this is the ph at which pepsin is released.

Traditionally, we could have gorged on blue plums until our stomach was sore and it not be an ongoing problem because they were only in fruit for a short period of time. Here in the UK fresh fruit were only available from June to October so if we over did it in the summer we had the rest of the year to recover.

We can now gorge on all sorts of fruit all year round and thanks to the wonders of the modern blender can devour masses of them at great speed in smoothies. Yet again in our excess, we have transformed a virtue into a problem.

As with so many things in modern life we need to rediscover some balance and moderation.

Skipping Lent

Traditional European diets weren’t perfectly balanced. There was both famine and excess.

But the saving grace for many people’s health every year may well have been Lent.

An annual six week period of eating simply and avoiding rich food basically gave everyone’s stomach a rest and chance to reset itself. Most of us have never had that, so the problems foods cause in excess build up and up.

We will see in the natural heartburn remedies below that eating a very simple diet for four to six weeks can give instant and longterm relief for heartburn naturally.

Antibiotics

Stomach acid is the major defence in our gut against foodborne infection but it is not our only one.

We are also defended by friendly gut bacteria that can survive in stomach acid but cannot survive repeated antibiotics.

Low levels of good gut bacteria seem to make us more vulnerable to overall inflammation in our digestive system which both increases pressure on the LES sphincter and undermines its own ability to open and close effectively.

The Lonely Dragon

Over use of antibiotics has left our stomach acid dragon a lonely figure fighting infection on its own.

And we have made the dragon lonelier still by removing – in the last 50 years – most of the good bacteria rich food such as natural yoghurt, cheeses and fermented foods – that could have provided new friends to fight infection by its side.

Bacterial Infection

Recent research suggests some specific bacterial infections causes heartburn in some people. It is claimed certain bacteria …

“… are capable of triggering nitric oxide induced relaxation of the LES,¹⁵ in effect, hindering its ability to sufficiently close and prevent gastric reflux”.

Integrative Medicine : A Clinician’s Journal

The research is new and so far limited but doctors have successfully treated people with long term heartburn with specific probiotics. Some researchers compare this treatment to the discovery in 1980 that the h pylori bacteria caused ulcers. But other doctors believe bacteria may only be a significant cause for certain people.

Simple Inflammation

We have now seen a whole host of complicated and interconnected problems that trigger heartburn.

But sometimes there can be an incredibly simple cause.

That is very basic inflammation of the LES sphincter which stops the muscles from opening and closing properly and as we will see in the remedies below it can be very quickly solved for instant heartburn relief naturally.

How Do You Get Rid Of Heartburn Fast Naturally?

Getting rid of heartburn fast naturally – almost always – involves 3 separate steps :

1. Giving our food pipe a break from acid attacks & chance to heal.
2. Healing the LES muscles between our food pipe and stomach so they close properly.
3. Improving our overall digestive system so it stops putting so much upward pressure on those muscles.

Some nutritionists are very keen to jump straight to step 3 but whilst our food pipe is inflamed it is very hard for the LES muscles to function effectively so it makes sense to heal the damaged food pipe first.

We basically need to put out the ongoing wild fires before we start rebuilding.

Luckily, there are some quick old fashioned heartburn remedies and simple diet changes that can help us do that fast.

Quick Old Fashioned Heartburn Remedies

These quick old fashioned heartburn remedies won’t solve the causes of heartburn but they can all minimise attacks so they give our food pipe that break it needs to start healing before we move onto the real remedies :

Bicarbonate Of Soda

Half a teaspoon of alkaline bicarb / baking soda which has a ph of 8-9 in a glass of water can give short term heartburn relief by neutralising food acidity.

Honey

A teaspoon of proper honey seems to heal some food pipe damage and reduce inflammation.

Chewing Gum

Chewing gum – sugar free & not peppermint – for 30 minutes after a meal has been shown to reduce heartburn attacks after eating.

Chewing Smaller Meals Properly

Chewing food well reduces the amount of gastric acid required to break food down.

Standing After Meals

Standing after meals – though not being too energetic – can ease digestion and simply through gravity reduce upward pressure on our LES muscles.

Eating 3 Hours Before Bed

If we are still digesting food at bedtime stomach acid is much more likely to escape from an LES sphincter that can’t close properly.

Sleeping With Upper Body Raised On A Head Wedge

Sleeping with our upper body raised on a head wedge can again simply through gravity help to stop stomach acid pushing past our LES muscles.

Remember these old fashioned remedies can give instant heartburn relief naturally but they are short term remedies to help us move onto the next stage in healing. They are not a long term fix.

What To Drink For Heartburn

We’ve seen that sodas, fruit juice, alcohol and coffee can all be a nightmare for heartburn.

We can obviously just drink water instead.

But luckily there are low acid alternatives we can drink for heartburn that are easy to digest, soothe our food pipe and neutralise acid escaping our stomach. So again they can hold off heartburn attacks and give our food pipe time to heal. They can be very valuable when heartburn makes eating painful.

Aloe Vera Juice

Like honey, aloe vera juice may reduce inflammation and help heal scorched food pipes.

Intuitively, this makes sense as both honey and aloe vera are natural remedies for sunburn and some limited research suggests aloe vera juice relieves heartburn symptoms short term as much as heartburn medicines omeprazole and ranitidine.

However, it can have side effects, conflict with other medicines and cause allergic reactions. So it should only be taken with care short term whilst tackling underlying causes of heartburn.

Aloe vera juice is widely available in health food stores.

Green Smoothies, Juice & Soups

Most green vegetables have low acidity with a ph above 5.5 or even over 6.

So sipping greens soups, smoothies and juices can give heartburn relief. They are easily digested so won’t generate lots of stomach acid and won’t aggravate the food pipe.

Green vegetables are also great for blood sugar levels, constipation, overall inflammation and weight loss so can start tackling these underlying causes of heartburn.

Vegetable Waters

Celery and cucumber water has low acidity, requires little effort to digest and are high in water so dilute stomach acid.

Melon, Mango & Papaya Smoothies

Most fruit is very acidic but melon, mango & papaya all have a ph over 5. Honey dew melon in particular is nearer 7 so can be a good way to get some vitamins without triggering heartburn.

Herbal Teas

I am a big fan of herbal teas as natural remedies. They ease everything from bloating and constipation to colds and sore throats but are tricky with heartburn as they can cause LES muscles to relax too much letting stomach acid escape.

Peppermint tea should definitely be avoided for that reason. Ginger and chamomile are often recommended as soothing herbal teas for heartburn but may have the same effect.

Licorice tea is a traditional heartburn remedy believed – like honey – to help protect and heal the damaged mucous lining of our food pipe. It shouldn’t be drunk excessively or long term and may conflict with other medicines but over a few weeks may give critical relief.

Coconut Water

Unsweetened coconut water is slightly acidic but like honey and aloe vera is another natural sunburn remedy that can also sooth burning in the food pipe and overall inflammation.

Alkaline Water

Some ENT experts claim alkaline water with a ph of 8.8 can neutralise pepsin the enzyme they believe causes most damage to the oesophagus. Other medics caution that the stomach may produce more gastric acid in response.

Does Milk Help Heartburn?

A glass of milk is an old fashioned heartburn remedy for soothing our food pipe but since dairy fats got such bad names for themselves people question whether milk truly helps heartburn.

It is suggested milk triggers more stomach acid as we struggle to digest it and that the natural lactic acid in milk may cause inflammation. My general view is that dairy fats are not the problem and that industrial milk from stressed cattle full of hormones and antibiotics is.

But if you find full fat milk does give you stomach ache & indigestion then it is worth trying low fat milk to sooth your food pipe and get short term heartburn relief naturally.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is a controversial heartburn remedy.

Some people swear it gave them instant relief from long term heartburn and got them off anti-acids whilst other people find the high acidity makes their heartburn worse.

Whether it works really depends on the underlying causes of your heartburn.

If you have got a pretty healthy lifestyle and have not been torturing your tummy with all these different causes of heartburn you may just have inflamed LES sphincter muscles and apple cider vinegar does seem to be very effective at targeting inflammation in specific muscles.

Personally, I found it helps chronic back pain in my piriformis muscle.

But remember it doesn’t work for everyone and many of the people who take it have actually also taken the next step and changed their diet to stop torturing their stomach.

Probiotics

Probiotics have become very fashionable for all sorts of chronic conditions and some research does suggest specific probiotics e.g. IsoThrive can successfully treat long term heartburn patients.

There is not evidence yet that they work for most people and may only help people with a specific bacterial infection rather than wider causes.

Stop Torturing Your Stomach

Unfortunately, none of these natural heartburn remedies can give heartburn relief long term if we do not stop torturing our stomachs and burning our food pipes.

We have seen some causes of heart burn are otherwise healthy food with nutritional benefits

But the four major ways we torture our tummy have no nutritional benefit and just aren’t worth the agony and long term health risks of heart burn :

• Sodas : stop drinking all sodas.
• Caffeine : reduce caffeine signifcantly but withdraw slowly as side effects are excruciating.
• Processed food : avoid hard to digest processed food which is full of acidic preservatives as much as you can. Food to avoid includes :
  • Junk food & take aways
  • Mass produced bread – we can make our own homemade bread very easily and cheaply.
  • Processed meats – especially slices, strips and nuggets of meat and mass produced sausages
  • Synthetic cheeses – cheese slices, Velveeta, easy melt cheese, cheese strings.
• Sugar : cut out added sugar and sweeteners.

Massively reducing these four in our diet can

• Reduce acid aggravation of our food pipe
• Help our LES open and close properly
• Relieve the constipation, bloating and inflammation that puts so much pressure on our LES

Six Week Acid Reflux Diet

Acidic food itself isn’t the fundamental cause of heartburn. We have always eaten acidic foods and they have nutritional benefits we cannot easily get elsewhere.

But once our LES fails and stomach acid has burned our food pipe the acidic food aggravates the problem. The more inflamed our food pipe, the less likely our LES will close properly.

Many people find a four to six week no acid diet can break this cycle.

Two ENT specialists Jonathon Aviv and Jamie Koufman have developed short term low acid diets that do just that. The simple principles are :

1. Cut out sodas, processed foods, caffeine & sugar.
2. Don’t eat chocolate.
3. Don’t drink fruit juice.
4. Go dry for 6 weeks.
5. Avoid tomatoes, peppers, garlic & onions.
6. Avoid vinegar, pickles & condiments e.g. ketchup.
7. Only eat fruit with a ph greater than 5 i.e. ripe bananas & mangoes, cantaloupe, honey dew melon, papaya, water melon, lychees.
8. Enjoy loads of fresh or frozen vegetables especially green ones but avoid anything canned.
9. Poach, steam, grill & bake meat and fish simply with moderate amounts of olive oil.
10. Eat butter and pure hard cheese but avoid vegetable oil spreads and processed cheese products.

(If you suspect you have a sensitivity to e.g. nuts or dairy, also avoid these).

OK so it looks hard core!!

But we’re not ditching food groups – you can eat protein, carbs & fats – and it is only for 6 weeks. That is the length of the traditional Lent fast. It is the time we need to heal.

The old fashioned heartburn remedies can also help eliminate attacks over this period as can sticking to gentle rather than hard core exercise.

By minimising acid reflux as much as possible over this period many people are able to heal their food pipe and their LES sphincter. You can read one woman’s story here.

Heartburn Maintenance Diet

The 6 week acid reflux diet resets our digestive system and heals our food pipe and LES.

The next step is to reintroduce a range of healthy more acidic food in moderation in a heartburn maintenance diet.

The key guidelines in the heartburn maintenance diet to prevent heartburn attacks are :

• Keep avoiding processed food, sodas & sugar.
• Stay off fruit juice.
• Avoid citrus fruit.
• Enjoy a range of other fruit in moderation but eat with something else e.g. berries with yoghurt and not in smoothies.
• Reintroduce other triggers slowly one by one in small quantities to see impact and then enjoy in moderation so they continue to be a delight and don’t become a torture :
  • Coffee – equivalent of one or two expressos a day
  • Chocolate – a few blocks of dark chocolate a few times a week
  • Tomatoes & peppers – only base a few meals a week around them and use fresh tomatoes if possible
  • Garlic & onion – use celery, fennel & other herbs or garlic and onion powders as alternatives in some meals
  • Alcohol – pick less acidic options like this vodka or whisky rather than wine
• Continue to eat a wide range of fresh and frozen – not canned – vegetables.

Once we have got ourselves to a steady state where we can enjoy most food in moderation without triggering heartburn attacks we can really start to focus on feeding our gut and strengthening our whole digestive system.

Healthy Gut Diet

As we saw right back at the beginning, we depend on healthy stomach acid to digest complex nutritious food and fight infection. Our fiery stomach acid dragon truly is on our side.

But even when we have stopped torturing our dragon, we do need to give it more help fighting infection by significantly increasing the levels and range of friendly bacteria in our gut.

Plenty of friendly gut bacteria can hugely reduce the inflammation and bloating that puts so much pressure on our LES. Eating a wide range of vegetables is a great way to increase them.

But we do also need to add some fermented food. Now, obviously many of these are acidic so we need to take it one step at a time and not rush out and buy a load of expensive stuff.

Check out this big list of gut healthy food for more ideas but eating a little of a few of these every day can transform your digestion. Just remember take it slowly.

• Cottage cheese
• Natural yoghurt with no added sugar or preservatives
• Kefir
• Blue cheese
• Miso
• Tempeh
• Kombucha
• Kimchi
• Sauerkraut
• Pickles

Fermented foods for gut health have become very fashionable. They seem to have a huge part to play in our overall health but as we have seen over and over again balance is key.

Kimchi, kombucha and the like are acidic and can aggravate a damaged food pipe. Don’t let people rush you into taking them before your body is ready. You may need to spend more time gently nursing your food pipe and LES sphincter with the acid reflux and heartburn maintenance diets.

But once our food pipe is healed and fully protected from future scorching by an LES sphincter that opens and closes properly we can face everything the world has to throw at us with our very own fiery – but friendly – dragon on our side!!

I really do hope the information and tips in this post help you find instant and long term heartburn relief naturally. Please do let me know what works for you and what doesn’t.

And for more practical help with digestive problems do check out my other natural remedies for gut health including :

• Quick Natural Bloating Remedies
• Natural Gastritis Treatments
• Quick Constipation Relief Naturally
• Natural Cystitis Remedies
• Natural Remedies For Stomach Ache
• Restoring Gut Health

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