About two weeks ago I started getting a really bad case of heartburn that seemed to have come out of nowhere. I’m not usually one to get acid reflux, indigestion, heartburn (everyone calls it a little something different), maybe every now and then, but not enough to take it seriously. Lately, I’ve been taking it seriously. The first night it flared up I was looking for a remedy STAT. It was so bad that I couldn’t sleep, and you don’t want to know me when I haven’t had adequate sleep. I grabbed for the usual essential oils to help calm things down – ginger, fennel, DigestZen, lavender, nothing was doing the trick.

Then I remembered that I had bought a book called Ayurvedic Home Remedies (buy it here) because I’ve been teaching myself Ayurveda. If you’re unfamiliar, Ayurveda is India’s 5,000 year old medical system of self-care, diet, herbs, tinctures, etc. I snatched it off my nightstand and quickly found the section for Heartburn and Stomach Acid where it gave me the remedy of taking 2 tablespoons of aloe vera gel with a pinch of baking soda to have an immediate soothing effect, and soothing it did!

I freaking LOVE home remedies that can be found in my kitchen at a moment’s notice, don’t you?!

Even though I had something that helped sooth the heartburn, I still needed to go back to square one to see what got my stomach in a frenzy. One thing was for sure – my body was hyperacidic. Bad news bears. Without having seen a professional Ayurvedic Practitioner, I discovered my doshic constitution is Kapha-Pitta, having the Pitta means my body tends to be on the acidic side and have a lot of fire energy (sounds like me huh? lol). Because of that though, I need to watch my diet more closely to make sure I’m not consuming more acidic foods than I realize.

Upon further inspection, I realized…. I had been. Foods that increase acidity in the body are foods and drinks like spicy foods, alcohol, coffee (I even noticed mine flaring with green tea sadly), meat, super processed foods, lots of gluten, some grains like rice and some dairy like milk and eggs among others. I always say though, listen to your body. Just because something is or isn’t on a list doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good or bad for you. Let your body tell you what it does and doesn’t like, your role is just to listen! If you start feeling crappy right after you eat or drink something, or even hours later, your body is giving you signals that it didn’t enjoy what you fed it. It’s your job to stop!

My biggest culprits were coffee and meat. When I put meat back into my diet some years ago after being a really bad vegetarian, I think the convenience of having the meat took over and it dominated more of my diet than I realized. The coffee though, that one was going to be tough. At one point I had tried to curb my coffee cravings with green tea, until that started flaring the heartburn too. I realized that it isn’t just coffee that ignites the acid reflux, but it’s anything caffeinated, which can include green tea. So now I’m sipping on some yummy organic Burdock Root tea with organic neem honey! Eb and flow my dear, eb and flow.

Next week I’ll share my new-found coffee-hacks to reduce the acidity and have my one cup a day crammed full of goodness!

PS – if Ayurveda interests you, the peeps over at Joyful Belly offer some really great ecourses as well as traditional courses for those wanting to become Ayurvedic practitioners!

Balance Your Digestion eCourse

Basics of Ayurveda – Food, Diet and Lifestyle 

Fundamentals of Natural Healing – Ayurvedic Practitioner 750 Hour Certification

Mastering Ayurvedic Digestion and Nutrition – 500 Hour Certification

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