If You Value Your Tum, Don't Eat Tums!

If you get acid reflux, it’s more likely you have a confused or underactive stomach than an overactive one. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true. The acid we’re talking about is hydrochloric acid – the one produced by the stomach and usually kept in the stomach by the esophageal sphincter.

Unfortunately, few people get the right advice on this condition and many people start self-medicating with over-the-counter antacids such as Tums or Pepto-Bismol. It may be useful to take antacids in the rare case where the person is overproducing stomach acid,  if they do this infrequently. But for the majority of people, the antacid confuses their stomach even more, putting their hydrochloric acid production even further out of kilter, and compromising absorption of the nutrients in their diet.

The human stomach produces acid to continue digesting our food (digestion starts in our mouths as we chew our food, mixing it with saliva, which contains the first of the digestive enzymes).

There are many situations that cause our stomach’s production of acid to fluctuate. For instance, if we enounter too much stress, or if we eat on the run, or if we overconsume meat, or if we age. Well, some of those we can control, but it’s pretty hard to control aging!

We have to go back to the beginning. Our stomachs and their ability to produce stomach acid work in synchronization with the circadian rhythms – the natural rhythms of our bodies and of the part of the earth where we live. In other words, if it’s dark outside, our bodies are expecting us to be asleep. If, instead, we eat, our bodies get very confused and try to respond by producing stomach acid and perhaps producing too much and we experience indigestion or acid reflux or “upset” stomach.

So, let’s think about what yours or my stomach’s natural circadian rhythm might be. Thousands of years ago, the elders in China put together the theories that were adopted into what we now call Traditional Chinese Medicine. According to that lens on life, the natural times of eating are

• breakfast between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., within one hour of getting up, and
• both lunch and dinner between the hours of noon and 7:00 p.m. (no later than that).

After 7:00 p.m., the digestive system and the circulatory system slow down, so that digesting a meal after 7:00 p.m. puts undue stress on the digestive organs. If eating late (after 7:00 p.m.) becomes a habit, the stomach produces less stomach acid and this situation may be experienced as heartburn, indigestion, heaviness after eating, or bloating. This is one of the times when someone may think they have an overactive stomach, but what they really have is a confused stomach.

Something else that confuses a stomach and causes it to get into a situation where it starts to produce less stomach acid than is desirable is when we give it too much meat to digest in one sitting, on a frequent basis. Meat is the hardest food that our stomachs have to break down and the best way we can help, if we want to eat meat, is by eating good quality, grass-fed, tenderized, and/or marinated meat, all in smaller amounts, and all chewed very thoroughly.

Another way we can stress our digestion is by drinking a lot of liquid at a meal and/or by drinking very cold liquids at a meal. Cold foods and drinks chill the stomach, making it spasm. Never drink water with ice at a meal. How did that habit ever get started? And a lot of liquid with a meal (more than a cup) dilutes the stomach acid so much that it cannot carry out its job. A lot of liquid right after a meal does the same thing.

Answer these simple questions: blank for never, 1 for mild or seldom, 2 for moderate or regularly occurring, 3 for severe or frequent. Count up which side has a higher score.

If you score any symptoms of underactive stomach as listed above, experiment with your mealtimes for a while and see what happens. My experience has been that I feel great if I can stick to the mealtimes suggested above. And if I eat too late at night, such as within an hour or two of going to bed, I get acid reflux during the night. Aloe vera can alleviate this or acid indigestion very effectively, without impacting our production of stomach acid. But an antacid just worsens the problem of low stomach acid.

As we age, stomach acid seems to diminish naturally. In addition to timing meals well, you can improve your digestion by drinking half a cup of warm water with a squeeze of lemon juice 15 minutes before the meal. This encourages the stomach to produce its own juices and cleanses the liver at the same time.

Good health is closely linked to healthy eating. And the times of when we eat are part of healthy eating. Bon appétit!