Guide to Acidity Management - Meal Plan and Diet Ideas

Bloating, burning sensation in the stomach, and nausea are the most common discomforts that all of us experience sometime in our life. It occurs due to acidity, a condition resulting due to an excess of acid production in our stomach by gastric glands. However, if you are experiencing heartburn, regurgitation, and bloating often, it’s time you need to address the condition to obtain relief and prevent its complications. Unhealthy lifestyle habits, poor eating habits, untimely meals, certain foods and beverages, medications, pregnancy, slow digestion, and obesity are some of the most common causes of acidity. While you can find over-the-counter medicines to soothe your digestive tract and obtain quick relief, you may turn dependent on them eventually. Fortunately, making certain lifestyle and dietary modifications with a customised acidity diet can promote your recovery from the condition. The right, nutritious acidity foods in your diet for acidity nourish you and help you heal naturally without taking a toll on your health. Read on to learn how diet can help you in acidity management.

Dietary Guide to Follow When Dealing with Acidity
Here are some easy yet effective dietary modifications that can work wonders.

1. Add Alkaline Foods to Your Diet:

Diet modification is the simplest, most natural, and most effective way to get rid of acidity. Consuming a greater quantity of alkaline foods and minimizing your acidic food intake helps reduce the gastric acid’s backflow in the esophagus. Alkaline foods are effective in neutralizing your stomach’s acidic contents and relieving you of acid reflux. So, add unsweetened yoghurt, green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, sweet potato, radish, beans, lentils, fresh acidity fruits, such as watermelons, pomegranates, bananas, figs, and apples, and nuts and seeds, such as flax seeds, almonds, and sesame seeds, to your acidity diet. These acidity foods soothe your digestive system and help minimize your acidity discomfort naturally. Simple dietary modifications in routine life, such as having colourful green salads while at work, keeping a small jar of nutritious seeds at your work desk and eating them in small quantities, and eating fruit salad topped with a healthy cup of unsweetened yoghurt, can relieve your acidity discomforts.

2. Ensure You Drink Ample of Water:

Staying hydrated is the key to staying healthy and minimising the discomforts of acidity. Certain medical researches reveal that the intake of mineral water reduces acid reflux discomforts. Adequate intake of water dilutes the gastric acid produced in your stomach and relieve the acidity symptoms. So, water is a natural acidity drink that can help you experience relief effortlessly. A good intake of water is also beneficial for maintaining overall good health and managing your weight.

3. Keep Acidity-Triggering Foods at Bay:

While battling acidity, it is important to identify which foods make you suffer from digestive discomforts after you consume them and eliminate these acidity-causing foods from your diet. Usually, foods abundant in fats happen to increase your risk of developing acidity. Fried foods, such as samosa, puris, oily delicacies, such as pickles, and sweets full of fats, such as jalebi, laddoos, and barfis, should be avoided when following an acidity diet. Also, stay away from packaged foods, as they contain abundant sodium which can aggravate your acidity discomforts.

4. Avoid Spicy Foods:

Spicy foods may please your taste buds; however, they may irritate your digestive system and make you suffer from heartburn. So, it would be wise to avoid eating spicy foods, such as spicy food preparations containing garam masala, tadka daal, foods containing plenty of chilli powder, and chaat preparations, such as bhel puri, that contain a spicy mix.

5. Limit Your Intake of Caffeine:

Most of us are used to drinking coffee many times a day to keep our minds fresh and active. However, excess coffee can make you experience discomforting acidity symptoms, as it boosts gastric secretions and induces gastroesophageal reflux. Also, if you are in habit of eating a lot of chocolate or desserts with a lot of chocolate, avoid it while battling acidity. Staying away from caffeine can be an effective step in acidity management. (Title: Acidity Management Plan)

6. Say No to Alcohol and Carbonated Drinks:

The intake of alcohol induces acid reflux. It also irritates your esophagous’ tissues, relaxes the muscles surrounding your stomach, causes an excess of production of gastric acid, and makes tissues sensitive to the acid. Thus, alcohol aggravates acidity symptoms. Carbonated beverages also worsen your acidity discomforts. So, stay away from alcohol and carbonated drinks while trying to get rid of heartburn with an acidity diet. Sip on the water whenever you feel like having any beverages.

7. Stick Your Meal Timings:

Set your meal timings and stick to them. Having your nutritious meals on time daily prevents you from improper eating habits and skipping meals. Timely meals help promote smooth digestive functions. Having your dinner just before going to bed can worsen your acidity. So, make sure that you finish your dinner early i.e. at least three hours before going to bed to keep acid reflux symptoms at bay.

8. Practice Portion Control:

Portion size is an essential factor in acidity management. Eating food in large portions can lead to digestive issues. So, always prefer smaller meals with smaller portion sizes. You can have small meals with an increased frequency. For instance, instead of having three heavy meals, choose to eat four to five small, nutritious meals. Use smaller bowls and plates to regulate your portion sizes. Avoid munching on more food if you are not hungry after having meals.

9. Eat Food Slowly and in Peace:

Eating your meals in haste or gulping down the food is a prominent cause of digestive problems. Make sure that you enjoy relishing your meals and eat them slowly. You may take 20 to 30 minutes to savour your meals. Avoid gobbling up snacks and breakfast while on the way to your work in the car or bus. Take time to sit at your dining table and enjoy your breakfast and meals. Chew well every bite of food you have.

Sample Meal Plan

With these effective dietary tips, follow a healthy, nutritious meal plan. Here’s a sample meal plan that you can add to your acidity diet.

Early Morning (at 7 am): Aloe Vera juice

Breakfast (at 8 am):  Missi Roti, broken wheat porridge, veg vermicelli, stuffed chapati, or chapati with cooked vegetables or daal.

Mid-Morning (at 11 am): Coconut water or green tea or fruit.

Lunch (at 1 pm): Boiled rice, a plain chapati, and vegetable + daal. You can also add unsweetened yoghurt to your lunch.

Evening (at 5 pm): Home-made soup or rice flakes snacks or herbal tea

Dinner (at 8 pm): Plain chapati or missi chapati or boiled rice, and daal or cooked vegetable

While planning your meals for acidity management, you need to choose each type of food carefully. Here’s a list of types of foods that explain which ones you should eat and which you should refrain from adding to your meals.

1. CEREALS:

Cereals to eat: You can add brown rice, whole wheat, whole grain cereals, and oatmeal to your diet

Cereals to avoid: Refrain from eating white refined flour and its products.

1. PULSES:

Pulses to eat: These include all washed pulses, such as green lentils, yellow lentils, and soybeans.

Pulses to avoid: Do not go for chickpeas, black gram, and kidney beans while dealing with acidity.

1. VEGETABLES:

Vegetables to eat: These include green beans, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, mushroom, asparagus, soy, cabbage, and pumpkin.

Vegetables to avoid: Some vegetables that you should avoid include onion, potatoes, capsicum, frozen vegetables.

1. FRUITS:

Fruits to eat: Enjoy eating papaya, guava, pears, watermelon, apple, muskmelon, and banana.

Fruits to avoid: Do not go for cranberry and citrus fruits, such as grapefruit, oranges, and lemon.

1. DAIRY PRODUCTS:

Dairy products to eat: Have skimmed milk

Dairy products to avoid: You can avoid cream cheese, full-fat yoghurt, whole milk and cream, and condensed milk

1. SPICES:

Spices to eat: Include coriander, turmeric, cumin, mint, fennel, and fenugreek in your meals.

Spices to avoid: Avoid adding black pepper, green chilli, cloves, and red chilli to your meals is beneficial when dealing with acidity.

1. DRINKS:

Drinks to eat: Soothe your digestive system with green tea, coconut water, bitter gourd juice, herbal tea, aloe vera juice, and pumpkin juice.

Drinks to avoid: Refrain from having canned and packaged soup, carbonated drinks, sweetened drinks, alcohol, and whole milk drinks.

1. OILS:

Oils to eat: Cook meals using olive oil, canola oil, and cow ghee.

Oils to avoid: Do not use butter, palm oil, unsaturated fats, and cream.

It would beneficial to avoid all sorts of flesh foods while managing acidity to obtain relief from digestive discomforts.

If you are suffering from heartburn or any acidity symptoms and looking for natural ways to get relief, resort to an acidity diet. Certified nutritionists, such as health experts at Health Total, can help you have a personalized diet comprising acidity fruit, vegetables, and other acidity foods that alleviate your discomforts. Health Total experts also help you manage weight, nourish your body with essential nutrients, and boost your immunity while offering you diet plans for acidity management. So, be quick, get in touch with us online or over a call on 9650684061 and say good-bye to acidity with our effective, customised acidity diet.