Heartburn and Fermented Foods
It's clear that foods can heal but the converse of this statement is also true: Foods can make us sick But why is it that Molly can eat certain foods and you can't? It has to do with the qualities that increase in Molly and the qualities that increase in you AND which qualities bring about balance for Molly and which cause imbalance for you
We are all uniquely different and what brings about the pain of hyperacidity syndrome(HAS) and gastroesophageal reflux(GERD) is different for each of us The bottom line is that once the imbalance of qualities becomes apparent you have to do something about it and the first thing to assess is what foods are causing this imbalance
Fermented Foods and Imbalance
As I have written about in previous blogs the most important quality that causes HAS/GERD is hot Along with the mobile quality these two cause the predominant symptoms of these common diseases So from what I've just said it behooves us to look at those foods that carry these qualities and produce the imbalance
Anything that's acidic carries the hot quality It's not the only way to get this quality but it's a predominant one because the sour taste is the acid taste in Nature(fyi, the bitter is the alkaline taste in Nature) So any foods that create acidity are bound to effect an imbalancing change in the body with respect to the hot quality
Foods that carry the sour, salty and pungent tastes will give us the hot quality in certain measures so should be avoided in the HAS/GERD pain syndrome
So you can see that fermented foods in your nutrition would be problematic but also the foods that can be fermented when they enter the GIT(GI tract) are also an issue When you follow the nutritional format at icdiet.com(called a Pitta pacifying diet because it reduces that hot quality) or the one at foodsheal.com you'll automatically begin removing the hot quality from your nutrition As I've written about before, homemade yogurt is alright in moderation unless you have severe symptoms(that is, NO store bought yogurt) or you have a Kapha constitution
This removes the difficulty in deciding what is safe and what is not For example, lime doesn't carry as much of the hot quality as its mature fruit the lemon, so lime is safe and lemon is not
Foods That Ferment Within Us
What about foods that are not fermented outside but when we bring them inside out GIT they become acidic and produce the hot quality?
A beautiful example of this process is fruit when added with other foods Fruit by itself is innocent but when added with other foods can produce the hot quality(increasing acidity)
But there are many examples that don't include fruits, such as beans with meat and cheese (taco, enchilada, etc), eggs with meat or cheese(that's an omlete), and milk with fruit(the morning smoothie)
All of these incompatible food combinations are deadly traps for the IC patient because of this internal fermentation process that occurs in all of us
3 Things To Do
Here are three things to do to get appropriate guidance with this whole fermentation nutritional business
1 Eat according to the above nutritional formats at icdiet.com or foodsheal.com(be sure to take the quiz before selecting the format for yourself)
2 At foodsheal.com there is a section on incompatible food combinations
3 Do breathing exercises to reduce acidity in the body
All the best in your healing journey DB
