Diet and breakfast for acid reflux is a dilemma for several reasons. As often as people have reflux problems at night while sleeping, they are likely to wake up with heartburn. And in that case, they are more likely to eat antacids for breakfast than foods that are going to make them feel worse.
However, breakfast is also the most important meal of the day. Breakfast helps stabilize 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 has been shown to cause and/or worsen your problems. Eliminating breakfast from your acid reflux diet is not a remedy for heartburn.
Acid reflux and lifestyle
Preventing acid reflux and heartburn will involve making lifestyle changes. You eat breakfast, and then what happens? That nighttime heartburn you may have already had, along with the food you just ate for breakfast. [you just couldn’t resist ‘wolfing’ down that Egg McMuffin while you were driving] they come together and give you more reflux and worse heartburn. Start your day with more energy, not just; he is starting his day in pain and just wants to turn around and go home. But instead, there’s another round of antacids to try and keep you going.
How’s that for breakfast and an acid reflux diet? Acid reflux trigger foods ‘washed out’ with antacids to get rid of heartburn pain. Lunch and dinner tend to be easier meals for heartburn sufferers. It has a wider range of food options that are more appealing later in the day than for breakfast. And you’re not in such a hurry either, which gives you more time to prepare a good meal and not have to eat it as quickly, which of course is one of the things you shouldn’t do with heartburn.
Yes, the acid reflux diet and breakfast are a big deal, because so many breakfast food choices cause heartburn. Your fried eggs, with toast and butter, and orange juice and coffee – or that run through the fast food restaurant – are some of the worst foods you can eat. These can be expected to cause heartburn, which certainly negates the benefits breakfast is supposed to give you.
Breakfast Food Options for Acid Reflux
Then, what are you going to do? You need to eat breakfast, but you won’t if it will only make you feel worse. For starters, how about getting up 15 minutes earlier so you’re not in such a hurry and fast food becomes your only alternative for breakfast. And then how about you stop brainwashing yourself into thinking you need caffeine to get you going? I remember my old routine, getting up and skipping breakfast except for 2 or 3 cups of coffee, having a diet coke at my desk, and then eating Tums all morning. Tums chipped my teeth.
There are many acid reflux diet food options for breakfast that don’t take a lot of time to prepare, and can actually help 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 at breakfast to avoid wasting J
Good food choices will include whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and protein, just like any well-balanced healthy meal. In fact, that’s one of the main benefits of an acid reflux diet—as well as helping to prevent or eliminate heartburn, it’s also a diet that promotes good health.
Whole-food options for breakfast can be found in oatmeal, whole-grain cereals, or whole-grain breads. These are important to your acid reflux diet. They have fiber that makes them easier to digest, they don’t require as much acid during digestion, and they actually break down during digestion in a way that can absorb excess acid. In addition, whole grains include the antioxidant selenium, which has been shown to help protect the cell lining of the esophagus.
Fruits and vegetables are great for breakfast. What could be better than starting your day with an apple or eating some fruit with your whole grain cereal? Just remember to stay away from citrus fruits or juices, and especially tomato juice, as it’s very 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 surely you could get in the habit of eating some broccoli, or how about some steamed broccoli with egg whites?
Protein is an important food choice. It makes you feel fuller and therefore can help prevent overeating. And protein is the food source that helps build and repair muscle; this could include strengthening the muscles associated with the esophagus. As with all acid reflux diets, make sure your protein is low in fat, because fat takes longer to digest and requires more acid to digest, increasing the likelihood of reflux heartburn. This means skim milk instead of whole milk, egg whites instead of whole egg, and no more bacon or fatty meats and fried foods on those breakfast sandwiches.
Changes in breakfast and lifestyle
My lifestyle has changed in recent years; I was gaining weight as I got older and had heartburn that turned into acid reflux disease. In addition to making some very important changes to your acid reflux diet, it now includes hitting the gym in the morning before you start work. So breakfast is very important to me after I work out, but I also lose some extra time that I could have had to eat.
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 make sure I have a relatively high ratio of protein to carbs; I want energy and not a spike in my blood sugar. I usually have a vanilla protein powder shake and have a cup of Greek yogurt. [it is low-fat and has extra protein]and a delicious apple.
I feel great all morning, and with no more coffee and Diet Coke to ‘help’ me, if I want something else to eat, I have another apple. Breakfast is so important to our health, and you have plenty of food options that not only won’t cause heartburn, but can actually help control it. But as is the case with all acid reflux diet options, there are trade-offs and lifestyle changes that must be made to eliminate heartburn and reap the health benefits of what we eat, rather than eating from. a way to worsen heartburn and lead to acid reflux disease.
