Veggie recipes for reflux

[HoneyButterPopcorn]

So I've been diagnosed with reflux (lucky me) and all the lovely food particularly enjoy apparently make things worse - tomatoes, onions, hard cheese (oh come on!), crisps, cucumber (yes even cucumber)... alcohol, kiwifruit, lemons...

I don't eat meat (or grapefruit) but the rest on the Nono list is what I eat loads of (which might be one of the reasons for the reflux).

Anyone found a good recipe book or website? I'm also trying to loose weight (thyroid underactive so I've got that going on too...).

Bland foods are your friend. Rice, pasta, toast. I’d have cooked, non-acidic vegetables, like steamed broccoli rather than say a ratatouille. Mostly though it’s trial and error. What works for you may not work for someone else as you have different triggers.

Speaking as someone who has a GI condition (not reflux, but I have had it quite badly in the past), a lot of digestive stuff is lifestyle related: stress and alcohol (and other substances if you use them). Removing major stressors, building in better ways to deal with stress and anxiety, and stopping drinking improved my GI issues by probably 90% without having to change a whole lot with my diet.

The thing about reflux is that you will have to figure out where your triggers are and what makes it worse. For me, for example, eating beef AND carbs was, for a long time, a no no. Plate of fries? Fine. Steak? Fine. But Steak frites? NOT fine. So you'll need to do a little experimenting to see how you feel. It's worth getting proper nutritional advice - the generic NHS advice is a bit black and white.

Also, portion control and quantity were always v important. Eating small amounts regularly, generally was better than a large meal.

Tomato and other acidic fruit and veg seems to be a marmite one - some nutritionists recommend eating them and some don't. I can't remember the reasoning but it made sense and I don't recall ever being someone who suffered with things like lemon - which I love but I did limit tomatoes a bit - a big tomatoey sauce could make things worse, yes. Apples and pears were very helpful for me and made me feel better.

Cheese - I stopped eating all cows milk cheese for a few years but found sheep/goats milk cheese didn't bother me. One of my favourite memories from that time when things were still really bad is a glorious meal out at a fancy french restaurant that ended with a full cheese board and I was able to tuck in with abandon as so much of it was sheep or goat!

On a day to day basis, carbs like rice definitely the best option. Pasta in small amounts. Potatoes, up to a point - be careful with portion control. Weirdly, I found crappy white bread better for me than good quality bread -I think because harder to digest food activated the acid production.

As a vegetarian, what about things like stuffed butternut or mushrooms? You could try a risotto but limit the cheese (and/or stick to non-cow cheese in small amounts if that works for you).

I have always found salads really good for my digestion and I eat them in all kinds of ways. Again, you can experiment to see if, for example, you can tolerate small amounts of acidic foods balanced by the rest of the ingredients.

Thanks for the tips - sounds like I'll need to trial things out to see what works. I absolutely love tomatoes and have been trying to cut down carbs (I have ballooned with my thyroid), so I'm juggling that too.

Food just doesn't interest me any more. It doesn't taste great now, gives me pains in the stomach and it's a chore. And I used to be completely food obsessed - loved cooking and baking, trying out new recipes and ingredients. Now I'm 'feh, I suppose I have to eat something...'.

I used to be 3 stone overweight (2 years ago), also had bad reflux, every night.

I stopped eating UPF (cakes, biscuits, readymeals, ham, crisps, etc), also stopped rice and pasta and had potatoes/sweet potatoes instead. Whole foods only. Continued to drink wine. Did 10,000 steps a day. No calorie counting.

The weight fell off. But, also, unexpectedly, the reflux completely vanished, after only a week or two. It's never returned (I still avoid UPF).

(Edited to add, I'm post-menopause).

Oh wow that's amazing!

Ok fellow refluxers... any alternatives to coffee? I do like a cup in the morning but have to admit it's not agreeing with me. Even water in the morning hits my stomach badly...

Tea I'm afraid.

Also, something I did at my worst - try hot water and lemon first thing. THEN, 30. minutes later you can have your usual tea or coffee.

Oh I used to have hot water with a slice of lemon and some ginger first thing - I stopped because I assumed the lemon was a nono (especially on an empty stomach) but even a glass of water first thing 'fires up the engine' as it were...

I'm interested in this as am recovering from h pylori infection and while I feel a lot better I'm still getting reflux.

I've been avoiding alcohol, spicy food and things like citrus/anything acidic. I had a bad reaction to brie the other day which I was surprised about as I didn't think cheese would be a problem.

Chocolate also sadly seems to be a culprit. Had a small amount of chocolate earlier and had hours of reflux. Just had a big meal out of steak and chips and feel fine! It's really quite odd trying to figure out what is a trigger.

Do you take any medication? I'm still on PPIs while recovering from the h pylori and also take Gaviscon Advance at night and if I need it during the day.

I also find the mornings the hardest and yes drinking water on an empty stomach is painful! I find having a few oat biscuits works best in the morning. Or something plain and carby. It's so hard trying to manage this and also eat healthily!

I didn't find citrus a trigger. So if you do, it might ot work for you. I would be hesitant about the ginger though.

Veggie low acid things: Google ‘nomato’ sauce recipes - usually bake various non-tomato vegetables and blend. Have with pasta; butter bean casserole with stock and chunky veg and dumplings; veg gyoza/ momos (itsu/aldi do a version you can microwave); shredded cooked veg in rice paper wraps; vegetarian haggis; low fat banana bread; use nutritional yeast instead of cheese

On the upside - I've been having fun with litmus paper! DS (chemistry undergrad) and I were discussing my awful diet and he joked about getting some test strips.

I'm on medication at the moment - for a month. It's slowly easing but still feel like I'm being throttled most of the day. The better I eat the less pain I am in from the stomach and up my oesophagus, and the less sick I feel in general, so that's good I suppose.

It sucks though, really sucks! I suppose there are some foods that will be more likely to cause problems - sadly I love pickles, tomatoes, coffee, wine, mint, chocolate - show me a list if feed they advise you don't eat and that's pretty much what I eat!

I have looked at lots of websites and books with pH lists and diets and they are often contradictory. Is there a definitive list anywhere?

Do you know what's causing your reflux? I've been to gp and no known cause. I suspect it's gastroparesis, getting worse as I get older. Which means avoid foods that need lots of chewing at supper time eg animal fat, high fibre foods eg brown bread, dairy... chew or blend your food!

Take time everyday to do yoga or deep breathing exercises which stimulate your vagus nerve.

Sorry no easy answers, it sucks, and I eat Gaviston like sweets (making the pharma companies v rich)

I think this is the thing - one theory says eat foods high in PH and others say the opposite. The nutritionist I spoke with years and years ago said that it does seem to depend on the individual - you have to figure out if your body does better with acids or without. Basically, all of those things on your list, I can largely eat. Wine and spirits was tricky when things were really bad and I slowly reintroduced wine but didn't drink spirits at all for years. I almost never have flare ups any more - I take omeprazole regularly - but had one the other day after I ate pizza, and way too much of it. Bread products have always been something I have to be careful of, so combined with the cheese - I suspect that was the problem, exacerbated by eating it all on a very empty stomach. I think my body just went, "What the ACTUAL F+++++"

Similarly, dark chocolate or high quality chocolate has largely been fine for me but it's only in the last year or two that I've allowed myself the occasional kitkat as those sort of bars are a disaster. And I still don't eat Snickers bars, much to my sadness, as they are my favourite. I occasionally let myself have one or those mini ones if I'm at a kid's party.

It reminds me of IBS - once had two women working for me, both with IBS.

One had awful diarrhoea, and the other was always constipated. Their symptoms were very different but they had the same diagnosis!

I was thinking of seeing a nutritionist but first keep a diary of what I eat when. I find small portions work best and at work a plain old baked sweet potato with either cottage cheese or soft goat cheese works best with a tiny drip of olive oil for taste.

Not sure of the cause - but I distinctly remember being at a birthday party at primary school and announcing that I lived salt and vinegar crisps so much I wanted to work as a taster in a crisp factory when I grow up. Miss Snooty teachers daughter the know it all told me that of if I ate too much vinegar I'd burn through my stomach lining... maybe Miss Snooty the teachers daughter had a point.

I do love vinegar, tomatoes (my favourite food is a lovely tomatoey salad with loads of vinegarette - I even put vinegar on pizza if it had hot chillis on it). Love curry, pickedled anything, cheese (although I have read that cottage, goat, feta and Parmesan is ok).

I know it's trial and error - but sheesh!

Also, remember that you're obviously in the worst phase at the moment - you don't have an ulcer I think? But I assume the lining of your stomach and oesophagus are damaged at the moment. So you are MORE sensitive than you will be in a few months/years as that improves. This is why small meals, ideally ones that will help soak up any excess acid are really important right now (your jacket potato being a great example). Also, right now, your pain can be activated by what you eat irritating existing damage - a bit like getting vinegar or lemon juice on a cut on your finger. But longer term, what you eat becomes more about preventing your stomach from producing excess acid, particularly over the longer term, and you'll see shifts in what is necessary to maintain feeling well.

One of hte reasons I really am trying to lost weight is carryng the extra weight is definitely a trigger. The two times I've been down at a lower weight over the last 10 years, I was able to massively reduce my omeprazole. I'm really determined to get on top of this as I move into my 50s when I'm sure things will be getting harder all round.

I suffered terribly with this coming up to two years ago, to the point I couldn't eat anything at all beyond a toddler sized portion. It's now under control, without medication. First I cut out all known trigger foods, completely. I also cut out processed bread that contains calcium propionate (a preservative) as this was one of the major things causing stomach pains. Very slowly I reintroduced foods, one at a time, with plenty of gap in between.
Now I eat most things, except anything with calcium propionate in it as that still gives me really bad stomach pain. I can even eat raw spring onion, cooked peppers, cucumber, crisps and drink coffee, which I thought would be a no forever. The biggest game changer has definitely been processed bread though, so I would definitely look at that if you eat it.

I’m in a similar position atm (have a gastroscopy booked for next week so off PPIs & symptoms are horrendous).

My diet pretty much consists of very small amounts of oat cakes, almonds, mashed banana, white rice & well cooked brown lentils. Usually I can tolerate yogurt, some vegetables (root veg well cooked) & porridge. Tea is far worse for me than coffee, alcohol is an absolute non starter. I can eat small amounts of bread if it’s toasted but un-toasted it causes oesophageal spasms. Apart from bananas fruit is absolutely inedible (most recent horrendous flare was triggered by blueberries), as are salad vegetables (anything that grows above ground). I can manage low fat cheeses (ricotta/cottage) usually but only in small amounts. Eggs are variable in effect.

Nothing large volume, high fat, spicy, pickled, colourful or even vaguely tasty. I can’t remember the last time I managed a proper meal; food is definitely the enemy now 😭

Breakfast is usually 10 almonds chewed very slowly!

I never realised it was such a common thing - you always think 'oh that's just indigestion!' But it bloody hurts!

I remember a colleague being admitted to hospital because they thought she'd had a heart attack and it turned out to be 'just indigestion'. She told me it was the worst pain ever and was really embarrassed by the whole thing.

I'm on omeprazole now. It's all just piled on in the last year and a half - small grumbling symptoms before that, things I could shake off and 'work through' then it all just came on at once (thyroid, reflux, joint problems...). Sucks!