The Best Remedies To Combat Acidity

To avoid excessive consumption of antacids and similar medicines, you can include alkaline foods in your diets, which facilitate digestion and neutralize stomach acids.

Stomach acidity should not be considered a disease, rather a very annoying digestive imbalance that can be aggravated and that over time could favor some diseases due to the altered pH.

We explain what the possible causes may be and why it is not convenient to abuse antacids, as well as sharing with you the best natural remedies of the past to fight acidity in a natural way.

Possible causes

The most common causes of stomach acid are:

• incorrect diet or excess of acidifying foods
• habitual use of medications such as aspirin, ibuprofen or birth control pills
• bad habits
• stress
• indigestion

Antacids

You can find antacids in drugstores, or many people also use baking soda to relieve acidity.

You should know that these remedies only improve the problem temporarily and do not cure it completely.

On the contrary, in the long run, if you abuse antacids, you risk to alter the stomach acids too much with a consequent possibility of causing various diseases.

Foods to avoid

You must always avoid, as far as possible, and especially in cases of hyperacidity, the following foods:

• dairy product
• sugars
• fried food
• refined products
• packaged pastry products
• alcohol
• coffee
• spices such as cinnamon, cloves, ginger or pepper
• tobacco

Beneficial foods

Instead, there are foods that are alkalizing, facilitate digestion and act as natural antacids. Here are some of them:

• Lemon : lemon, despite being a citrus fruit and being acidic, has a neutralizing effect on acids once it reaches the stomach, which is why we recommend taking it regularly, combined with meals and natural juices or simply with water.

• Potato : Potato is the great natural antacid. Its juice works perfectly in counteracting heartburn.
• Millet : Millet is the only alkalizing cereal, so eat it more often than other grains like rice and wheat.
• Pineapple: pineapple facilitates digestion thanks to proteolytic enzymes, but it must not be mixed with carbohydrates (bread, pasta, pastries, rice, etc.). It is the ideal dessert before or after eating vegetables, salads, meat or fish.
• Cabbage : Cabbage helps heal ulcers, but many people can’t digest it well if it’s raw. Eat it boiled with a pinch of cumin or raw, but macerated with vinegar or in the form of sauerkraut.
• Pepper : Pepper is a solanacea that acts as a gastric tonic.
• Grapes: it is one of the most alkalizing fruits, but it must be eaten preferably organic to avoid that it contains pesticides.

• Celery: celery is purifying and alkalizing. Add it to broth or stews, or to salads.

Although we particularly recommend these foods, there are people who cannot digest them well; so, if you feel that they still cause you acidity, eliminate them from your diet.

Potato, cabbage and carrot based cure

One remedy to combat this problem is to eat only three vegetables for three days: potato, cabbage and carrot.

If you want and the season allows it, you can also add some other vegetables to taste. You can also eat apples in different ways: boiled, baked, raw or pureed.

Potato juice and olive oil

In ancient times it was recommended to drink for nine days the juice of a quarter of a well washed and peeled large raw potato (about a quarter or a third of a glass) with the addition of two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

This anti-inflammatory and alkalizing preparation is very effective and you will notice improvements in just 9 days.

You can make raw potato juice yourself or buy it from health food stores and health food stores.

Clay water

Another natural antacid that you can take without affecting your health is white clay for oral use, sold in health food stores and health food stores.

Pour a spoonful of clay into a glass of water and mix using a wooden spoon. After ten minutes, stir again and drink the mixture.

Bicarbonate waters against acidity

A very pleasant way to counteract stomach acid is to drink bicarbonate water and take baths in bicarbonate thermal waters.

Each spa has a certain type of water with certain characteristics, so check which ones are bicarbonate. Sea water is also alkalizing.

Images courtesy of tribp, Breville USA and Wally Hartshorn