8 Diet Hacks To Cure Heartburn Better Than Pills Richard Saint Cyr MD

This blog contains affiliate links. Thanks for your support 🙏

Did you know that your daily dependence on pills for heartburn may not be needed, if you just follow simple diet changes? We all have our own anecdotal stories about triggers for heartburn, but what are the facts? I’m here to tell you right now, so keep reading. And it’s actually exciting and empowering to know what lifestyle change helps — and what harms.

What Helps?

Let’s jump into my favorite article on this, a 2021 review of 72 studies worldwide looking at lifestyle and diet choices for heartburn. The number one prevention for heartburn was a vegetarian diet, which decreased the risk by 66%. This was the most effective lifestyle change! It’s likely due to the high fiber content, which helps keep things moving. Exercise also plays a role to improve heartburn; exercising three times a week for 30 minutes decreased the risk by about 30%.

What Worsens Heartburn?

The naughty list of harmful choices is much longer than the nice list, and also more interesting, in my opinion. A lot of people aren’t going to like it, but no matter where you stand on the carnivore/keto/meat bandwagon, the data was unmistakable: a high-fat diet increases the risk of GERD by 750%, the highest risk factor. Yes, you read that correctly; the relative risk is 7.57. Daily consumption of meat, fish, and eggs also increases the risk, primarily due to their fat content. Why? What makes meat so potent for heartburn? It’s well-proven biochemistry, as meats have fats, especially saturated fat. And fat relaxes the lower esophageal sphincter, allowing acid to reflux back into the esophagus and cause that burning sensation. This is especially bad overnight when we lay flat, when many experience severe heartburn pains.

Diet and Lifestyle Changes That Worsen Heartburn

Check out the graph above, it’s so interesting! The other major lifestyle factors include eating dinner less than three hours before bedtime; also, midnight snacking, which increase the risk by 700% and 500%, respectively. Eating quickly, eating beyond fullness, and skipping breakfast can also increase the risk. Alcohol and smoking are additional risk factors, but nowhere near as detrimental as the high-fat late night meals.

If you have persistent heartburn, I highly recommend that you try some of these suggestions and share your stories in the comments below! Low-hanging fruit could be cutting back on the late-night snacking, if you can’t cut back on the fatty meals. But you may find out quickly that with some changes, you won’t need that daily heartburn pill after all.

(Also check out part 1, risks of PPI are worse than you think.)