How to Use Diet to Treat GERD

Creating a GERD diet plan can help to prevent the symptoms from occurring. GERD is short for Gastroesophageal reflux disease and is also commonly known as heartburn or acid reflux. Combining a healthy diet with exercise is one of the best ways to treat GERD symptoms before they become an ongoing problem.

• Make a meal plan for the entire week to help you prevent any GERD symptoms from occurring. If you eat a lunch every day at your job, take a bag meal with you instead of ordering out. Research the different foods that are possible GERD triggers to see which ones you should not include in your daily diet.


• Reduce the portion size of your meals to treat your GERD symptoms. If you normally eat three meals each day, increase the number to five or six and cut back on each portion size. Monitor your caloric intake to try and keep your GERD symptoms under control.


• Drink water with each meal instead of a beverage that contains caffeine or alcohol. Try to drink water all day long instead of eating an occasional snack. If you have to snack, eat some fruit and vegetables that are not on the list of potential GERD triggers.


• Keep track of when your GERD attacks occur. Write down the meals that you ate for the day when you have GERD symptoms. Remove those foods from your diet and then see if the symptoms return. You can then try to add the potential problem foods back into your diet one at a time so you can identify which one is the trigger for your GERD attacks.


• Consult with a physician if your GERD symptoms do not go away. You may need to get on GERD medication to complement your diet. Tell the doctor your weekly meal plan to see if you need to make any changes that will help prevent GERD attacks from happening.