It can be easier to avoid foods that trigger heartburn when you're eating at home — if you know how to shop and cook in a way that’s heartburn-friendly.
Heartburn, or acid reflux, causes a burning sensation in the chest triggered by stomach acid working its way up the esophagus. For some people it's an incredibly uncomfortable occasional occurrence; for many others, it’s chronic.
According to Christopher Marshall, MD, the clinical chief of gastroenterology at UMass Memorial Health in Worcester, the first thing you should do is identify your individual triggers. Not everyone will get heartburn from eating the same things.
“If someone says they eat a big greasy meal and they get heartburn, the first thing they can do is not do that,” Dr. Marshall says.
Here are some general rules of thumb to keep in mind while cooking to avoid heartburn, and a way to home in on what triggers yours.
Don’t Adopt a Strict Diet if You Don’t Need To
According to Julia Zumpano, RD, a registered dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute, people who have reflux typically do not need to adopt a specialized diet such as the low-FODMAP diet, as people with other gastrointestinal issues may.
“You just need to know what the common foods that trigger heartburn are, and what triggers your heartburn, and then customize it,” she says.
There are some general guidelines you can follow. Incorporating a heart healthy way of eating into your life is one of the easiest routes to relief from heartburn, Marshall says: “It’s going to help manage weight, which is a trigger for heartburn and reflux, but also help you avoid triggers.”
Here are six tips for heartburn management.
1. Adjust Your Seasonings
Meals that are less likely to trigger heartburn don't have to be bland.
It’s famously common for people to experience heartburn after eating spicy food. In a survey study published in Digestive Diseases and Sciences, 85 respondents, all of whom had gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), a symptom of which is chronic heartburn, were able to identify at least one food that triggered their reflux. The most common culprit was spicy foods, which triggered heartburn in 62 percent of people who could identify a food as the cause of their reflux.
Garlic and onions are other common triggers that pack a lot of flavor in food, Zumpano says. She suggests adding flavor to meals with less irritating herbs, such as oregano or turmeric when you can, and replacing more pungent spices or alliums if you think they make your heartburn worse.
2. Think About Swapping Ingredients Rather Than Subtracting
Acidic foods like tomatoes and tomato sauces are common heartburn triggers, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Acidic foods irritate the lining of the esophagus and can make it more inflamed, Zumpano says. Instead of a tomato-based sauce, she recommends recipes with a broth or healthy oil-based sauce instead, she says. The same goes for heavy butter or cream sauces.
3. Adapt Recipes to Include Fewer Fatty Ingredients
According to the Mayo Clinic, heartburn is caused by the relaxing of the sphincter muscle that separates the esophagus and the stomach. The purpose of the muscle is to relax when a person swallows, to let food into the stomach, and then tighten again to keep food there. If the muscle relaxes, it lets acid come up from the stomach and into the esophagus, causing heartburn.
According to Marshall, fat is a common food that can relax the sphincter. It can also coax stomach acid up into the esophagus.
A meta-analysis published in Preventive Nutrition and Food Science reviewed 25 studies investigating the effect different diets had on GERD. They found a strong association between a high-fat diet and GERD risk.
“Fatty foods take longer to digest and stay in your stomach longer, so they can push that acid up,” Zumpano says.
For this reason, it’s best to avoid cooking with especially fatty cuts of meat. That doesn’t mean you can’t still cook your favorite recipes, just try swapping out fatty cuts of lamb or beef for lean chicken or vegetarian proteins like tofu.
4. Use Low-Fat Cooking Methods
Cooking methods are a huge way fat gets into food, and adjusting how food is prepared can make a huge difference in relieving reflux.
Frying and heavy sautéing adds fat to foods. The best way to prepare meals that likely won’t trigger heartburn is, “baked or grilled, without heavy sauces,” Zumpano says.
You can also steam, broil, poach, or lightly sauté. “Air frying is great, too,” Zumpano says.
5. Plate Smaller Portions
Cooking at home means you have more control over your portions than you do when eating out.
Some research has found that smaller meals reduce the risk of reflux. The Preventive Nutrition and Food Science meta-analysis also found that large meals loosened the lower esophageal sphincter and were associated with an increased risk of GERD.
Zumpano suggests people stop eating before they feel full to avoid overeating and a bout of heartburn, if overeating is a trigger for them. Try serving food on smaller dishes and eating smaller, more frequent meals that are high in protein and fiber.
