If your reflux symptoms are moderate, you can go right to the food lists in subsequent chapters. Just be sure to avoid or limit the foods shown in red in the tables and lists.
If your reflux symptoms are severe, however, you may need to kick things off with two weeks of a strict, acid-free diet, a kind of detox program for your digestive system. It gives your body a respite and deactivates pepsin molecules (those lobsters with their nasty claws) that are still hanging around your throat, esophagus, or elsewhere.
We tried this Induction Reflux Diet on some of our patients who weren’t responding to typical medical treatments. For two weeks, they ate nothing below pH 5, and they experienced great symptom relief. If your doctor has you on a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) such as Nexium, Prilosec, Aciphex, Zegerid, Prevacid, Protonix, omeprazole, or pantoprazole, you should strongly consider this approach.
Avoiding acid means consuming nothing below pH 4. However, if your symptoms are severe, it’s well worth considering the even stricter induction phase diet for two weeks, in which you eat nothing below pH 5.
How is the acid-free Induction Reflux Diet different from the Maintenance Reflux Diet? For one thing, it’s strict. During induction, you eat 3–5 meals per day of only the best foods listed below. And no night eating!
Also, the Induction Reflux Diet is more limiting. It includes no fruit except for bananas and melons. The main beverage is water—drink at least eight cups of it a day, non-carbonated. (You can still try every recipe in this book, as they are all acceptably low on acid and fat.)
INDUCTION REFLUX DIET—THE BEST FOODS LIST
(L means “Limit”)
Agave
Aloe vera
AppleL (max. 4 per week, only the reds)
Artificial sweetenerL (max. 2 tsp per day)
Bagels and (non-fruit) low-fat muffins
Banana (great snack food)
Beans – black, red, lima, lentils, etc.
Bread – whole-grain, rye, unprocessed wheat
CaramelL (less than 4 Tbsp/week)
Celery (great snack food)
Chamomile tea – most other herbal teas are not okay
Chicken – grilled/broiled/baked/steamed; no skin
Chicken stock or bouillon
CoffeeL (one cup per day, best with milk)
Fennel
Fish (including shellfish and sushi) – grilled/broiled/baked/steamed
Ginger – ginger root, powdered or preserved
Green vegetables – excluding green pepper
Herbs – excluding all peppers, citrus, and mustard
Honey
Melon – honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon
Milk – skim, soy, or Lactaid skim milk recommended
Mushrooms – raw or cooked
Oatmeal and all whole-grain cereals
Olive oilL (1–2 Tbsp per day)
Parsley
Pasta – with non-acidic sauce
PearsL (max. 4 per week only if ripe)
Popcorn – plain or salted, no butter
Potatoes – and all of the root vegetables except onions
Red bell peppersL (max. 1 per week)
Rice (healthy rice is a staple during induction)
Soups – homemade with noodles and low-acid veggies
Tofu
Turkey breast – organic, no skin
Turnip
Vegetables – raw or cooked, no onion, tomato, peppers
VinaigretteL (1 Tbsp per day)
Water – non-carbonated
Whole-grain breads, crackers & breakfast cereals
With a little creativity, you can easily sustain the Induction Reflux Diet. In brief, the idea is to go two weeks eating only the “Best Foods,” and without carbonation, fruit juice, or alcohol.
From the case files of Dr. Koufman
One of the most dramatic cases I had was a 29-year-old schoolteacher from Long Island who had all the symptoms of reflux: hoarseness, sore throat, cough, throat clearing, trouble swallowing, etc. She had a horrendous diet. She drank six diet colas a day and loved all the wrong fruits; breakfast for her meant a soda and a grapefruit.
The typical treatment for someone like this would be a “proton pump inhibitor” medication and a change in diet, but this young woman was planning to get pregnant and didn’t want to be on any meds. Instead, I prescribed the strict Induction Reflux Diet.
“But what will I eat?” she wailed.
“You’ll get up in the morning and have oatmeal,” I told her.
After two weeks on this diet, the woman’s reflux symptom index had gone from 28 (above 15 is bad) down to 4.
Not everyone responds this way. We don’t expect anyone to get that well that quickly, but the schoolteacher happened to be what we call a “rapid responder.” Once she understood and implemented The Reflux Diet, she was cured.