Suffering From GERD? You Can Still Enjoy Mexican Food With These 3 Tips

A diagnosis of GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) can leave you worried that you'll never enjoy a meal at your favorite Mexican restaurant again. When it comes to heartburn and acid reflux, spicy food has a bad reputation, and if you love salsa caliente but hate the burning sensation and acid taste in your mouth, you may think that you don't have any option but to give up the fiery flavors. However, things may not be as bad as they seem. Take a look at some tips that can help you to continue to enjoy dishes from your favorite Mexican restaurant in Tucson AZ without pain.

Know Your Triggers

There are a lot of foods that can trigger an episode of acid reflux. On lists of the most common triggers, you can find many things that you will find in Mexican dishes – tomatoes, onions, and garlic are on the list, as are foods that are high in fat, like the avocados needed to make guacamole. Even the basic elements of a margarita are on the list – both alcohol and citrus fruits are commonly listed triggers.

That may look bad at first, but consider this: just because a certain food can be a trigger doesn't mean that it's necessarily your trigger. The list of trigger foods is long because different people have different triggers. If you know your triggers, you can avoid them while still enjoying foods that don't bother you. For example, if tomatoes don't give you any trouble, but avocados do, then you can always enjoy the salsa and skip the guacamole. Keep in mind that while spicy foods may not be your trigger, that spice will burn more than other foods might if it comes up during a reflux episode, so it's an especially good idea to avoid trigger foods when eating heavily spiced meals.

To find out which foods trigger you, you'll have to do some experimenting, and you'll probably have to suffer through a few bouts of reflux. Try keeping a food journal to help you isolate which foods result in reflux and which do not. But once you work out which foods affect you the most, it will be much easier to enjoy a meal out.

Reduce Your Portion Sizes

What happens if you already know that the chimichangas and hot sauce from your favorite Mexican restaurant are a trigger, but you don't want to give them up? You may be able to tolerate the spicy or trigger foods that you crave if you simply reduce your portion sizes. Large meals can trigger reflux no matter what happens to be in those meals, because all of that food creates more pressure on the valve at the top of your stomach – and when that valve opens, reflux is the result.

The easiest way to avoid that extra pressure on your stomach valve is to not eat enough to put pressure on it. It's always better for GERD sufferers to eat frequent small meals instead of a few large meals for this reason. If you can't always eat frequent small meals, though, at least try to do so before a meal when you're likely to eat a trigger food – like before you go out for Mexican food. Then you can order a smaller-sized portion than you normally would – or order the usual size and have half of it put in a to-go box, so you can enjoy it later.

Take Advantage of the Early Bird Specials

If you normally suffer from acid reflux at night, there's a simple solution that could solve the problem entirely: eat earlier (or alternatively, stay up later).

Experts say that eating too close to bedtime is the single biggest risk factor for acid reflux. Ideally, you should wait at least three hours after eating to lie down and sleep. Especially when you know you'll be eating foods that might irritate your stomach, schedule the meal for when you can eat early enough that you won't need to sleep soon afterward, and you may find that your reflux problem isn't an issue.

Enjoying a night out at your favorite Mexican restaurant may take a little more planning when you have GERD, but it's not impossible. You can enjoy spicy food without suffering by taking some simple precautions.

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