Reflux and Diet

Acupuncture helped my LPR but I still had it. I had been reading that diet could help. After some searching in the library I found a book with an interesting title, "Dropping Acid: The Reflux Diet, Cookbook and Cure", By Jamie Koufman, M.D. and Jordan Stern, M.D. with French Master Chef Marc Bauer. Dropping-Acid-Reflux-Diet-Cookbook

One of the first things that I learned from this book was that it is not stomach acid that is the problem, it is actually a digestive enzyme called pepsin Pepsin. Pepsin only works when acid is present and it does not care what acid it uses. It will use the acid in our food or it will attack the lining of the throat or esophagus. The authors go on to show the damage that pepsin can do to a body consuming highly acidic foods.

The book gives some steps to get immediate relief from reflux.


1) Don't smoke, it causes reflux.
2) Don't wear tight clothing. especially around the waist.
3) Do not exercise right after eating
4) Do not lie down right after eating, do not eat within 3 hours of bedtime.
5) Elevate the head of your bed if you experience reflux at night.

In the diet section of Dropping Acid, the authors go through , "The Best Foods List", "Best Foods for Refluxer", "Notoriously Bad Reflux Foods". There is a chapter on avoiding acidic foods and beverages. I found that chapter to be especially useful, it has list of the pH of good and bad foods.We did not try them all but the recipes that we did try were very good.

I went through their two week "Induction Diet" and I can say that it further helped reduce my symptoms. I was very much aware of what I could eat and what I could not eat. Basically, any food or beverage with a pH pH less than 5 was off limits. That includes a whole lot foods that I used to eat and enjoy. There were some foods that the diet said I couldn't eat but I could eat them, and other things that I was supposed to be able to eat, but made the reflux worse. I came to realize that this disease has some personal characteristics that you can only come to know through trial and error.

Tomatoes are one of the worst things for reflux, not only tomatoes but tomato sauce, tomato paste, salsa, virtually anything that has a tomato base. I never realized how many foods that we eat that are tomato based or have some sauce or aspect of the dish that contains tomatoes. Like many people in North America, we eat pasta. I would say in a normal week, we would eat pasta at least once, maybe twice and it would usually be pasta with tomato sauce. My wife went to great lengths to come up with a viable pasta dish that was not tomato based. I think she did a great job, I really enjoy the dish that she made and I hope you will too.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It is informative and offers a way to manage reflux without taking drugs. Speaking of drugs, I will write about my experience with reflux drugs in my next post.

Linguine with Clam Sauce

1/2 pound linguine or spaghetti
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chopped  parsley
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme or 1/4 tsp. fresh thyme
salt & pepper
1 - 7 oz can of clams

Bring a large pot of water to boil to cook the spaghetti, add about a tablespoon of salt to the water. Cook according to the package directions until the pasta is tender but not fully cooked.  Drain.

While the pasta is cooking, in a large saute pan add olive oil.  Cooking garlic for about 30 seconds until fragrant.  Stir in wine, thyme and clam juice from the can.  Cook for about 2-3 minutes until the liquid comes to a boil.  Stir in clams, season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add pasta and toss with tongs.  Sprinkle with parsley and serve.