3 ms·

As someone with chronic GERD, I am really interested to know your recipes, how many meals you take and your food preparation technique. Are these any cooking we

As someone with chronic GERD, I am really interested to know your recipes, how many meals you take and your food preparation technique. Are these any cooking websites/channels you would recommend? In my university years, I used to eat whatever was cheap and available easy, the result was my GERD symptoms were so bad most nights I couldn’t get full night sleep. Over time I noticed some common triggers. Black pepper, garlic, raw tomato (weirdly cooked tomatoes don’t trigger as much symptoms), any citrus fruits, carbonated drinks to name a few. Mostly it was learning by suffering. I make conscious efforts now to avoid food with these triggers and manage the symptoms quite a bit when I am not traveling. But some nights still end up waking up with intense upper esophageal pain. Honestly over the years the sad truth I have now realized is fasting is sometimes better than consuming types of things now a day that we call food.

chickenfeed 3y ago
There's foods that trigger GERD for me, and I used to roll around the floor every night in agony, not knowing quite what was going on, as it was my norm. To fix late night issues, I just have to eat before 6pm. Chew properly. Soups kill me. And anything tomato sauced based is out. Also weirdly oatmeal can trigger issues for me. But I can get away with it in the morning. I think it's also a chewing issue. A huge amount of digestion happens in the mouth. So now I get my partner to pre-chew most of my foods for me.
- ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
  >So now I get my partner to pre-chew most of my foods for me. Umm... what's stopping you from chewing them yourself?
  - sergers 3y ago
    Umm yea sorry, can you explain the pre-chew food. Why not blend/mince the food if it's a digestion issue
    - chickenfeed 3y ago
      It was a joke, of course I don't get my partner to chew my foods for me. The blending is not so much the issue. It's the saliva being an important part of the digestive process that counts. Blended soups can upset my gut, probably as I don't chew.
      - selimthegrim 3y ago
        Brings a new meaning to Caves of Qud
- justinclift 3y ago
  > And anything tomato sauced based is out. Does orange juice also cause issues?
  - chickenfeed 3y ago
    Yes.
- thelastparadise 3y ago
  > pre-chew Can you please explain this? I was following along nicely until this part.
  - chickenfeed 3y ago
    It's just play. Meaning that I'm too lazy to even chew my own food, so I get someone else to do it. Like on Ferenginar.
- meristohm 3y ago
  You have a loving and supportive partner :) I enlist yeast and bacteria to pre-chew some of my food, namely in sauerkraut/kimchi. Cooking also is a form of pre-chewing.
meristohm 3y ago
I hear you- it really sucks when I eat too much/too late in the day/the wrong thing and also am too tired to stay awake and digest. Sometimes I have fallen asleep in a comfortable chair as a workaround, and I've started using antacid tablets now and then but they're uncomfortable and I don't want to rely on them. I used omeprazole for a cumulative month while I rehabituated to eating smaller, more frequent meals and stopping around 4pm. I don't have any GERD-specific resources to suggest, as I have a solid foundation from childhood of eating minimally-processed food from the garden and local farmers. To cook for my family I use the NYT Cooking app because it's easy, and cookbooks from the library. Ayurvedic cookbooks, Instant Pot cookbooks, anti-inflammation cookbooks; all have some good options. I absolutely love eating, not just in the moment but how I feel after a good meal. When I'm stressed, however, I tend to eat easy foods that are less healthy; feels good in the moment, but not so great afterwards, kinda like Rand al'Thor (in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time) might feel reaching through that oil-slick taint (a difficult word to use with a straight face here...) to access the Source. So, I work to take care of myself in general so that the gestalt is positive; better action begets better actions. It doesn't always work, and when it's a downward spiral the best I can do is forgive myself, not let my failures get in the way, and keep at it. Good luck!

chickenfeed 3y ago

There's foods that trigger GERD for me, and I used to roll around the floor every night in agony, not knowing quite what was going on, as it was my norm. To fix late night issues, I just have to eat before 6pm. Chew properly. Soups kill me. And anything tomato sauced based is out. Also weirdly oatmeal can trigger issues for me. But I can get away with it in the morning. I think it's also a chewing issue. A huge amount of digestion happens in the mouth. So now I get my partner to pre-chew most of my foods for me.

ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
>So now I get my partner to pre-chew most of my foods for me. Umm... what's stopping you from chewing them yourself?
- sergers 3y ago
  Umm yea sorry, can you explain the pre-chew food. Why not blend/mince the food if it's a digestion issue
  - chickenfeed 3y ago
    It was a joke, of course I don't get my partner to chew my foods for me. The blending is not so much the issue. It's the saliva being an important part of the digestive process that counts. Blended soups can upset my gut, probably as I don't chew.
    - selimthegrim 3y ago
      Brings a new meaning to Caves of Qud
justinclift 3y ago
> And anything tomato sauced based is out. Does orange juice also cause issues?
- chickenfeed 3y ago
  Yes.
thelastparadise 3y ago
> pre-chew Can you please explain this? I was following along nicely until this part.
- chickenfeed 3y ago
  It's just play. Meaning that I'm too lazy to even chew my own food, so I get someone else to do it. Like on Ferenginar.
meristohm 3y ago
You have a loving and supportive partner :) I enlist yeast and bacteria to pre-chew some of my food, namely in sauerkraut/kimchi. Cooking also is a form of pre-chewing.

meristohm 3y ago

I hear you- it really sucks when I eat too much/too late in the day/the wrong thing and also am too tired to stay awake and digest. Sometimes I have fallen asleep in a comfortable chair as a workaround, and I've started using antacid tablets now and then but they're uncomfortable and I don't want to rely on them. I used omeprazole for a cumulative month while I rehabituated to eating smaller, more frequent meals and stopping around 4pm. I don't have any GERD-specific resources to suggest, as I have a solid foundation from childhood of eating minimally-processed food from the garden and local farmers. To cook for my family I use the NYT Cooking app because it's easy, and cookbooks from the library. Ayurvedic cookbooks, Instant Pot cookbooks, anti-inflammation cookbooks; all have some good options. I absolutely love eating, not just in the moment but how I feel after a good meal. When I'm stressed, however, I tend to eat easy foods that are less healthy; feels good in the moment, but not so great afterwards, kinda like Rand al'Thor (in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time) might feel reaching through that oil-slick taint (a difficult word to use with a straight face here...) to access the Source. So, I work to take care of myself in general so that the gestalt is positive; better action begets better actions. It doesn't always work, and when it's a downward spiral the best I can do is forgive myself, not let my failures get in the way, and keep at it. Good luck!