The Beginner's Guide to Curing Heartburn

In this post, I wanted to go over all of the basics behind stopping heartburn. If you have dealt with heartburn before, you are no doubt interested in learning the basics. I would recommend reading over this beginner's guide and learning a little bit about each way you can stop heartburn before continuing on to other guides.

Step 1: Weight Loss

If you want to tackle your and acid reflux for the long haul, you need to think about losing some weight. Being overweight is like signing your life away to acid reflux, and it also causes a lto of other health brpoblems that you would be best just to avoid in the first place.

Naturally, this may not always be the case if you were pregnant; weight loss may just not be possible at that time. Also if you are already a healthy weight, then obviously weight loss is not going to help. However, you need to be honest with yourself about what a "healthy weight" really is - a lot of people like to think that they are at a "healthy weight" just because they are comfortable with their own bodies. While I am happy that you are able to accept yourself, just because your brain does not offer an objection to being fat, your stomach might! Acid reflux and belly fat go hand-in-hand.

Step 2: Plan Your Acid Reflux Diet

The next thing you need to do in order to stop heartburn is to plan out an acid reflux diet. You want to avoid all the usual suspects, such as citrus, alcohol, tobacco, coffee, mint, tomatoes, sugar, and chocolate. While I know a lot of these foods are delicious, they are not the best for acid reflux!

Step 3: Don't Just Change What You Eat, But How And When You Eat As Well

One of the biggest mistakes people make when changing their diet is to just change foods while completely ignoring some of the other great ways to slow down acid reflux through their food. Research has shown that chewing your food more completely actually reduces reflux rates. As a result, you always want to take time to eat slowly.

Additionally, since heartburn at night is such a problem, make dinner the last meal of the day. You do not have to have that late night snack! Skip it and you will thank me later as you will have to deal with way less heartburn!