A Home Remedy for Heartburn with Cabbage
High acidity and heartburn are annoying and painful health problems, and simply improving your diet is usually not enough to fight it, but there is a home remedy for heartburn.
We’ll explain how you can avoid heartburn using a simple cabbage recipe that you can have as a side dish to accompany your meals.
You might like: Three Tips for Treating Heartburn
Why do people suffer from heartburn?
Your stomach has natural acidity due to the hydrochloric acid that helps you digest your food properly. Due to a variety of factors, however, you may secrete too much acid and adversely affect your digestive tract.
In some cases, a hiatal hernia may cause those acids to move up into the esophagus and cause inflammation.
What factors can increase heartburn?
- Poor diet or poor absorption of food.
- High consumption of acidic foods: white sugar, refined flour, fried foods, red meat, sausage, milk, sugary drinks, soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages.
- Eating too fast, too much, or not chewing properly.
- A weakening of the digestive system and a lack of digestive enzymes.
- Abuse of antacids or other drugs that cause higher levels of acidity.
- Bad habits like overuse of tobacco and alcohol products.
- Stress and other negative emotions.
- Leading a sedentary lifestyle.
- Living in an urban or contaminated environment.
Foods that fight heartburn
More than just a natural remedy for heartburn, we recommend you increase your consumption of foods that fight acidity because they’re a healthy alternative to commercial antacid products.
If you eat these foods on a daily basis, you can gradually achieve a normal pH in your stomach without any abrupt changes, but still produce the level of acidity needed to promote good digestion. Some of the foods we want to highlight today include:
- Avocado
- Cucumber
- Asparagus
- Millet
- Broccoli
Nevertheless, the most beneficial food you can eat is cabbage, a natural remedy for heartburn. Here is a simple recipe you can use to balance your pH and help decrease heartburn.
You might like: 7 Eating Tips for Gastroesophageal Reflux (GERD)
Why cabbage?
Cabbage is both inexpensive to acquire and very beneficial to your health. Some cultures hardly use it and in others, it’s found in nearly every recipe, thanks to its versatility.
Cabbage can be an excellent remedy for heartburn because it regulates the functions of your stomach, liver, and intestines while neutralizing acidity and preventing heartburn, as it protects your gastrointestinal mucosa.
If you consume cabbage on a regular basis you also help cleanse your body, improve your immune defenses, and alleviate pain related to rheumatism.
Ingredients
To make two servings a day of this medicinal side dish you’ll need the following ingredients:
- 300 to 400 grams of cabbage
- 2 tablespoons (50 grams) of extra virgin olive oil
- The juice from half a lemon
- A pinch of black pepper, to taste
- A pinch of cumin, to taste
- Half a teaspoon (5 grams) of sea salt or Himalayan salt
Instructions
It’s best to prepare this recipe in the morning so it can sit for a few hours before you consume it.
- Slice the cabbage very thinly or process it into strips using a food processor. Make sure it’s not liquefied, however.
- Store it in a glass container.
- Add the oil, lemon juice, salt, and spices.
- Cover the container and let it marinate for at least two hours at room temperature.
How to serve
- Divide the recipe into two servings and eat one with lunch and the other with dinner.
- Chew this side dish well, because if you don’t it can cause gas. To help avoid that even further, we added cumin.
- This medicinal dish can be a regular on your menu and shouldn’t be used to replace the servings of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats that you also need.
- If one of your accompanying dishes is already a salad, add cabbage to it to make it more filling.
- A lot of people don’t like cabbage because they’ve only had it cooked, but the taste when it’s raw is completely different and most everyone enjoys it.
- In just a few days you’ll notice the difference. Your acid levels will decrease, as long as you follow these guidelines and avoid foods that can trigger heartburn.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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