My husband ( the diabetic one) and I have been on the low carb eating plan since January. He’s lost lots of weight, but still on Metformin, has half a stone to go. I have suffered from gastric reflux for over 5 years, with terrible heartburn, despite taking Omeprazole and Gaviscon Advance. It varied from well-controlled to awful. Since starting the plan it’s gradually waned, and I’m now off all medication. I was a stone overweight ( now on target weight) so don’t think it’s really because of the pressure of fat in my abdomen. Sure it’s the carbs. If I break out and have a biscuit before bedtime I will get reflux, mildly. Has anyone else experienced this? Have found a couple of references on the net.

Hi Type2, it was only when someone mentioned their acid reflux had cleared up that I realised I hadn’t had any symptoms on this diet either!!! Carbs must cause SO much damage to our bodies as this diet seems to be solving an awful lot more health problems than just T2!!!! 🙂

Hello Mrs Type2 🙂

A friend and I were talking about this just a couple of days ago, it’s definitely a ‘thing’ that happens when you stop eating carbs.

My own theory is that it’s wheat related and possibly a GM crop thing. Both my friend and I only get reflux from bread – not potatoes or rice.

Whatever the reason, it’s fantastic to be reflux free!

Hi. I’m another former reflux sufferer since cutting out carbs 😃

Marcus, I think you may be right. I’m extremely gluten intolerant and now no reflux since not eating any starchy carbs 🙂
I hope all of us who no longer have acid reflux post here to give us an idea if this is common on low carb diets 🙂

Had a wholemeal seeded bread sandwich when out to lunch today, and 20 minutes later had attack of reflux which was briefly very uncomfortable. Maybe you and your friend are right Marcus B. I was formerly very fond of bread, and another toast, made all my own spelt bread, so it was genuinely added sugar free. Not missing it, strangely. Only had the sandwich as the only other option was soup…
Going out for meals is a challenge, especially in a small town. I hope that cafes and restaurants will get onto the low carb bandwagon soon…

Hi Type2Partner. It sounds strange, but I needed to buy food on a railway station after I flew home from holiday recently. Needless to say, the option was sweets or sandwiches. I bought a BLT, ate the filling and binned the rest. In the past the only available option was McDonalds – I bought a burger (no fries), ate the meat and salad but left the bun. Neither option was ideal, but I felt them to be the best choices in the circumstances.

I live near a small city, but most eating places there are still of the sandwich or something with chips style. Since starting the BSD 17 weeks ago I find I eat breakfast, then nothing until evening. If I am with someone who is eating again lunchtime I just have a coffee. If they ask, I just say either that I’m not hungry, that I’ve already eaten, or that I’m going out for a meal later.

One thing I can find is a breakfast. BHS do a 4-item breakfast which sets me up for the day. Perhaps you could find something similar. I find many cafes serve an all-day breakfast.

Hi everyone, I can also report that I’ve had no acid reflux since commencing BSD. It’s interesting because I had previously thought that eating fat was the trigger for the reflux. I’m now thinking it could have been the starchy carbs that I was eating with the fat. Since starting the BSD I’ve eaten very little bread, but found a local (12 kms away) bakery that makes rye and sunflower seed bread. I’ve only had 1 slice with soup and no reflux.(Food for thought!)

Hi all
I too suffered with awful acid reflux and indigestion and took omeprazole and drunk Gaviscon like milk at bedtime. I’m now in my 7th week of BSD and have not had any of these symptoms for the past 6.5 weeks!! I am amazed as I’d even had a magic eye to see if there was anything sinister going on.

I also used to have IBS type symptoms in work as I do 12 hour shifts spent largely sat on my behind, these too have miraculously stopped over the past 7 weeks!

Life is good!

Denise, lynne, Switzerland , marcus, would you mind just putting your health improvements in the ‘list your improvements ‘ list? 🙂

Already done Judith 😃

Brilliant lynne. 🙂

Denise that’s good news about your ibs.my neice has it and is hoping starting this diet will improve it. I forgot to add that i have not had a flare up of diverticulitis which needed antibiotic treatment since I started this diet.

These improvements are incredible. I love this diet 🙂

Hi, my reflux blamed on a hiatus hernia that used to cause me to cough after the acid found its way into my throat but no longer.

Hi SkyWalker
I suffered from acid reflux for years & had to sleep with 3 pillows as I couldn’t lie flat in bed as I would wake up ‘drowning’ in gastric acid! NO MORE REFLUX? Completely gone as soon as I started this diet! I was chewing 3 Rennies a night before.

It could be that bread or dairy was causing my problem? It is known that chocolate increases the production of seratonin which relaxes the oesophageal sphincter muscle of the stomach, thus releasing gastric acid & causing reflux.

Eliminate the irritant et voila c’est disparue! It’s gone 😀

My reflux has if anything been more severe (3days in) but I have been changing from osemprazole (sp? and a PPI) to ranitidine ( a H+ inhibitor instead) which is not as effective and meant I had to take a tablet twice a day – first three diet days i have had to chew gaviscon in the afternoon too.

After hearing other have theirs clear up, I’m hopeful mine will settle down, even just only one ranitidine daily would be fine. I was concerned about taking the PPI forever, hence the change.

my reflux is structural in good part, so less food-based I suspect. We shall see, very early days.

Hi Everyone
I have had heart burn almost since I started the diet! I do take Peppermint supplements daily and did previously to starting the diet but these aren’t helping. I will have been on the diet two weeks tomorrow. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas about what I may be doing wrong I would be really grateful.

I try to drink several ordinary sized glasses of water each day, usually between three and five of them. Despite criticism of the value of drinking plain water, I’ve found that three glasses of water (drunk over about half an hour or so) help settle heartburn. I try not to eat a heavy meal in the evening, and try to eat before 7pm to leave time for dinner to digest. I take two spoonfuls of liquid Gaviscon before bed if I need to. I no longer take anti-reflux medication. I try and relax my stomach to help my digestion. The other thing is to deliberately eat more slowly.

Hi Embob,

If you are eating more protein that might be taking longer to digest – or else requiring more stomach acid to work on the meat? You might need to experiment a bit.

I have been suffering from heartburn for the past few years. This has been the third year that I did the Whole 30 diet to find out what food causes my heartburn. I am able to get of Nexium during Whole 30 and was certain it was the dairy. I started eating Whole Wheat bread for 3 days in the morning and my heartburn came back. I think it may be the gluten?? that is causing my heartburn?? I just don’t know. Back to natural only carbs no bread.

I have heartburn due to a hiatal hernia. I take a PPI and eat an anti reflux diet. I need to lose some weight because my tummy is so big and I am sure it’s pressing on my stomach and making things worse. Anybody here with an HH who got better on this diet?

If the symptoms go away the problem is likely have been due to acid reflux. If symptoms do not go away with acid suppressing medications such as Prilosec or other PPI drugs, there are two possible explanations. … Second, the medications are not adequately shutting off the production of stomach acid.

Hello – I have HH and had terrible acid reflux. It can feel as if your entire digestive system is rebelling. The fasting diet probably helps because you eat less and finish eating earlier in the evening – that’s part of the discipline of this diet. Acid reflux is chronic in that it can come back at you after a period of being settled down, especially after digestive abuse and also if you feel stressed or you react in a stressy way alot.

What helps, apart from medication? Water helps soothe it. You might find that taking some of your daily drinks as plain water (tap water is great and even helps with the hiatus hernia) makes a difference after a few days.

The other things to be careful about are caffeine (regular coffees), alcohol, and stress (and behaving in a stressy way). Apart from these, and testing out foods to see which you tolerate better, the two other important things are reducing your weight, eating smaller meals so you aren’t so full, and eating slowly. Eating slowly, taking about 20 minutes over each meal, is possibly more important – your digestive system will play up big time if you wolf your food.

I thought the painful heartburn/ reflux was just part of the ongoing chemotherapy. My bedtime drink was a large dose of Gaviscon Extra, with another dose in the night if I had moved off my side.
I have lost 35lbs on LCHF, the reflux went away completely after a few days, I didn’t notice at first.
With the weight loss I have been able to have a lower dose of Hydroxycarbamide.