In the modern world, many people have diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, in particular of the stomach – gastritis, ulcers, etc. Many believe that only high acidity is bad because it leads to heartburn. But, in fact, many people suffer not from increased acidity, but from decreased acidity, and because of this, their stomach is not able to digest food normally.
Take a simple test. Add a spoonful of vinegar to your food and observe how you feel. If you feel better, then you have hypoacidity, and the extra acid helps with digestion. If you feel worse, take a heartburn pill such as Lanzol Relief or Losec. They belong to a class of medications called proton pump inhibitors. The medications work by decreasing the amount of acid produced in the stomach, thanks to which heartburn disappears.
Why is it so important to have a healthy stomach?
In order to digest most of the minerals that enter the body with food, a person needs a normal level of gastric acid. If the acidity is low or high, then no supplements will help to get rid of vitamin and mineral deficiencies. As a result, a person will have not only unpleasant symptoms from the gastrointestinal tract (heartburn, stomach pain, bad breath), but also hair loss, nervousness, chronic weakness, bleeding gums, etc. Also, as a result of the deficiency of important nutrients, the risk of serious diseases, including arthritis, diabetes, cancer, etc., increases.
How to help yourself?
Low acidity:
Drink vegetable juices every day. Fresh cabbage juice and celery juice (root or stem, it doesn’t matter) have a particularly good effect on the digestive tract, naturally increasing acidity to normal.
There are fresh raw vegetables and fruits, thus supplying the body with digestive enzymes.
Do not eat refined and pasteurized food. Such food has a negative effect on the liver, pancreas and gall bladder, which need to produce more food enzymes to digest harmful food.
High acidity:
Don’t overeat. This contributes to the excessive production of stomach acid.
Eat only boiled or steamed vegetables. Vegetables contain acids that can cause heartburn in people with hyperacidity. During cooking, these acids are “destroyed” and a person can consume vegetables without fear of unpleasant symptoms.
Avoid eating spicy, fried, sweet food. Such food irritates the walls of the stomach, which can cause heartburn. And sweet food provokes the multiplication of harmful bacteria.
Such diet stimulates the growth of beneficial bacteria in the stomach. It is extremely important for good health to have a normal microflora of the stomach and intestines. This microflora or “good bacteria” transforms some nutrients into other, easily digestible nutrients. Also, in order to have a healthy microflora, you should take antibiotics only when necessary, because they kill not only harmful, but also “good” bacteria. Unfortunately, many people take these drugs at the first signs of a cold.