How I cured my gastritis

I don't know how long you should stay on the clear liquid diet. I have never done it.

I do not recommend dry toast. I find them mechanically irritating. If you want to eat a bread-type product, have some basic artisan white soft fresh bread and remove the crust. Or have some boiled cereals like oatmeal or rice porridge.

I do not recommend dairy/milk at all, they cause excess acid and for me they cause low level constant pain (not immediately but in the following hours). I would stay away from yoghourt (too acidic and contains milk) and cottage cheese (too fatty and contains milk) for a while. If you want to correct the bacteria, it is better to take the bacteria directly.

Protein has helped me produce less acid.  I agree with the bread comment.   I have been living on cheese and yogurt for the past 2 weeks.  I also had steamed zuchini and carrots, which seemed okay as well. Try mashed potatoes, baked potatoes with very little added to it, or sweet potatoes--ts worked for others, though a lttle rough for me. --perhaps a little cream chese or something. Also, very very well chewed nuts. I have been drinking honeyed water/tealess tea. I do it warm, not hot.  My dr. recommended cool things like icepops or icecream, but they were a little harsh--perhaps if I made my own apple juice and water mixed icepops it would be better--but he insists I have protein with everything to cut the acid.  I get nonfat cottage cheese and have no problem with that.  I get coconut flavored yogurt and it is okay--but not perfect.

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Hi stomach girl, 

Your milk and cheese are probably making you worse. If you google "Does milk settle an upset stomach BBC" you will find an article about this. The article talks about scientific experiments showing that both the Calcium in milk and the casein (milk protein) stimulate the production of excess acid. The excess acid irritates the stomach. Another study compares two groups if patients with duodenal ulcer, one was receiving milk, the other received hospital food. Much more people healed in the second group. 

Also apples, yoghurt and honey are too acidic (around ph level 3-4) for time of crises. And cream cheese and nuts delay digestion because of their fat content which creates more irritation. When I was in pain I ate close to not fat at all for a while and it really helped.

Thanks so much.  I just followed the dr.s orders, but apparently she is unimformed, which is far too often the case.  So what kinds of things did you eat?  Just veggies or what?  I've lost a lot of weight, which isn't necessarioly a bad thing (It's the silver lining of this whole thing) , but I have to eat something.  What do you eat.

I eat mostly home-made soft foods, that are low fat, alkaline (ph level above 5), low in fibers, with no spices added except a little bit of salt.

In more details:

Good foods:

- Vegetables: all vegetables except tomatoes, bell peppers, radishes and cucumbers, garlic and onions. I eat my vegetables cooked (steamed or boiled is best, but sauteed or roasted is ok) and I make every day a juice with carrots, celery, romaine, and fennel for the vitamins.

- Fruits: Bananas, watermelon, melon, papaya

- Proteins: chicken breast, turkey, lean fish, seafood, tofu, tempeh, chickpeas, beans, lentils

- Carbohydrates: rice, potatoes, amaranth, soft white spelt bread (without the crust), millet, quinoa…

- Drinks: fresh raw coconut water, chamomile tea, evamore water, filtered water, fresh carrot-fennel-celery-romaine juice

In moderation when I felt better:

- olive oil (start with one teaspoon per meal, go up to 1-2 tablespoon per meal)

- eggs

- salt

- nuts except peanuts

- fresh herbs except mint, chives, oregano

- Soy milk, rice milk (rarely)

- fatty fish like salmon

- maple syrup

To avoid:

- spices (including black pepper, ginger, …, all spices)

- citrus and all fruits except the ones mentioned above

- chocolate, tea, coffee

- dairy, almond milk

- tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, garlic, onions

- sparkling water, sodas, juices, aloe vera

- Manukka honey

- alcohol

- fiber supplements, multi-vitamins

- in general: anything fatty, acidic or spicy

Hi Ines,

Thanks for all the information and sharing your experience.  I am relatively new to this alkaline diet concept, but plan to check out koufman's book.  I read in some list that citrus (e.g. lemon) is very alkalizing (creates alkalizing ash), and yet it is acidic to taste.  You are recommending to avoid citrus.  Does the alkaline diet encourage or discourage citrus?  Why do you recommend avoiding citrus?  I was looking at the alkalizing foods, but then thought some of them would be too acidic.  In other words, is what you are proposing is an alkalizing diet, but avoiding the acidic stuff (adapting the diet to gastritis)?  Thanks, I ordered the zinc carnosine and am eagerly awaiting its arrival.

Definitely avoid citrus!  It might be alkalizing in the end, but as it goes down, holy lord, will you burn.  Even bananas can be too acidic sometimes, if the ripeness is not just perfect, but use your judgement.  If you have a tiny little bit of something, and it doesn't cause problems, the next time try a tiny bit more, I can tolerate a little aloe and honey, but not watermelon or fish, so it's different for each person, but I can tell you this, if you have gastritis, avoiding citrus is a good idea.  Good luck!!!

Hi Js,

Gastritis is an inflammation of the stomach lining. The way I look at it is that you must let your body repairs your stomach lining without interfering or causing more irritation. Everything acidic causes more irritation as well as spices, etc. Also stomach acid causes more irritation, that is why PPI are very useful. One way to think of it would be to imagine you have a wound on your skin but you had to put some food on it, what would you put that does not hurt? Probably not lemon juice, salt or chilli.

The confusion with lemon comes from that theory that some foods are alkalanizing to the body and to summarize it is good to be "alkalinized". I don't know if this theory has any scientific ground but it does encourage to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, which is good. In this theory, the fact that a food is alkalanizing to the body is not always related to its ph level. The ph level of a food is the number you get if you blend a food and mesure its acidity with a strip or a device. If you put a strip in lemon juice, you will see that it is very acidic, but supposedly according to that alkalinizing theory lemon has an alkalanizing effect on the body. I personnally don't care about that alkalanizing theory. The only thing I care about is that my stomach lining does not come into contact with anything irritating or acidic. So what matters to me is the ph level of food that I can measure. As the measurement of lemon juice is acidic, it is to be avoided.

Thanks for clarifying this.  It is easy for me to get confused in the internet with so many different ideas.  I think I am going to make my goal to heal the stomach lining with low acid foods-- that is a good way to look at it.  Now that I understand this better, I was looking at the list of foods above to start eliminating foods.  I saw other replies regarding almond milk.  Is almond milk low in acidity? But you exclude it because it is not easily digestible for you?  

Thanks.  I was looking at some articles on the alkaline diet that were suggesting to use it for GERD.  But probably not good for gastritis as you point out.  I will stick with foods low in acid, and see how different foods feel. 

If you make your almond milk yourself it is probably fine, even though you must stay careful with the fat content and keep the quantitites small. The problem is with the almond milk sold in the store. It is hard to know its ph level, probably around 5, and there are some additives. One common additive is Carbonate Calcium. Carbonate Calcium is immediately soothing for the stomach but stimulates the stomach to produce more acid afterwards. This is what Tums are made of. I don't know if you ever tried  tums against stomach acid, they feel great for 45 minutes then you feel worse than before. Anyway the best thing is probably to try. I tried and if I drink one glass I am usually fine but if I drink it regularly I noticed a low level pain appearing, so now I stay away from it. Instead I just put some sliced almonds on my oatmeal from time to time. When I want a milk substitute, I feel better with rice milk.

thanks again.  there is so much stuff i don't know like this calcium carbonate stuff and the fatty content.  i had read that i should avoid fried foods, but had no idea about fatty foods.  the calcium carbonate stuff in almond milk i had no idea and never have thought about it.  is there a good book/webpage that talks about what additives to avoid for gastritis.  i think i will start by looking at koufman's book, and keep your guidelines, anything fatty, acid or spicy.

I did not find any book that explains everything. I read a few books, a few articles, some forums to see what people are doing, reviews on amazon, did a lot of research and posted the summary of everything I have learned at the beginning of this post. It worked well for me, I feel good now. The only thing I have changed my mind about since I wrote the beginning of this post are PPIs, they work faster and better than all the natural supplements. I know many people including myself are worried about using them but they are relatively safe for a few months. I did not have any side effect.

Questions? 

To avoid, almond milk, aloe vera, multi vitamins?  In moderation peanuts?

Why?  Maybe some people have problems with them like peanuts, but what exacty is the reason?

I don't do well on these but there is no reason to avoid them. I suggest you try for yourself. I would avoid aloe Vera with citric acid and be careful with multivitamins because vitamin C is very acidic, Iron and vitamins B might be irritating.

I just recently changed my Multivitamins for something else which is 100% natural and is like eating real foods.  Hopefully it will help me which is already helping with my sleep and energy level.  I do agree with the aloe vera  and Vitamin C if taken in juice but you do need to eat food rich in vitamin c.  I myself have problem with the Aloe vera just like some people have with Apple cider vinegar which I myself don't have any problem with it. ;-)  Is all I testing game to see what works for you and what doesn't and it can take years before you find an asnwer or you can get lucky and find the answer the first month ;-(  For me I'm still testing and it has been 2 years on and off medication for this which btw has not helped at all and I have tried 4 different (just started pantoprazole 8 days ago which is my 4th medication).   Tomorrow will be my last visit to my GI unless I get a new or unexpected pain.

I agree with the vit c, that is why I was making juices with carrots, romaine and celeri