A plate of baked chicken with oatmeal, green beans and banana slices beside ginger tea

Acid reflux, LPR, oesophagitis

GERD / Reflux Diet

Fewer triggers, smaller meals, and gravity on your side.

Core restriction: Trigger foods, meal size, late eating
Difficulty: ●●●●●
Check a food: Open the food checker

A gentle reminder. This guide is for learning, not a prescription. Therapeutic diets interact with medication and conditions, so it's worth talking to your doctor or a registered dietitian before you begin.

Download this guide as a PDF Open the printable version

A tidy few pages with the food lists, meal plan and reminders — good for the fridge door or the first appointment with your dietitian.

How it works

Reflux happens when the lower oesophageal sphincter relaxes at the wrong time or is mechanically overwhelmed. Some foods relax the sphincter directly — fat, chocolate, mint, alcohol, caffeine. Others do not cause reflux but irritate an already inflamed oesophagus, like citrus, tomato and spice.

Volume and timing matter more than most people expect. A large late meal raises gastric pressure at exactly the point you lie down and lose the help of gravity.

Weight around the abdomen raises intragastric pressure; modest weight loss is one of the few interventions with strong evidence in reflux.

Nutrition at a glance

Meal timing, portion size and body position drive reflux at least as much as which foods you choose.

Last meal: 3 hours before bed; The best-evidenced change on this list
Meal size: Small, 4-6 a day; Volume raises pressure on the valve
Bed head elevation: 15-20 cm; Blocks under the bed, not extra pillows
Fat: Moderate; High-fat meals slow emptying and relax the sphincter
Weight: 5-10% loss if overweight; Reliably reduces symptoms

Nutrients that often run short

Vitamin C if citrus and tomato are cut
Fibre
Plant variety
Calcium

These are the ones worth planning for — through food where you can, and through a supplement your clinician suggests where you can't.

A word on electrolytes

Any change in how you eat changes how much sodium, potassium and magnesium you take in — usually downwards, because cooking from scratch removes the packaged foods that supplied most of it. Headaches, cramps, lightheadedness on standing and that flat, foggy feeling in the first fortnight are far more often an electrolyte dip than the diet failing. Drink to thirst rather than to a rule, salt your food unless you have been told not to, and lean on potassium- and magnesium-rich whole foods.

Sodium, potassium and magnesium are the three that matter most day to day. If you have kidney disease, heart failure or high blood pressure, or you take a diuretic, ACE inhibitor or ARB, set your targets with your clinician rather than with a supplement label — and avoid potassium-based salt substitutes unless you have been told they are safe for you.

Key cautions

None of this is meant to frighten you off. These are simply the things that most often catch people out on this diet — the ones worth raising at your next appointment.

Talk to a clinician
Alarm symptoms need endoscopy
Trouble swallowing, food sticking, vomiting, weight loss, anaemia or black stools need urgent assessment rather than a diet trial.
Worth testing
Long-standing reflux carries a Barrett's risk
Years of untreated symptoms warrant a conversation about surveillance, not just symptom control.
Keep an eye on
Trigger lists are personal
Coffee, chocolate, mint, citrus and tomato affect some people and not others. Cut everything for two weeks, then test them individually rather than avoiding all of them for life.
Keep an eye on
Chest pain is not always reflux
New, exertional or radiating chest pain is a cardiac question until someone rules it out.

Used for

Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease
Laryngopharyngeal reflux — cough, hoarseness, throat clearing
Erosive oesophagitis and Barrett's oesophagus, alongside medical therapy
Hiatus hernia symptoms
Reflux in pregnancy

What to eat

Eat freely

Low-acid, low-fat protein

Grilled chicken and turkey without skin
White fish
Egg whites
Tofu
Lean beef in modest portions

Vegetables

Green beans
Broccoli
Asparagus
Cauliflower
Cucumber
Potato
Leafy greens

Fruit

Banana
Melon
Pear
Apple

Grains

Oatmeal
Brown and white rice
Wholegrain bread
Couscous

Eat with care

Common but individual triggers

Coffee and tea
Chocolate
Carbonated drinks
Garlic and onion
Cheese and higher-fat dairy
Large portions of anything, even safe foods

Best to skip

Sphincter relaxers

Fried and high-fat food
Chocolate
Peppermint and spearmint
Alcohol
Large amounts of caffeine

Irritants

Tomato and tomato sauce
Citrus and citrus juice
Chilli and hot sauce
Vinegar-heavy dressings
Very spicy curries

Habits, not foods

Eating within three hours of bed
Very large meals
Tight waistbands
Smoking
Lying flat without head elevation

Three days of meals

Day 1

Breakfast: Oatmeal with banana and a spoon of honey.
Lunch: Grilled chicken with couscous, cucumber and steamed green beans.
Dinner: Baked cod, rice, roasted asparagus. Finished by 7pm.
Snack: Pear slices.

Day 2

Breakfast: Egg white omelette with spinach, wholegrain toast.
Lunch: Turkey and lettuce wrap, small side of carrot sticks.
Dinner: Chicken and vegetable soup with potato and celery, no tomato.
Snack: Melon.

Day 3

Breakfast: Porridge with pear compote.
Lunch: Tofu and broccoli over rice with ginger, no chilli.
Dinner: Lean roast beef, mashed potato with olive oil, cauliflower.
Snack: Plain rice cakes.

Getting started

1
Shrink meals and eat earlier before you start banning foods. Timing and volume beat food lists for most people.
2
Raise the head of the bed 15-20 cm with blocks, not extra pillows, which bend you at the waist and make it worse.
3
Keep a two-week trigger diary rather than eliminating everything at once.
4
Get red flags checked: difficulty swallowing, weight loss, vomiting blood or anaemia need urgent assessment, not diet.
5
Review medications. Calcium channel blockers, nitrates, some asthma drugs and NSAIDs all worsen reflux.

Common mistakes

Banning tomato, citrus and coffee forever when only one of them is actually your trigger.
Snacking constantly to 'buffer acid', which keeps the stomach loaded all day.
Drinking large volumes with meals.
Stopping a PPI abruptly, which causes rebound acid hypersecretion — taper with your doctor.
Treating persistent symptoms as a diet failure when they need endoscopy.

FAQs

Is there one 'reflux diet'?

No. Trigger foods are individual, and the strongest evidence supports weight loss, smaller meals, earlier dinners and bed elevation rather than any specific food list.

Does alkaline water help?

Evidence is thin. Some small studies on pepsin deactivation in LPR exist; it is unlikely to be the deciding factor for most people.

Should I be low carb?

Some trials show reduced reflux on low carbohydrate diets, possibly through weight loss and reduced fermentation. It is a reasonable trial, not established therapy.

Stacking with other diets

GERD advice conflicts with keto's very high fat intake — go moderate-fat if you are combining them.
Overlaps well with DASH and low fibre approaches, both of which favour moderate, simple meals.
Combines fine with gluten-free and low FODMAP; reflux triggers are a different axis entirely.

See the full comparison table