Stomach Acid: What Foods Neutralize It? – [Video]

Stomach Acid: What Foods Neutralize It?

 

Summary

Diet plays a major role in controlling stomach acid reflux symptoms and is the first line of therapy used for people suffering from it. In this video, Dr Vikki Petersen describes what are the best foods in 3 categories to help neutralize stomach acid, and why pill-popping is not the proper approach to a nutritional issue.

Transcript

I’m often asked, “What can you eat to neutralize stomach acid?” So it’s a good question from the viewpoint that a lot of people suffer from acid reflux. We don’t want to take medication, but — and I’ll go into that at the end of this video as to why that’s dangerous — but as far as things to eat that can neutralize acid and other words are naturally alkalizing or naturally “antacids”, those are foods that, interestingly enough, are very healthy for us.

Natural antacids

Vegetables

The first one on the list is vegetables, and some of the most healthy vegetables are in the cruciferous family: broccoli and cauliflower and dark leafy greens; in addition to that we got cucumbers and green beans… What else is on my list? Yeah. Oh, asparagus. That was the other one. Having good vegetables is the first one on the list.

 

Fruits

The next one is fruit. Not citrus fruit, not the lemons and oranges and grapefruits, but the non-citrus: bananas and melons, apples, pears. These are all fruits that have a natural alkalizing effect. Ginger is a root of course, but ginger is anti-inflammatory and again, naturally alkalizing. So you can put ground ginger or shave some ginger into your vegetable stir fry, maybe that you’re making. You can put it in (finely slice it or grate it) into a smoothie. And then ginger tea is delicious. Once again, very anti-inflammatory, very soothing for the stomach. So that’s another one.

Fats

And then, lastly: healthy fat. It’s so interesting because patients were asking and looked into really the best alkalizing foods and they’re the foods that we want you to eat anyway.
So in the fats: avocados, olive oil walnuts, flax seeds. These are some key foods that you wanna make sure are in your diet. They’re very helpful. They’re creating a lot of good anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer benefits, full of good nutrition, and they’re not going to aggravate any excess acid.

Pill popping for stomach acid?

So, just to conclude, why do you not wanna take a medication? Because we certainly live in a medical environment that gives a pill for every ill. Antacids are one of the most common, either over-the-counter or prescribed medications given. The problem with them is that your stomach is designed to be a bag of acid: that is its job. So as soon as you come in with a medication that’s really strongly reducing that level of stomach acid, you are compromising your ability to digest and absorb.

It’s kind of a cascade the way digestion works. It starts in your mouth. The stomach does a huge bulk of breaking down big pieces of food, and turning them into the smaller pieces that, then, go out into your small intestine where different enzymes work on it… All with the end-result of absorbing your nutrients and getting nourishment to your cells.

As soon as you really reduce that acid level in your stomach, you’re setting yourself up for maldigestion and mal-absorption. Also, the growth of inhospitable organisms. There’s a very long list of reasons that we don’t want to take medication for this.

Can we help you with your stomach acid issue?

We want to get to the root cause, which is what we are known for here at Root Cause Medical Clinic. If you are suffering with acid and maybe you’ve just been taking medication and it’s working or it’s not, the best thing would be to do it naturally.

We are very good at figuring out the underlying why. Consider reaching out to us.

You can call us at (727) 335-0400 and we can set up a time for a consultation. [Note: At the time this article is revised, Root Cause Medical Clinic does not offer free consultations. Check out our site to benefit from any current offer we may have.]

 

Additional resources:

Study of exposure of the oesophagus to stomach acid  

The connection between your gut and your brain