For those of you with GERD or a hiatal hernia, what kinds of diet help?

Well…not exactly the same, however, I have recently had the joy of a Gallbladder flare up and the diet is similar to these conditions as well. Low fat, sugar, not eating large meals, not eating in the evenings before bed. The usual, fresh foods, fruits, veggies, low acidity, low coffee/tea intake, little or no alcohol. You know, just restrict all the fun things in life. haha

My daughter gets GERD and finds that as long as she keeps to a light diet she is fine but anything rich or spicy sets off an attack.

I have found this useful when I stuck to it. http://gicare.com/diets/gerd/

^^ (Well, that sucks.)

Stay away from overly spicy foods, greasy foods, and foods that normally give a person indigestion. Also, smoking!

Eating small meals helps me. I also need to limit coffee and cheese (my favorites.)

My hernia is so large that I need to take Prilosec or I’ll experience heartburn all day, even with an empty stomach. I’ll also wake up in the middle of the night choking if I don’t take my meds.

@jonsblond: What might be a typical day’s menu for you?

I very rarely suffer from this, but I have in the past. Some of the following is probably obvious but I’ll share anyway. I find having small meals late at night helps but also avoiding foods like chocolate which relax the esophageal sphincter (LES) can prevent this problem for me. It only tends to happen if I have a big meal late at night but I have found chocolate particularly likely to cause a problem. This is a list of foods that are particularly prone to relaxing the esophageal sphincter.

I had GERD so bad after everything started going wrong for me, I had to be on Prilosec, because nothing else worked. Excuse the disgusting details, but it will give you an idea of how bad it used to be for me: It got to the point where acid would shoot out of my throat in a little stream, like a sea anemone shoots water.

The worst triggers for me were tomatoes and citrus fruits, and sometimes greasy food. It was getting to the point that they were worried about my esophagus and brought up surgery, but thank god being on Prilosec (one pill a day for about three to four months straight) helped it go away.

Can any of you give me a sample menu of what does not cause symptoms? I have the list of evil foods, including my beloved oranges, lemons, tomatoes, onions and garlic.

Breakfast- a bowl of oatmeal or Wheaties.

Mid-morning snack- yogurt and a glass of V8.

Lunch- half a bagel with light cream cheese.

Afternoon snack- in season fruits. Watermelon, strawberry, pomegranate.

Dinner- small portions of what I make for the family. I’ll often skip the meat and just eat the sides and/or a salad.

I may treat myself to a small bowl of ice cream or square of chocolate.

I cheat on the weekend by eating cinnamon rolls or eggs and bacon for breakfast and I’ll snack on cheese and crackers during the day. I might end Sunday evening by eating a few of my homemade peanut butter cookies.

Definitely oatmeal. Bananas, apples, cantaloupe, baked potatoes, peas, green beans (I’m not sure I can think of any veggies that made it worse), chicken breast (never fried), fish (never fried), brown or white rice, multi-grain bread, feta cheese. I might be an individual case, but watermelon actually made mine a lot worse and I’m not sure why, but it still didn’t stop me from eating it.

Above all, ginger tea was my best friend. I drank at least one cup a day, but often up to two-three cups a day. I also had bad, unrelated nausea and stomach cramps around the same time, which ginger tea also helped significantly.

I suffered from terrible GERD and a hiatal hernia prior to weight loss surgery. I had my hernia repaired. I had the gastric sleeve so my stomach is 1/10th the size it used to be and due to this, I can have acid issues if I don’t take omeprazole.

I take 20mg omeprazole once a day and no longer suffer from heartburn of any kind. To put it into perspective though, I was taking omeprazole prior to surgery and was STILL having issues with GERD, so to not have it at all, that’s wonderful for me.

Anyway, aside from taking my medicine, I know the following things have helped:

1) weight loss. Weight loss, even just as “little” as 5% of your weight will probably help your symptoms.
2) I must stay away from pineapple. Other citrus fruits only in moderation.
3) I actually do NOT have an issue with spicy foods, thank goodness.
4) Moderate coffee intake
5) Sleep with 2 pillows
6) Do not eat or drink prior to bed, ever. Even water.
7) Calcium supplements can aggravate GERD symptoms. Calcium citrate supplements are less likely to aggravate than calcium carbonate.
8) TUMS make my GERD worse. I won’t take them. I tossed all of them out.

@jonsblond I like your menu idea but I’m seeing very, very little protein in it.

How much time is “prior to bedtime”? ! hour? Three hours?

Do you use fresh ginger root for the tea? What’s the recipe?

@gailcalled

I guess it depends for everyone but for me, it’s 2 hours or more. Let’s say that my bedtime is around 10:30p or so. I will stop drinking or eating at 8ish. It’s made a difference for me, even before I had my hernia repaired.

No recipe for the tea, I just bought this ginger tea.

If you follow the directions and let it steep for the appropriate amount of time, it does taste rather medicinal. I used honey in mine which helped with the taste, but honey also soothed my throat – and any additional coating in the esophagus is a benefit when you have acid passing through.

I kept this tea around even though my GERD is mostly gone now, because it helps stomach pain/nausea in general, as well.

I forgot to mention…omeprazole/Prilosec can be expensive if you are buying it over the counter, even if it’s a store brand. If you want to save some serious $$ and have health insurance with cheap rx copays, ask your doctor to write you a script for omeprazole. It’s the same thing, just a lot cheaper.

I can get a 90 day supply of omeprazole for $10. OTC here, store brand, it’s usually almost $15 for 42 pills. I definitely need and rely on my omeprazole so may as well get it as cheap as I can.