Propping yourself up on pillows every night so you can keep your dinner down and sleep is not a fun way to live.  If this sounds familiar, you are not alone.  There are millions of Americans that experience acid reflux, costing us a fortune in health care dollars, not to mention a major reduction in quality of life.  Changes in lifestyle and eating habits, as well as taking supplements, can help keep digestive juices in your stomach and out of your throat.  Let’s take a look at what causes reflux and some healthy, healing habits that can help you to live with (or without) acid reflux.  

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Korean kimchi pots

“The science and art of fermentation is…the basis of human culture: without culturing, there is no culture.”¹

This point is illustrated when one recognizes that consumption of beneficial bacteria through food and drink has been part of humans’ diet for as long as humans have existed.  A traditional diet used fermentation to preserve vegetables and milk and to make wine, naturally infusing these foods with beneficial bacteria.  However, as manufactured and preservative laden foods take over many Westerner’s diets, the ingestion of friendly bacteria falls by the wayside.  Not only are we ingesting less beneficial bacteria, but also the growth of harmful bacteria and yeasts are increasing due to diets high in refined carbohydrates and sugars.
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As a people, we are aware that the amount of food that we eat has an impact on our waistlines, our long-term health and our budgets.  What we don’t always consider alongside this concept of quantity is the question of quality.  Does eating organic food really matter?  Why should I care what a cow eats before I eat it?  What difference does it make whether this salmon was caught in a stream or raised on a fish farm?  Let us explore these questions primarily as they relate to our health, our budgets and the well-being of the planet we call home.
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