Right Down The Pipe: Alkaline Water and Acid Reflux

Alkaline Water and Acid Reflux

Refeed days are my favorite time of the month.  For some, you deprive your body of sugar and carbs for weeks at a time and you’re rewarded with a special day that allows you to re-carb your body and restore glycogen to the muscles.

My go-to spot on this “cheat day” is all you can eat sushi.  One month, I challenged myself and attempted to eat more sushi than a professional sumo wrestler.   

The waiter at the restaurant gave me the dirtiest looks and forewarned me of an additional charge if I failed to eat all the sushi that I ordered.   Dwayne Johnson, aka “The Rock,” who shows off his gargantuan sushi orders on his social media, was my inspiration and I was curious to find out if he can really polish off these sushi orders.

Personally, I love being met with new challenges and the task at hand was to eat as much sushi as humanely possible for $29.99.   I finished approximately 95% off all the sushi shown above but it had a consequence: I experienced the WORST heartburn ever in my life.  I tried drinking green tea to wash the food down, but it only made things worse. The waiter took mercy on my gluttony and agreed to waive the upcharge on the final 6 pieces of sushi that I left to waste.

This experience led me to discover that the green tea I was consuming caused a heartburn trigger because consuming caffeine with meals contributes to acid reflux. By drinking ALKALINE WATER instead, I would have been able to skip the acid reflux and ultimately eat more sushi.

What is Alkaline Water?

If you’ve never heard about alkaline water, or you’re not too sure about how it improves your health, let me run through the basics.   All foods and beverages have a pH level. (power of hydrogen). The pH scale system measures the concentration of hydrogen ions in a substance and ranges from 1 (most acidic) to 14 (most alkaline). It’s ideal to have a balance of Alkalinity to Acidic harmony in your body. Drinking alkaline water regularly can reduce the acid in your body and is a good tool to mitigate heartburn episodes.

What Triggers Heartburn?

Heartburn is common after eating big meals as your stomach stretches and you get a “stuffed” feeling.  What’s really going on is that your stomach puts pressure on the LES, which is a ring muscle that keeps acids from flowing in the wrong direction.   It can cause juices from your previous meals to come back up and make you regurgitate.

The main type of foods that cause heartburn is fatty foods.  High-fat foods linger in your gut for much longer than alkaline foods and can make your stomach produce higher amounts of acid that annoy your digestive system.  When these stomach acids splash back up, they can burn your throat and be a very harrowing experience.

Foods That Cause Heartburn

Many of these foods and beverages can cause heartburn if consumed in excessive quantities:

• Chocolate/desserts
• Alcohol, especially red wine
• Coffee and Caffeinated Energy Drinks
• Black pepper, garlic, raw onions, and spicy foods
• Tomatoes
• Citrus based fruits and products like lemons, oranges, and orange juice

Eating Late and Getting Acid Reflux

Don’t have large meals before bedtime.  You should always avoid eating for two hours before lying down, as this gives your food time to digest.   What happens is this allows time for the meal to leave your stomach and travel through the small intestine instead of having food lodged in the esophagus.  When you lie down, it makes digestion difficult, like trying to make a burrito while laying back in a hammock.

How Alkaline Water Stops Heartburn

Nothing else comes close to alkaline water in terms of managing acid reflux.  Alkaline water can help reduce the symptoms of heartburn with its high pH level that diffuses the stomach acid levels and maintains a harmonious pH balance in your body.  

A 2012 study revealed that alkaline water with a pH level of 8.8 or more can regulate pepsin, which is the main digestive enzyme in your gut.  If you are still not totally convinced, it serves as an acid neutralizer and puts a cap on the increased acidity in your digestive system.

When Is The Best Time To Drink Alkaline Water To Avoid Heartburn?

Drinking alkaline water on a regular basis may provide relief for acid reflux as it will raise the pH inside of your stomach, dilute the acid, and clear out the esophagus.  Instead of guzzling a large Coke with every meal, if you switch to alkaline water you will feel better and it will be easier on your digestive system. If you maintain adequate amounts of alkaline water consumption throughout the day, you will lower your chances of getting heartburn when you do eat a large meal.   Even though these methods are not 100% proven to abolish the underlying issue, if you have chronic acid reflux conditions it’s a habit that resolves your heartburn from time to time.

Alkaline Blue: The Perfect Solution For Always Having Alkaline Water at Your Fingertips

The Alkaline Blue – Alkaline Water Bottle is the perfect companion to bring with you on the go.  Most restaurants do not carry alkaline water, so if you’re primed to eat a large meal just order a glass of water and pour it into the alkaline water bottle.

Once you pour the regular tap water the waiter serves you, you just press a single button and wait three minutes and you will have a flask of 9.2 pH alkaline water. Alkaline Blue transforms tap water and kills bacteria in your would-be restaurant water.  

Final Thoughts on Alkaline Water and Heartburn

Heartburn is a nasty feeling that I never want to feel again. Don’t risk losing your lunch by not being aware of how acid reflux operates in your body, Alkaline Blue is an easy to implement solution and an alkaline water bottle that you will be proud to own. But don’t just take my word for it, try drinking alkaline water with a big meal and let me know how you feel!

Comment below if you have ever had an excruciating amount of food and felt awful heartburn!