For the past two days I get acidity after dinner, yesterday I had tomatoes and chicken and today I had potatoes. I used to eat these foods before but never got acidity. What can be the cause?



The cause of acidity need not always be the meal you have eaten just before you developed the acidity. There could be a variety of causes for it. Sometimes, when you go hungry for long periods of time, this can also contribute to your acidity. The way this works is that when you do not eat for a while, your body feels pangs of hunger and your digestive and endocrine system reacts to these pangs of hunger. There is a natural response in terms of secretions of digestive juices, as the body naturally assumes that when you are hungry, you will eat. When you do not eat, however, the natural reaction of the body is to continue to secrete digestive fluids. Primary among these fluids is hydrochloric acid, which is a natural secretion of the body and is present in bile. When there is no food for the acid to react upon, then the next thing that happens is that the acid begins to move into the digestive tract. Whenever you eat next, the body is forced to act naturally and produce more acid to digest that food as well. This leads to too much acid floating around in the digestive tract. This is the primary cause of acidity.

Keep in mind that it is inadvisable to stay hungry for too long when you are suffering from acidity. It is also a good idea to drink lots of water and go easy on your system for some time. Granted that you have never had problems eating tomatoes, chicken and potatoes before, but this does not mean that you will not have problems at any given time. If you are suffering from acidity at any given time for any given reason, you should simply take the easy route. Try not to eat anything spicy and heavy to digest for some time. This will help your system to stabilize. If you eat mild food a few times, your system will also start producing less of acid to digest the food because this is not really required. You can also work towards neutralizing the acid content in your system by having cold milk. This will help, as will having cold yogurt. Try to remain vegetarian for some time, as this will help your system by giving it a break. Eat apples, as these are known to be the best thing for acidity. Stay off citrus fruits for the time being.

answered by G R


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