My wife was just diagnosed with a fairly severe case of GERD (chronic acid-reflux disorder). The GI doctor gave her an egregiously hard-assed set of dietary restrictions, supposedly for the rest of her freaking life. I hesitated to say anything on a board she's not a member of, but I seriously need some suggestions on what the hell she can eat that actually tastes good. I remember Garnet has this lovely ray of sunshine in her life (my sympathies, by the way, this fucking sucks), as mentioned in her Breakfast thread, but upon a search there doesn't seem to be a thread devoted to recipes that keep the acid beast at bay.
The highlights of these draconian restrictions:
No alcohol
No caffeine
No hot spices (not clear on how other spices, such as garlic, might fare)
Nothing fried
Nothing greasy or fatty
No citrus
So what the hell do we do? If we have to cut out stuff like garlic as well, she's going to be even more depressed. It's not like we fry everything, or slather everything in fat, or use chiles all the time, but to cut them out forever? Plus she's always been a fan of putting fresh lemon on damned nearly everything, and now she can't put it on anything.
This just sucks out loud.
__________________
In loyalty to their kind
They cannot tolerate our minds
In loyalty to our kind
We cannot tolerate their obstruction - Airplane, Jefferson
Garlic is not in the "hot spices" category. They mean the peppers -- ground cayenne, red flakes, tabasco, that sort of thing. However, garlic can give some people reflux.
It all depends on the internal flora and fauna. My mom, for instance, had really serious bleeding ulcers, and yet never had a problem with garlic. Tomato gravy almost killed me once, I swear, but a plain tomato sauce on pasta has never bothered me. You just never know how people are going to react.
I think it's a stabilization issue. Once she's feeling okay and her insides aren't producing acids at a precipitous rate anymore, you can try re-introducing bits of all the prohibited items (in moderation, of course) and see how her tummy feels.
Meanwhile, try to replace elements in your regular recipes with attenuated versions. For instance, start off using roasted garlic instead of raw. For a lot of lemon flavor with very little citric acid, add just a bit of lemon zest to a recipe instead of juice. Replace ground black pepper with white pepper, or with a vast panoply of herbs like oregano, parsley, basil, sage, rosemary, thyme. Oh! There's even a lemon thyme which has a pleasing if subtle hint of your wife's beloved citrus.
Use low-fat dairy products like skim milk, buttermilk or dare I suggest it, soy substitute cheeses. The latter suck on their own, but as part of a recipe they're aight.
Here's one of my favorite recipes of all time. It's meant to be a replacement for high-fat, GERD-hating fried chicken, but in my opinion it far exceeds the original.
I've had a couple people I know get better by doing something like Dingfod did or do a diet elimination for a while, and discovering that they had food intolerances (my best friend from college got reflux from wheat, which also sucks for recipe planning).
I've had a couple people I know get better by doing something like Dingfod did or do a diet elimination for a while, and discovering that they had food intolerances (my best friend from college got reflux from wheat, which also sucks for recipe planning).
Wheat not only gives me acid reflux, it makes me wheeze like an asthmatic. Corn also makes me wheeze, though not as much, but doesn't give me the reflux. Rice and potatoes do neither, but they do make me fat. Chocolate, like no-bake chocolate cookies or fudge are a recipe for disaster. Chocolate candy or candy bars, eaten in moderation cause me no problem, except the fat thing. I have no lactose intolerance problems either, it's those stupid grains.
__________________
Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
I am sort of (but not really) surprised that doctors don't do more elimination diets. I think they may be working with the underlying assumption that people won't change their lifestyles.
I bet they are right a significant amount of time.
My step mother has stomach problems and can eat no meat and my dad is a diabetic who should eat more like you, Dingfod.
My dad is getting worse and worse.
Spousal support is important, Sock. Good for you for trying to help.
Damn, Sock. That sucks. I am lucky in that my GERD has been controlled almost entirely by medication for the last 6 years. As long as I take a Prevacid in the morning and eat within 20 - 30 minutes, I'm good to go. I can take a second one in the evening if I'm fired up. Everyone is different.
The only thing that I've found that I cannot have anymore under any circumstances is orange juice. OMG, that just turns my stomach into an acid producing volcano. Pineapple juice does the same thing. On the other hand, grape juice doesn't bother me in the least.
Heavy tomato sauce fires me up too, but I can have it as long as I pop the extra pill. I'm a hot-spice wimp, so I tend not to eat hot things anyway.
One thing that I find helps me when I am fired up is carbonated drinks. I have no idea why, but even carbonated water helps.
About the medications, I tried 4 different prescriptions before I landed on one that really worked. Every med other than Prevacid, while they controlled the acid, gave me the screamin' shits. The right med really works though. I had Barret's Esophogus which is a condition caused by reflux and throwing up a lot. Simply put, it's when stomach cells start making their way up the esophogus. It can turn to cancer. However, the last time they took a peek down there, all that was completely gone. In fact, my doc said that had he not been the one to see it and diagnose it the first time, he would not have believed that I had it.
I don't have any good recipes; I'm not the cook in the house. Your wife my need a bland diet for a while, but she should gradually be able to reintroduce most foods. She'll be able to very quickly tell those foods that start the volcano.
Bill suffered with the same thing, Sock and he liked a drink too.
Apple juice was a favourite. Cranberry juice was usually fine too. And as long as I used fresh tomatoes, a ragu sauce didn't cause problems. I used fresh garlic and used no cooking oil.
Mind you, he used to get reflux from drinking a glass of water sometimes, so as others have mentioned, it does depend on how the stomach is at the time.
Have you checked out the healthy recipes thread? There would be quite a few on there that would work, even if you might have to adjust some with spices.
I have a lot of "clean eating" recipes I make that would work. I'll dig through some tonight when I get home and see what I can find.
__________________ Don't make me break out my ninja powers..
I find that doctors advice kind of strange, the thing thats helped me most is to stop eating 3-4 hours before I go to bed. best advice I can give her is to pay atention to what she eats and figure out what bothers her. loosing wheight will help things by putting less pressure on the stomache, as will wearing looser fiting cloths/pants.
alcohol is a no brainer, it relaxes the lower esophagal sphincter. cafein is sopesed to do the same
hot spicy food does not bother me in the slightest, nor does garlic.....garlic butter is a differnt storry though.
greasy foods will bug me, but only if I eat too much of them at once. fats take longer to digest and sit in the stomache longer
citrus usually wont bother me. I have a grape fruit with breakfst pretty much every day, and eat oranges a plenty with no problem.
two things gives me heart burn 100% of the time, oat meal and most breads
one other thing to take note of. Ive read that many acid reducing medications reduce cacium absorbtion and lead to reduced bone denseties
I was surprised at the egregiously, draconian, life-long restrictions too. Sock, if you can, get another opinion about that diet. I've never had a doctor recommend something like that for me to treat GERD and I'm obese!
I also frequently make some stuffed chicken by taking chicken breasts, cutting a pocket in them and stuffing a mixture of a little goat cheese and spinach. Goat cheese, depending on the type, tends to be lower in fat and a bit healthier than cow's milk cheeses. You could do a breading then or just bake it as is. It's great either way.
I actually used to have a bit of a problem with acid reflux myself. After losing close to 75 lbs and focusing on eating more whole foods and less processed things it's completely disappeared.
__________________ Don't make me break out my ninja powers..
Thanks y'all. Mrs. Puppet had a surgery last week that might actually address a lot of her issues. We'll keep the meals GERD-friendly as possible while we wait to see how it shakes out, though.
Wow, excellent link, Qingdai. I sent that to our home e-mail and will be printing out lots of those recipes. Nice to see the two columns of friendly and unfriendly recipes too; that rounds out the picture very well.
__________________
In loyalty to their kind
They cannot tolerate our minds
In loyalty to our kind
We cannot tolerate their obstruction - Airplane, Jefferson
Garlic is not in the "hot spices" category. They mean the peppers -- ground cayenne, red flakes, tabasco, that sort of thing. However, garlic can give some people reflux.
It all depends on the internal flora and fauna. My mom, for instance, had really serious bleeding ulcers, and yet never had a problem with garlic. Tomato gravy almost killed me once, I swear, but a plain tomato sauce on pasta has never bothered me. You just never know how people are going to react.
I think it's a stabilization issue. Once she's feeling okay and her insides aren't producing acids at a precipitous rate anymore, you can try re-introducing bits of all the prohibited items (in moderation, of course) and see how her tummy feels.
Meanwhile, try to replace elements in your regular recipes with attenuated versions. For instance, start off using roasted garlic instead of raw. For a lot of lemon flavor with very little citric acid, add just a bit of lemon zest to a recipe instead of juice. Replace ground black pepper with white pepper, or with a vast panoply of herbs like oregano, parsley, basil, sage, rosemary, thyme. Oh! There's even a lemon thyme which has a pleasing if subtle hint of your wife's beloved citrus.
Use low-fat dairy products like skim milk, buttermilk or dare I suggest it, soy substitute cheeses. The latter suck on their own, but as part of a recipe they're aight.
Here's one of my favorite recipes of all time. It's meant to be a replacement for high-fat, GERD-hating fried chicken, but in my opinion it far exceeds the original.
I am necromancing this thread because I am going to cook this tonight. I will report back what everyone thought!
You know, for some reason I thought melba toast was an American thing, but it turns out to have been invented by a French chef for an Australian opera singer.
That was lovely and crispy! I am seasoning the crust too next time though: I didn't have melba toast, so I had to use crackers and they were a tad too bland. I made some gravy, oven roast potatoes and fresh corn and broccoli to go with it.
The melba is key to that fried crunch. Crackers just don't have the same structural integrity. You know melba toast is just bread that's been toasted for a long time at low heat. If you can't find the real thing, you should try making it next time.
GERD-friendly recipes
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