GERD & Heartburn Support Group
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) is defined as chronic symptoms or mucosal damage produced by the abnormal reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus. This is commonly due to transient or permanent changes in the barrier between the esophagus and the stomach. If you are afflicted with GERD or heartburn, join the group and find support.
First, I HATE low carb diets (maybe because I am a sugarholic and I love my bread!), but I ordered Dr. Norm Robillard's Fast Track Diet and started doing it for a few days and was noticing a huge decrease in my symptoms. I fell of the wagon yesterday and the acid taste in my mouth is back. The Fast Track Diet doesn't make you give up carbs, it makes you have to calculate the FP (Fermentation Potential) of foods and typically the foods that have zero or low fermentation potential are going to be the similar to low carb. It started met thinking that low carb might work, so I googled those terms and found this awesome web site:
http://chriskresser.com/what-everybody-ought-to-know-but-doesnt-about-heartburn-gerd
Kresser and the comments of his readers have culled the different information I've read that makes a lot of sense into one place.
I also found this after reading one of the comments on that site:
http://www.webmd.com/heartburn-gerd/news/20091123/gerd-related-injury-may-have-immune-trigger
I am going to try and stick to low carb / low fermentation for a while and see what happens.
Interestingly, Dr. Robillard's Fast Track diet allows you to have HOT WINGS on the second day, bbq ribs some other day (I'll have to forgo the sauces because of my gastritis) and other things that I thought were NO NOs. I even emailed a question to Dr. Robillard about finding this very hard to believe and I asked him a question about my gastritis and he emailed me back the same day! It's on his website. If you check the reviews on Amazon about his book it has helped a lot of people. I know there is no cure yet, but I do believe that we are being led down the wrong path by the purple pill people and am looking for something better.
http://chriskresser.com/what-everybody-ought-to-know-but-doesnt-about-heartburn-gerd
Kresser and the comments of his readers have culled the different information I've read that makes a lot of sense into one place.
I also found this after reading one of the comments on that site:
http://www.webmd.com/heartburn-gerd/news/20091123/gerd-related-injury-may-have-immune-trigger
I am going to try and stick to low carb / low fermentation for a while and see what happens.
Interestingly, Dr. Robillard's Fast Track diet allows you to have HOT WINGS on the second day, bbq ribs some other day (I'll have to forgo the sauces because of my gastritis) and other things that I thought were NO NOs. I even emailed a question to Dr. Robillard about finding this very hard to believe and I asked him a question about my gastritis and he emailed me back the same day! It's on his website. If you check the reviews on Amazon about his book it has helped a lot of people. I know there is no cure yet, but I do believe that we are being led down the wrong path by the purple pill people and am looking for something better.
Yes, you can have many fruits and veggies. You can have other carbs. The premise of the plan is to not eat foods that are going to take too long to digest and are not going to ferment in your small intestine. So, you have to calculate the FP (fermentation potential) for your foods. It's a calculation involving the Glycemic Index, the Net Carbs (Carbs-Fiber) and a few other variables. Since you are trying to keep your FP under say 45 a day, the food works out to being mostly low carb foods, but there are tons of fruits and vegetables that have a low fermentation point. Here is the link to the Amazon page for it (scroll to the bottom for the reviews):
http://www.amazon.com/Fast-Tract-Digestion-Heartburn-ebook/dp/B007WZHCWK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1375923879&sr=8-2&keywords=fast+track+diet+norm+robillard
One of the things you can have is Jasmine white rice or sticky rice instead of brown rice, because it has a lower fermentation potential. I have a hard time on low carb because I miss having a filling carb like rice. Since I can have it and other carbs (you do have to measure amounts still) I hope this will work long term.