Many people find that, in general, journals are a good way for them to reduce the clutter in their brains and keep track of their feelings, thoughts and emotions. By compiling a summary of each day's experiences with food in a food journal, you can develop an important asset for reviewing which foods you can eat without difficulty and which heartburn foods to avoid.
It's easy to remember some general food groups that tend to cause heartburn. But when you start trying to remember specific foods or food combinations, keeping track of which foods to avoid becomes a lot more complicated. Keeping a food journal can help because you don't have to devote active memory to these tasks, you just have to write down exactly what you ate and how you felt afterwards.
The general categories of heartburn food to avoid include spicy foods, citrus fruits and juices, foods with high acid levels, dairy products and foods with high fat content. I don't know about you, but that list is already taxing my memory a little bit. If you add in different drink categories (alcoholic drinks, carbonated beverages and anything with caffeine), my head starts to hurt. Just think what happens when you start combining groups into dishes or eating out at a restaurant.
Once you get a couple of weeks worth of entries down in your food journal, you will begin to build up a long list of heartburn foods to avoid. This will put you well on your way to implementing a natural remedy for heartburn. Knowing which foods you can safely eat will give you more confidence to try new things.
Compiling a list of the particular foods that cause heartburn, organized within the general categories of heartburn foods to avoid, is reason enough to keep a food journal. But there's another reason why keeping a food journal will benefit you in the long run.
You see, the problem with the short list of general food categories linked to heartburn is that the list is not entirely accurate for each individual heartburn sufferer. Especially when you consider just how general the food categories actually are.
Trying to control your heartburn symptoms using the general list of foods is bound to be difficult. Some foods on the short list might not give you any trouble at all, while other foods not mentioned could be some of the worst heartburn triggers for you. Using a food journal enables you to be much more accurate and successful when implementing a natural remedy for heartburn.
Armed with this kind of information, there's a good chance that you can avoid heartburn for good.