What is the best way to reduce acid reflux?

by Doug
(Troy, Mi, USA)

Q I experience severe cases of acid reflux especially when I am doing yoga and playing racquetball. It seems the problem gets worse when I put a "load" on my body. The acid comes up so much that I start to produce mucus to fight it off. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

A It could be any number of things or a combination. Over eating, food combinations, weak stomach acid, eating unhealthy foods, or exercise too close after meals. You may think you have too much acid, but actually you don’t have enough to get the job done.

Many times the foods we could eat when we were younger and had a strong digestive system give us trouble as we age. The truth is that these foods were probably stressing our systems earlier, but a healthy digestive system could overcome their effects. These types of foods should be removed from the diet all together. Fried food, junk food, refined flour products, overly fat and oily foods, and possibly heavy meat or dairy meals all fit that less than desirable category. Your digestive enzymes may not be a strong or plentiful and the hydrochloric acid (HCL) in the stomach is probably weaker. You could try taking an ounce or so of unfiltered organic apple cider vinegar diluted with a little water directly after meal. HCL supplements are also available at health stores and online. Digestive enzymes may also help. Once you get your system back to good working order and are eating healthy you may very well be able to drop the HCL and or digestive enzymes.

As for over eating, a person should quite eating when they feel satiated, but before they feel full. It takes the brain about 15 minutes to receive the message from the stretch receptors in the stomach saying “I’ve had enough”. Healthy people never overeat, it’s one of the most harmful things you can do to your body.

Food combining can be quite an issue for some people. Combinations like starchy vegetables and sweet fruit, or high protein foods with high starch foods. You can find a food combing chart online that will help explain this further.Food Combining: 4 Page Bi-Fold Laminated Reference Cards - Learn Tips, Tricks & Recipes For Raw & Living Food Diet Food Combinations (Permacharts: Raw Foods Vegetarianism)


Exercising too soon after meals means digestion stops while the activity is going on. This can cause incomplete digestion and lead to things like acid reflux. Eat light before a workout and fuel up afterwards.

Adding fresh raw leafy greens to your diet will help build up your HCL levels. Fresh green juices and green smoothies or raw soups are great for this. The website has a host of Smoothie Recipes that should work well for you, and would be great pre and post workout meals.