Reflux diet - recipes and food diary suggestions please!

[AndThenTheWolvesCame]

I recently started a course of Omeprazole for acid reflux. I’m trying to help things along by changing my diet.

For background: I’m not an unhealthy eater generally but I have a sweet tooth, I don’t drink alcohol at all and I used to have 1 cup of tea a day. I’m not overweight and have never smoked.

I’ve cut out tea, chocolate, tomatoes, onions and garlic. I’m struggling to find family friendly recipes for reflux and would love some suggestions of recipes, cooking website or books.

DH doesn’t think I’m eating enough at the moment but I’m struggling to find quick things to eat through the day. This was my food diary from the last 2 days.

8.30 Granary toast x2 with butter
11.00 White toast 1x butter 1x raspberry jam (met friend at cafe and nothing else on menu suitable- all fried breakfast)
2.00 2x slices turkey, 3x Ryvita thins crackers, 2 tsp hummus and 4x sugar snap peas
3.30 handful raspberries
5.45 1/2 Small glass smoothie
6.30 Chicken tagliatelle, mushrooms, courgette with Greek yogurt and grated Parmesan
8.00. Caramel rice cake

9.00 Granary toast x2 with butter
11.30 Hummus, whole meat pitta, 1/2 slice ham
12.00 Skinny cereal bar
1.30 Caramel rice cake
3.30 Small handful pumkin seeds
3.45 2x low fat digestive biscuits
7.00 Pork chops with mushroom, mash and green beans in a Greek yoghurt based sauce
8.00 Small slice pumpkin pie

Does this seem ok? I’m stressing about everything I put in my mouth at this point!

Have a look at Dr Jonathan Aviv's Acid Watchers Diet book. I've got it and have done a fair few in there now.

Dr Aviv also has silent reflux and recommends 5 meals a day between 7am and 7:30pm - breakfast, mid morning mini meal, lunch, mid afternoon mini meal and dinner.

Tonight's dinner was pureed butternut squash soup with seared chestnut mushrooms. Very nice and filling!

A good dinner that's quick to do is lemon herbed salmon on a bed of spinach. I usually put broccoli and sweet potatoes with it.

Also, cow's milk is an inflammatory so switch to goat's milk or a non-dairy milk.

My breakfast tomorrow morning will be banana pecan oats with almond milk. Haven't tried it yet.

I often have a Berry smoothie for one of my mini meals - 1 banana, Blueberries (can't remember weight) and almond milk. For the other mini meal, I'll have Dr Aviv's power bar - dates, almonds (blended), dessicated coconut and natural peanut butter. Once shaped into bars, stick it in the freezer for 30-40mins and transfer to fridge. Filling and tasty, imo!

Try to get Celtic Sea Salt - I got mine off Amazon. Better for you than other types of salt.

That’s really helpful, thank you. I’ll check our Dr Avis’s book, hopefully can find something nice for dinners next week. I love salmon so that sounds like a winner!

Definitely seems like prepping ahead is the key to having suitable snacks and mini meals ready when needed.

Hi op

Try cutting out the dairy for a week or so and see what that does.

Elevate the head of your bed with bricks as some of the worst damage from reflux is at night. This will enable gravity to keep acid down.

Good luck.

It's dairy and high fat foods that trigger my reflux and smoothie might too. All that bread would make me feel blurgh too!

I can confirm the banana oats with almond milk and pecans is pretty good - definitely filling! Shall be having that from now on. 👍

You're eating a lot of carbs, not a lot of protein, and even less fruit and veg. It's really not a very balanced diet at all. Aside from eating little and often you need to work out what's triggering your reflux as there's no point cutting things out if they make no difference to you.

Thanks all!

@NotFastButFurious I absolutely agree! I’d just done my food shop and all my fruit, lunches and dinner plans main elements were on the danger list so I’ve struggled a bit to get my footing.

Hoping I can get a meal plan and a more balanced one next week. I think I’ve ended up eating carbs just to feel full and get through the day!

I've had complex reconstructive surgery on my digestive system following cancer, I'm supposed to be on ompeprozole for life but have stopped it recently due to long term side effects. The best thing you can do for reflux is no eating in the evening and no alcohol.

Hello, you're already doing well if you don't drink alcohol as that can cause it. As can bacon, chocolate, sugar and spicy foods for me.

I have a wedge pillow, it helps if you sleep propped as otherwise the acid can come back up your throat. I always eat really early to give my food plenty of time to go down before sleeping and I still use the pillow, so 5.30 or 6pm.

Good luck, it's horrible I know.

Just because something is on the danger list though doesn't mean it'll affect you and sometimes it's things in combination, or eating too much of them on an empty stomach that can trigger you. Even though I generally avoid dairy, i'm fine if it's something like butter cooked in a cake, can tolerate cooked cheese on pizza and also because I am NOT willing to give up pizza but eating a yogurt cripples me! Or a tomato based pasta sauce is fine with just veggies in it but combine it in something more greasy such as a lasagne then it would trigger my reflux.

Are you planning to stay on a ppi for life? They have lots of negative health impacts long term.

If not you need to identify the underlying cause of your reflux and treat this. Try listening to some of the videos by Dr Berg on this. It may be that low stomach acid is the issue
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sbU_Pw2AegM

I was diagnosed with silent reflux a couple of months ago. The biggest thing that has helped me is to eat less at each meal and not eat at least three hours before laying down/going to bed.

I've also cut down eating highly acidic foods like tomatoes/tomato based and coffee/tea. Less processed and spicy foods. But overeating and eating too close to bed time seems to be the key for me. I haven't had an issue with my reflux in about a month since I cut down on what I eat. But I think everyone is different so you have to find out what works for you (i.e. dairy causes me no issues but it does for some)

@MissSmiley I hope you’re doing ok so far without the tablets.

@Illegallyblonder I had a look at wedge pillows but not sure if I’ll be able to sleep with it. Might need to raise the bed or give the pillow a try. This week has been the worst timing as DH is on late shifts so we’re not eating dinner until 6.30-7 (all meals were planned and bought before I knew!).

@Bubbles254 no long term plans to be on them. Had a 2 week supply from the GP to see if it helps. If symptoms come back after stopping them I need to go back for more investigation.

@NotFastButFurious I have no idea what caused it so I’m aiming to cut out the popular triggers as much as possible for a short time to let my throat recover and then introduce things back.

@Neverendingstory2 I feel like I’m always rushing to eat as I’ve got something to do/somewhere to be which definitely won’t have helped.

Thanks for the advice, I’m making a shopping list for Saturday so hopefully I can get some nutrition!

In a word, no.
you need the acid watcher diet which should heal inflammation and not encourage the acid up the oesophagus via loosening the LES.
There’s a few Facebook groups devoted to the diet, I’m on them all as they’re all slightly different.
I came off the tablets as they were having other unpleasant effects and not really helping reflux.
Also try not to eat 3 hours before bed and sleep on left if you can!

I’d love to share recipe tips for acid reflux. I have the acid watcher diet book, which I wish I’d read years ago, I’m trying to follow the acid watcher diet, and it’s pretty hard. I felt a big difference within about 3 days on the diet. I have oats for breakfast with flaxseed or chia seeds and nuts. I mix it with water, not milk, and have got used to the simple taste. I’ve just bought some millet and plan to alternate millet with oats for a bit of variety. I eat home made soups for lunch, lentils or split peas with some of either sweet potatoes, courgettes, carrots, butternut squash etc. For dinner I generally have roasted vegetables with steamed fish (I steam it on top of the roasting vegetables), or some chicken, maybe rice. I make home made pancakes for snacks, or have leftovers. I make a big batch of soup that lasts about 5 days.

Using the recipe in Dr Aviv's Acid Watchers Diet book, I've just practised making crepes with a blueberry filling ahead of making it for breakfast in the morning.

Tasty!

I recommend using a plate to flip your crepe rather than a long, thin spatula. Just make sure the crepe isn't too wet as it'll stick to your plate and rip apart as you try to shift it!

The best thing I did was to not eat anything at all in the last 3 hours before bed. It’s really helped.