Gastritis Support Group
Gastritis is a medical term for inflammation of the lining of the stomach. It means that white blood cells move into the wall of the stomach as a response to some type of injury. Gastritis has many underlying causes, from infection with the bacterium H. pylori, bile reflux, or excessive consumption of alcohol or certain foods or drugs like aspirin.
There are the foods I know are bad, the foods I know are good and then they are the ones for which I still wonder. Those from the last category are dairy (yoghourt, cottage cheese, milk, cheese), fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage, ...) and the low-fat roasting process in which you brown the vegetables.
I read that dairy make the stomach produce more acid, that yoghourt is too acidic. From my class in essential oil, I remember that one is not supposed to put an essential oil on an inflamed organ (and fresh herbs contain essential oil) as it would cause more inflammation. And somehow I have the feeling that the process of roasting makes the vegetables more irritating.
I eat all those foods every now and then and they don't obviously and immediately hurt my stomach even though I have the feeling that they slightly irritate my stomach on a long term basis and delay recovery. But I am not really sure.
Do you eat any of these foods? How do you feel with them? What is your experience?
I read that dairy make the stomach produce more acid, that yoghourt is too acidic. From my class in essential oil, I remember that one is not supposed to put an essential oil on an inflamed organ (and fresh herbs contain essential oil) as it would cause more inflammation. And somehow I have the feeling that the process of roasting makes the vegetables more irritating.
I eat all those foods every now and then and they don't obviously and immediately hurt my stomach even though I have the feeling that they slightly irritate my stomach on a long term basis and delay recovery. But I am not really sure.
Do you eat any of these foods? How do you feel with them? What is your experience?
The irritating spices are: ginger, cayenne pepper, Chili powder, Horseradish, Mustard, Pepper (black or white), cloves and paprika(Hungarian).
The slightly irritating spices are: Allspice, anise, cassia, cinnamon, cumin, mace, nutmeg.
The herbs/spices that are not irritating are: bay leaf, caraway seed, celery seed, chives, dill seed, fennel, marjoram, mint, paprika (spanish), parsley, peppermint, wintergreen, saffron, sage, savory, spearmint, thyme, turmeric.
I stay careful with chives though as they are from the onion family and with paprika, and I avoid all types of mint since they relaxe the sphincter between the stomach and the oesphagus, which can cause reflux.
What is your experience with herbs and spices?
The Italian herbs you mention are good for digestion and the concentration of oil wouldn't be high as an essential oil would be. I was able to use them from the beginning.
Ginger is also good for digestion and though it has heat is soothing for the gut and can help with nausea and upset stomachs.
Cinnamon is also a digestive goodie.
Turmeric is a wonderful anti inflammatory.
Peppermint tea might be ok. I couldn't handle the oil in the early days but now drink the tea all the time. I started it mainly for my IBS.
Some fibre is ok for gastritis. While I can now eat raw vegetables I don't over do it, especially carrot which is very hard to digest raw.
I've always been ok with yoghurt. Some foods are acid on the outside but change to alkaline inside. Pineapple has great digestive enzymes and lemons have citric acid which is great for the liver.
As with all of us here my journey is trial and error. We all vary so much it astounds me.