When is the last time when you had a "heartburn" or "acid reflux" attack? The favorite foods that you love to eat could be the trigger.

Think about that for a second as I list out the most popular favorite foods.

Chocolate:

Now we have all joked at one time or another about that giant portion of a woman's brain called The Chocolate Receptor Center (TCRC).

And if you doubt TCRC exists, just look at Chief Brenda Lee Johnson's face on the TV show The Closer as she dips into her chocolate stash (upper-left hand desk drawer). Sorry to report ... chocolate is one of the many causes in a heartburn acid reflux diet.

So let's talk about Dark Chocolate. Lately all we hear is good health benefits about dark chocolate. Dark chocolate helps:

1. promote cardiovascular health
2. Supports a healthy response to inflammation
3. May help in weight loss and control appetite
4. It is loaded with antioxidants that fight free radical

Here are 3 specific cardiovascular health benefits of eating dark chocolate:

* triggers endorphins = pleasure response
* serotonin levels are increased = well-being response
* boosts energy with a mild stimulant

Spicey Foods:

Take that pizza you love so much, the first time around. Not so tasty when heartburn comes to call. Chili, rich stew, spiced up roasts, these are all offenders when it comes to causing heartburn.

Caffeine:

Love your coffee latte's. These, too, are big heartburn and acid reflux contributors.

Carbonated beverages:

Yep. All that soda pop you like so well. Cola by any name will come back to haunt you. Remember it can remove rust and tenderize meat. Think what it can do to your stomach!

Alcohol:

Now we come to one of the major causes of heartburn. It doesn't matter if it is a beer or a mixed drink. One beer is equal to one shot of liquor. It is a cause of acid reflux, GERD, heartburn.

Now I don't know about you, but this sounds like a favorite food list to me...

How about having a beer while you wait for that pizza and follow them both up with a hot fudge sundae! Sigh.

Heavenly ...

But if you were to see me 2 hours later, I'm praying for relief.

There are some jobs you have for life: Motherhood is one but so is Nursing. I happen to feel blessed to have become a nurse nearly 40 years ago. I absolutely love what I do and the articles I write are for educational purposes only. Be sure to read more about my extensive healthcare background and specialty areas in the biography area.

As sales manager for the 8 Candles Trading Post, I blend my extensive professional experiences in both the medical and alternative fields together to bring you information that serves you and your needs.

Discover more health tips on heartburn home remedies and product reviews. Learn how to take care of your body so it will perform at it's peak level for you. Whether you are working toward improving your health or maintaining it. The end result ... an excellent report when you go for your annual physical.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nancy_Cogar

Overeating is something we all do once in a while. Usually we blame it on the holiday season or the fact that we are on vacation and in these times we don't see it as such a big deal. Other times of overeating are when our emotional needs are not met and we are trying to suppress emotions.

Those of us who overeat to numb feelings or are suffering from an overeating disorder have to make extra efforts to overcome our overeating. Here are 5 tips to overcome your issue with food.

1. Become aware of the problem - often we aren't aware of when we eat or even why we eat. Not every time is about being hungry. If we become aware of our reasons for eating and start living in the present moment we can see exactly why we overeat and are better able to overcome it.

2. Regularly eating - overeating can be harder to overcome if we aren't eating regularly or if we skip a meal. When we are consumed by hunger we can find it very difficult not to eat rapidly and pig out. Make sure you are eating regularly and nutritious food.

3. Drink plenty of water - most people often mistake thirst for hunger. So before eating drink plenty of water to make sure you aren't just dehydrated.

4. Eat fruit! Make sure you are eating plenty of fruit. Eating lots of fruit before meals will give you the nutrition an water your body needs and will stop you overeating on other foods.

5. Get support. When we overeat it may just be emotions trying to get out. Instead, either sit and allow the feelings to wash over you and come out or find a friend you can talk with about how you are feeling.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kelly_Aziz

We all partake in emotional eating. Whether we are celebrating someone's birthday or mourning the loss of a loved one - food is rarely ever uninvolved. Comfort foods remind us of when we were young and even just the smell can make us feel safe and secure because it is a reminder of our childhood. We often crave these comfort foods most when life gets challenging or stressful.

For most of us we don't realize we are an emotional eater or we don't think it is that serious. For some of us emotional eating doesn't lead to feelings of guilt or weight gain. For some of us we can comfort eat and think its no big deal, but it really is. For others, emotional eating is out of control and something that can rule our lives on a daily basis. This can seem like overwhelming cravings or hunger, but really it is the emotions that we feel making us feel hunger, desperate and adding to our weight.

Comfort food gives us instant gratification and takes away our ability to feel. Digestion and feeling both take up a lot of energy and therefore the body cannot do both. Comfort eating allows us to not have to deal with the emotion as we overload our digestive system with toxic rubbish.

When we feel emotional, it can be normal for us to feel a big empty hole inside of us like we are hungry. Instead of facing what this means - i.e. our emotions, we stuff it down. In society it seems as though we have become scared to feel so much so we don't even realize that we are hiding from our emotions most of the time.

When we don't allow ourselves to feel, we repress it. When you learn and begin to allow yourself to feel the emotion or emotions that arise and stop stuffing down you can feel very overwhelmed. This is because your body will be releasing past pent up emotions and thus it can hit you very hard. This is why it can be hard to let go of emotional eating, because we have to get past that first initial "scare" in order to move on and start learning to appreciate emotions for what they are. Being in the present moment, allowing a feeling to wash over us is wonderful and should be appreciated. The more you allow yourself to be in the present moment and feel, the less emotions will consume you and the less scared you will be of them. The intensity of the emotion will also drop. You will become stronger mentally and physically. You will feel so much better once it's off your chest, instead of suppressing it with food.

Of course getting to this point isn't necessarily simple. Some people can break their emotional eating by nourishing their body properly to get rid of physical cravings and getting support from others when they feel stress or emotional. Essentially replacing the comfort with a person instead of using food.

If you want to break emotional eating, you need to become aware of how and why you eat. Take a day out to observe yourself and what triggers you to eat. Are you eating out of true hunger? Most people don't even have an understanding of true hunger!

If you find yourself eating for emotional reasons, can you stop yourself? Instead of eating can you sit and allow the emotion to wash over you - give yourself time to feel it and move pass it? Or can you turn to someone to talk about how you are feeling?

Don't be hard on yourself. Emotional eating is probably something you have done from a very early age and so is a part of your make up. It is a learnt habit and it is how you have learnt to cope with the world. To undo something so ingrained in you will take time, so if you find yourself eating out of emotion - if you slip up - learn from it, don't feel bad about it just move on. The first step is recognition. Once you know that you are eating out of comfort, you are able to overcome it.

Journaling can also help you pinpoint patterns in your eating. Write down how you feel before, during and after a meal. What triggered your eating - was it genuine hunger?

If you start doing this, you should, within time, be able to overcome your emotional eating and be able to feel and look after yourself properly. If you find it too hard or daunting to battle emotional eating yourself, you could try seeing a counsellor or there is a great program online that can help.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kelly_Aziz