Understanding Your Triggers: Ways To Identify Foods That Cause Heartburn

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Frequent, painful heartburn is one of the most common symptoms that patients with GERD struggle with, and it can be discouraging and even debilitating. Many patients find themselves frustrated, confused, and unsure about what is causing their heartburn - that’s where we come in! One of the most important things for anyone who suffers from heartburn is to identify your triggers.

Heartburn triggers are exactly what they sound like: something that exacerbates your system and results in painful heartburn. For most patients these triggers are diet based, and it’s crucial that you identify the foods that trigger your heartburn so you can make healthy lifestyle choices to eliminate your pain and suffering.

Common Foods That Cause Heartburn

About 25 million people per day suffer from acid reflux, and heartburn is a common symptom. Some common foods that cause heartburn in people with acid reflux or GERD are:

Spicy foods like garlic, black pepper, cayenne, and onions.

Alcohol.
Chocolate.
Citrus fruits like lemons, oranges, and grapefruit.
Coffee and tea.
Caffeine.
Tomatoes and tomato-based products.
Peppermint.
Greasy or fried foods.

How To Identify Your Trigger Foods

One of the easiest ways to identify which foods are triggering your heartburn is to keep a food diary. For each meal, make sure that you’re logging the foods that you eat, what time of day you’re eating them, and any accompanying symptoms that you experience. It may not seem like it at first, but this is a great way to catalog a ton of information related to your eating habits and, when shared with your heartburn doctor, can provide valuable insight into your specific triggers!

For some patients it may be a specific food that is causing their heartburn, but it’s also possible that your heartburn is linked to other factors like the time of day at which you’re eating, how frequently or infrequently you’re eating, and the size of your meals.

If you don’t want to write everything down manually then there are dozens of great mobile apps available that can act as a food diary for you and make it easy to see a link between heartburn and the foods you eat.

Once you identify the foods that trigger heartburn for you, you can try eliminating them to see if your condition improves. Then you can reintroduce those foods one at a time to see how they affect you!

Keep in mind that GERD and heartburn can also be affected by how much or how little you eat. Try playing around with food quantity. Switch things up and eat more frequent smaller meals rather than fewer large meals and see if that has any effect on your heartburn symptoms.

I Know My Triggers...What Next?

Once you’ve identified your trigger foods, the most important thing to do is to sit down with your heartburn doctor for advice on next steps. Bring your food diary with you so that they can help you identify any triggers you may have missed, then propose a treatment plan based on your specific needs. Chances are that your heartburn is caused by a more chronic condition like GERD, and when treated with reflux surgery can be eliminated for good!