The Acid Test: Results of my Limited-Carb Day

Readers know that I am trying to avoid acid reflux without going back to acid blockers. Today, I tried a limited-carb approach to controlling reflux. Here is what I ate today:

Vanilla Spiru-Tein shake with berries (about 1/2 cup) and 1 tablespoon of oat bran
Mixed unsalted, unroasted nuts
Salad with ham, a boiled egg, spinach, grated ginger, cucumbers and balsamic vinaigrette dressing, green beans
Same as before but without the green beans
Chai tea (straight)

The breakfast shake and chai tea either gave me slight reflux or just caused throat irritation. (I never had much feeling in my esophagus below the neck, so it's a little hard to tell.) Nothing else caused a reaction. So far, the limited-carb, low-glycemic approach gets a thumbs-up.

Other foods I've had good results with:

Sardines, salmon, chicken, romaine lettuce, orange bell peppers, sunflower seeds, pistachios (unroasted, unsalted), red wine vinaigrette (homemade with just olive oil and red wine vinegar), gouda cheese (about a tablespoon added to salads for flavor), basil, parsley, cauliflower, green olives, red wine (to cook with--does anything smell better?), mayonnaise.

Irritating foods:

Peaches, granola, onions, chocolate, snow peas (raw), chai tea, chamomile tea. The teas seemed to be throat irritants, not reflux-causers.

I've also been trying some other remedies for reflux, with varying results:

DGL. This made my stomach feel better, but using it as a lozenge made it hard for me to swallow. I didn't use any today.

Throat Coat tea. I've tried this before, and just thought it tasted bad. Besides, it has cinnamon in it, which is a mild irritant. If I want tea with cinnamon in it, I'll drink chai.

Milk thistle. The theory is to taste something bitter, and this will activate your digestion. It didn't seem to hurt anything when I took it, but I didn't bother with it today.

Manuka honey. Irritated my throat.

Various remedies I've seen online:

Somebody said he (or she) was trying juicing.

Someone else was avoiding meat.

Apple and vinegar cure (only $40).

Taking vinegar before meals (some people say this works for them, though).

Probiotics.

Jumping up and down for a hiatal hernia.

I can't roll my eyes too much at these quack remedies since I was paying $400 a year for acid blockers.

Comments

This Just In: Yogurt Doesn't Improve Health

A recent study from Spain finds "In comparison with people that did not eat yogurt, those who ate this dairy product regularly did not display any significant improvement in their score on the physical component of quality of life, and although there was a slight improvement mentally, this was not statistically significant," states López-García. Most yogurt is pretty much pudding with a little bacteria . Pudding is a sugar bomb. Hard to believe the stuff doesn't improve health outcomes, isn't it? But as usual, researchers are calling for...more research. "For future research more specific instruments must be used which may increase the probability of finding a potential benefit of this food."

Decongestant Ineffective; Vibration Plate Works

A common ingredient in many cold medicines has been shown so ineffective that the FDA recently proposed taking it off the market. The ingredient, phenylephrine, "failed to outperform placebo pills in patients with cold and allergy congestion," say researchers from the University of Florida. "The same researchers also challenged the drug's effectiveness in 2007, but the FDA allowed the products to remain on the market pending additional research," according to CNBC . Mostly placebos. Photo from Pixabay . I can attest that phenylephrine doesn't work. Before I stopped eating wheat, I constantly had nasal and sinus congestion. I helped keep Sudafed in business when the active ingredient was pseudoephedrine, but I noticed the PE (phenylephrine) variety didn't work at all. The only other decongestants I've found helpful are guaifenesin (Mucinex) and spicy food. Mucinex is expensive because it works! (The cheaper store brands work just as well, though.) Su

Paleo Diet: Eating Differently from Everyone Else is Fine!

I've been seeing more and more articles by women (it's always women) whose heads have exploded trying to figure out life without yogurt and cupcakes. Oh, the shenanigans they get up to: bathroom problems from stuffing themselves with vegetables, paleo baked goods that don't taste the same as ones from the bakery, and especially the irresistible urge to eat "normally." The technical problems aren't hard to sort out: substitutes like baked goods will taste different because they are different, but an adjustment period of a few months will make those foods taste normal. And whatever you eat, don't stuff yourself. First, though, read a book by Loren Cordain or Mark Sisson to learn about the paleo diet before diving in. The articles I keep reading, though, have more to do with attitude: the urge to be exactly like everybody else or the urge to be helpless. If you're in the second category, I can't, by definition, help you. If you'd rather be Lu

Robert F. Kennedy shows up at the FDA

Palpitations Gone with Iron

Thanks to my internet friend Larcana, who alerted me to the connection between iron deficiency and palpitations, I doubled down on my iron supplements and, for good measure, washed them down with Emergen-C. It's a cold medicine with a mega-dose of vitamin C, plus B vitamins and minerals. I don't think vitamin C does anything for a cold (a friend bought the stuff and left it at my house the last time she visited), but vitamin C does help iron absorption. After doubling up on iron in the last three days, I feel back to normal. (I'd already been taking quite a bit of magnesium and potassium, so I probably had sufficient levels of those.) How did I get so low on iron? Maybe it was too many Quest bars instead of red meat when I had odd cravings during my dental infection recently. Maybe because it's too hard to find liver at the grocery store and I haven't eaten much of it lately. Maybe the antibiotics damaged my intestines . And apparently, I'm a heavy bleeder .

Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Search This Blog