Acid Reflux Diet and Breakfast

With the frequency that people have reflux problems through the night while they are sleeping, chances are they are waking up with heartburn. And in that case, they are more likely to go eat antacids for breakfast, than they are food that is going to make them feel worse.

However, breakfast is also the most important meal of the day. Breakfast helps stabilize your blood sugar levels after sleeping, and provides energy to start the day. It has also been shown that people who skip breakfast will eat more throughout the day. And what is one of the biggest problems for acid reflux and heartburn – eating fewer and larger meals, as that is shown to cause and/or make your problems worse. Deleting breakfast from your acid reflux diet is not a heartburn remedy.

Acid Reflux And Life Style
Preventing acid reflux and heartburn is going to entail making lifestyle changes. You eat breakfast, and then what happens? That overnight heartburn that you may have already had, coupled with the food that you just ate for breakfast [you just couldn’t resist ‘wolfing’ down that Egg McMuffin while you were driving] get together and give you more reflux and worse heartburn. Start your day with more energy, not hardly; you are starting your day in pain, and just want to go turn around and go home. But instead, there goes another round of antacids to try to keep you going.

How is that for breakfast and an acid reflux diet – acid reflux trigger foods ‘washed’ down with antacids to try and get rid of the heartburn pain. Lunch and dinner tend to be easier meals for heartburn sufferers. You have a wider range of food choices that are more appealing later in the day than they are for breakfast.

And you also aren’t in such a rush, giving you more time to prepare a good meal – and not having to eat it so fast, which of course is one of the heartburn don’ts.
Yes, acid reflux diet and breakfast is quite a problem, because so many of the breakfast food choices cause heartburn. Your fried eggs, with toast and butter, and orange juice and coffee – or that rush through the fast food restaurant, are of the worst foods that can be eaten. These can be expected to cause heartburn, certainly negating the benefits that eating breakfast are supposed to give you.
Breakfast Food Choices For Acid Reflux

So what are you going to do – you need to eat breakfast, but you aren’t going to do so if it is only going to make you feel worse. To begin with, how about getting up 15 minutes earlier so you aren’t in such a rush and fast food becomes your only breakfast alternative. And then, how about if you quit brain washing yourself into thinking that you need caffeine to get going? I remember my old routine, get up and skip breakfast except for 2-3 cups of coffee, have a diet coke at my desk, and then eat tums throughout the morning – I have chipped teeth from tums.
There are many acid reflux diet food choices for breakfast that don’t take much time to prepare, and that can actually help to reduce reflux and heartburn instead of causing it. And you can adapt to some changes in food choices that will help you even more – you really don’t need to eat that last piece of cold pizza for breakfast to keep it from going to waste.

Good food choices will include whole-grains, fruits and vegetables, and protein – just like any well balance healthy meal. In fact, that is one of the major benefits of an acid reflux diet, besides helping prevent or getting rid of heartburn, it is also a diet that promotes good health.

Whole grain breakfast food choices can be found in oatmeal, whole grain cereals, or whole grain breads. These are important for your acid reflux diet. They have fiber which makes them easier to digest, they don’t require as much acid during digestion, and actually they break down during digestion in a way that can absorb excess acid.

Additionally, whole grains include the antioxidant selenium, which has been shown to help protect the cell lining in the esophagus.

Fruits and vegetables are great for breakfast – what could be better than starting the day with an apple, or eating some fruit on your whole grain cereal. Just remember to stay away from the citrus fruits or juices, and especially no tomato juice as it is very highly acidic. Drink natural apple or grape juice as something that helps reduce acid. And if you can eat pizza and drink coke for breakfast, then you sure could get used to eating some broccoli – or how about some steamed broccoli with some egg whites.

Protein is an important food choice. It makes you feel more full and thus can help prevent overeating. And protein is the food source that helps build and repair muscles – this could include strengthening the muscles associated with your esophagus. As in all acid reflux diets, make sure that your proteins are low in fat content, because fat takes longer to digest and needs more acid to do so, thus increasing the likelihood of reflux heart burn. This means skim milk instead of whole milk, egg whites instead of the whole egg – and no more of that bacon or the fatty meats and fried foods in those breakfast sandwiches.

Breakfast And Lifestyle Changes
My lifestyle has changed the last few years; I was gaining weight as I was getting older, and I had heartburn that became acid reflux disease. Besides making some very big acid reflux diet changes, it now includes going to the gym in the morning before starting work. So, breakfast is very important to me after working out, but I also lose some extra time that I could have had for eating.

I eat a banana on the way to the gym, which helps settle my stomach. And then for breakfast I want a lot of protein, and to be sure that I have a relatively high protein to carbohydrate ratio; I want energy and not a spike in my blood sugar level. I usually drink a vanilla protein powder shake, and eat a cup of Greek yogurt [it is low fat and has extra protein], and an apple – delicious.

I feel very good throughout the morning, and with no more coffee and diet cokes to ‘help’ me through – if I want something else to eat, I have another apple. Breakfast is very important to our health, and you have lots of food choices that not only won’t cause heartburn, but can actually help control it. But like in the case of all acid reflux diet choices, there are tradeoffs and lifestyle changes to be made to get rid of heartburn, and to get health benefits from what we eat –vs- eating in a way that makes heartburn become worse, and even have it lead to acid reflux disease.