Following a healthy diet to prevent heartburn in Macon and Atlanta
When it comes to talking about foods that cause heartburn, nuts don’t get much attention. Spicy foods, acidic fruits and caffeine take the spotlight off of other culprits that are lingering in our diets. One of these lesser recognized foods are tree nuts
What are tree nuts?
- Almonds
- Walnuts
- Hazelnuts
- Cashews
- Pistachios
- Brazil Nuts
Tree nuts are both fatty and oily—both characteristics that spell problems for heartburn. You might not think of tree nuts as a particularly fattening food, but the USDA notes that almonds contain about 18 grams of fat per ¼ cup serving. This high level of fat can encourage the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) to relax, making acid reflux even worse among people who are already dealing with chronic heartburn.
Just like all other heartburn triggers, nuts don’t aggravate everyone with heartburn. There are plenty of people in Macon and Atlanta with heartburn who are able to eat almonds and walnuts without experiencing any worsening of their symptoms. But because nuts deliver such a high fat content, they may still be contributing to the heartburn problem. Even if nuts don’t cause heartburn right away like a spicy meal might, they could be leading the way for another minor snack to cause a strong disturbance.
The more fatty and oily foods you cut out of your diet, the more likely you’ll be able to cut down on how much heartburn you experience.
Avoiding Tree Nuts
One of the biggest pitfalls of our globalized food market is that it’s sometimes hard to tell what ingredients are in what. It isn’t too hard to spot a nut in its whole form and avoid it that way, but what about when it is baked into something? Unfortunately, if you are highly sensitive to this trigger you might find yourself with severe heartburn after unknowingly ingesting tree nuts.
Here are a few places where tree nuts are often hiding:
- Salad dressings
- Pie crusts
- Pasta
- Crackers
- Cookies
- Barbeque sauce
- Meat breading
Interestingly enough, the most popular nut of all isn’t included in this forbidden list of tree nuts. However, that doesn’t mean peanuts are an okay supplement to the above nuts in your diet. Peanuts also have a high fat content, and so might prove problematic for heartburn patients.
If you have more questions about avoiding heartburn with a healthy diet, talk with your GERD surgeon.
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