This video is for you to watch, only if you have already done the test in the video about Is your stomach acid too high or too low and you discovered that you have high stomach acid.
Indications Of High Stomach Acid:
- Burning straight after eating
- Nausea and/or vomiting
- Burping
- Feeling of acid coming up when you are lying down
- Reflux
- Ulcers
- Food feels stuck in your throat
Causes Of High Stomach Acid:
- Stress
- Processed & refined foods
- Smoking
- Some Medications
- Alcohol
- Caffeine
- Smoking
- Fizzy drinks
- Over eating
- Low protein high carbohydrate diet
- Excessive exercise
- Being overweight
- During pregnancy
If you are taking medications check within the side effects section to see if high stomach acid is mentioned. If so please discuss with your Doctor as there may be an equally effective alternative you can take instead without the excess stomach acid.
It Is Important To Reduce Caffeine Intake Slowly
This is a really important point. If you are drinking loads of tea or coffee in a day if you suddenly stop you will experience caffeine withdrawal symptoms. These include headaches.
Your body will be reliant on the caffeine as a stimulant and so it is important to reduce your consumption slowly. At first you may want to drink smaller cups as regularly to get the sense of still drinking.
You will be aiming to drink 1-2 cups a day and all before midday ideally (this will be different if you work night shifts as your body clock and awake hours will be different) so start by cutting down the cups you have later in the day and work backwards.
If you as some people I know drink 8+ cups a day. Reduce your consumption as an example by 1 cup for 3-4 days then reduce by another cup until you reach the goal.
A Note About Chocolate
Chocolate, unless it’s 100%, will contain sugar. However reaching for a higher cocoa content needs to be considered if you drink caffeine. Chocolate contains caffeine too. Just thought you should be aware of that in case you didn’t know.
Also be aware that if you suddenly start getting chocolate cravings that this is a cunning plan that your body has put together to be able to get its caffeine fix by wooing you from one source to another.
In order to help to bring your stomach acid levels down:
- Eat good quality protein.
- Loads of vegetables.
- If you still want bread, pasta, rice replace them with wholegrain and wholemeal alternatives * Please see the bottom of this article for a side note about this.
- Consider other sources of carbohydrates that are healthier e.g. brown rice, quinoa, oats.
- Reduce alcohol and caffeine consumption.
- Drink more water.
- Make sure you have at least 3 hours from your last meal to going to bed.
- You may need to prop yourself up in bed to stop stomach acid moving upwards.
There are particular foods that are really helpful for helping to reduce stomach acid.
Basil – also helpful for reducing gas. Chew three or four leaves, or infuse the leaves and drink as a tea and drink
Other spices that are great as a tea include:
- Fennel.
- Cinnamon.
- Cumin.
These spices will release even more flavour if you gently toast them and crush them with the back of a spoon.
Another great addition is Ginger – as a tea or if you are really brave (I’m a wuss with spicy foods) then juice it and drink.
These are all excellent in food too so look out for recipes that include them. Other helpful additions are cardamom and cloves. A healthy meal that actively helps to your stomach is a real win win.
As a final mention, bananas. They are an excellent antacid so maybe adding this as one of your fruit portions will be a great way to round off a meal.
By going through the list above what things can you identify that you do regularly?
These would be the areas to focus on reducing e.g. stress (watch the mind body videos if you haven’t already) and/or significantly reduce or ideally cut out with regard to food and drinks that increase acid levels.
**Special Considerations About Bread
You can at least substitute white breads, pasta etc with brown alternatives. Just make sure that it is brown bread and not bread that has been dyed brown (I know!).
If your bread says wholemeal or wholegrain it will be just that. If the bread says brown read the label. If you see caramel listed as an ingredient then the it will have been dyed brown.
Milling to produce white bread removes the outer coat and wheatgerm which means removing B vitamins. Millers have to replace the lost B vitamins which is where you see the addition of Thiamin and Niacin. So it makes sense to switch to wholemeal bread. Plus slice for slice, wholemeal bread contains twice as much iron, three times as much zinc, and four times as much fibre as standard white bread. So it makes sense to make the switch.
Just make sure you’re not overloading even if you make the change. Wheat products three meals a day or more is still too much if you are suffering with your digestion.
