Hey, it's Wendy and it's Jess and you're listening to the Food Heaven Podcast, your online resource for delicious and nutritious living.

Hi, what are some good flavorful seasons that you can use to season your food if you have acid reflux so that you won't aggravate that condition.

Hello, hello, this is Wendy here and I'll be answering your question today.

So let's start off by quickly going over what reflux is. So it basically happens when the lower

suffigials fincter opens up spontaneously or it doesn't close properly. So the food from your stomach

comes up into your esophagus and that's fincter connects the esophagus to the stomach and so

when it weakens you have the contents from the stomach shooting up through your esophagus sometimes into your throat and sometimes even into your mouth.

And it's pretty gross, it's not very fun for those of you who have experienced it and usually feel like a burning sensation, you're not fully enjoying your meal.

So as dieticians we usually recommend avoiding trigger foods so these are foods that are known to cause reflux for you and they vary.

It's very individualized so some people they might not be able to tolerate citrus foods like oranges, lemons, limes, while others it's more like spices like spicy foods.

They can't really tolerate those well. So it really just varies from person to person but there are common trigger foods across the board.

Those include coffee, chocolate, any caffeinated beverages. So also like black tea, some green teas, peppermint, spicy foods, and also like greasy and fatty foods.

They slow down digestion and so they make reflux more likely to happen. So some general recommendations for reflux include eating smaller more frequent meals.

Because that way your stomach isn't expanding as much. A lot of times when you eat these large meals your stomach is kind of blowing up and then especially if you have reflux, the contents are going to come right back up.

And also some other helpful tips are chewing slowly. Nowadays we're kind of just rushing through our meals. I know with me like sometimes I'm like in a rush I have so much to do.

And literally five minutes and my meal is like down my throat. So you know just take your time. It's something that I try to do as well. Just be more mindful of the food that you're taking in.

And try to spend 30 minutes if possible. Like when you you're ready to have your meal just chewing it slowly and enjoying it. Be mindful of every bite.

Also try not to eat too close to bedtime because when you lie down the reflux symptoms are more likely to happen. So try to sit upright or kind of walk around a little bit.

And as a general rule of thumb we recommend not eating two to three hours before bedtime. So let's say you go to bed at 10. Try to have your last meal around six or seven.

Stress usually makes reflux worse. So if you have a lot on your plate and you know you just feel very stressed and tense all the time or most times just chill out.

Try to practice and relaxation techniques like for me and jazz. Now we both enjoy doing yoga deep breathing.

Restful sleep is so important getting seven to nine hours of sleep each night.

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