Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Too much acid? Heartburn.

Heartburn and acid is often seen as the chicken and the egg, but it's one of the first symptoms to disappear when we withdraw carbohydrates from our diet.
Dr Wolfgang Lutz, low carb researcher and co-author of Life Without Bread says many patients would return to him and complain that the low carb diet he had recommended was no longer working and their heartburn had returned. but, he said, on examination, it usually meant that carbs had crept back into their diet.

I'm writing this because I had a 'naughty week' last week, with a luscious pizza at a local restaurant - the first in years, closely followed by the first heartburn I can remember since I went alkaline. Dr Allen, his co-author agrees. he says that patients going low carb demonstrated an immediate improvement in heartburn and stomach pain after eating - if they experienced those problems on their old diet.

So.. it appears that carbs disturb acid regulation. Normally, acid is produced from the bloodstream for the stomach when it has something to digest. Only a 'sick' stomach produces acid when it has nothing to digest. This is called 'fasting secretion' and is the reason for autodigestion seen with peptic ulcers. if you have excess gastric acid, there's a good chance of a near-future gastric ulcer. It's pretty obvious: gastric ulcers are only found in sites where contact with gastric juices is possible.

Drs Lutz and Allen both say gastritis and many types of ulcers will heal if carbs are restricted. it's an inflammation of the stomach, especially the mucous lining.Hyperacidity, or reflux, and heartburn are. they say, eliminatable (?) by carb restriction. The exeption to the rule is the gastric ulcer my dad suffered; the well-named 'callous' gastric ulcer, caused directly by stress.

I can see why. Carbs are all forms of sugar, and sugar is acidic, and acids create inflammation. I know this is simplistic, but I also understand that a low carb diet is a low acid diet. And the fundamental difference is that a diet with excess carbs is inevitably a diet with too little good, healthy, energy-producing fat.



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