What are the dietary taboos for gastric ulcers?

The core dietary taboos for gastric ulcers are never the same "no spicy food, no rice" posted on the Internet, but to absolutely avoid foods that will directly irritate the ulcer surface, induce excessive secretion of gastric acid, and additionally damage the gastric mucosa. As long as other foods are eaten without discomfort, there is basically no need to completely avoid foods.

You can think of an ulcer in the stomach as an aphtha in the mouth. When you have an aphthous ulcer, it will hurt when you touch hot, sour, or spicy food. The same is true for ulcers in the stomach. When the ulcer is still bleeding, red and swollen in the active stage, drink wine, ice drinks, strong coffee and tea, spicy hot pot, and strong lemon that is so sour that you frown. Just don’t touch lemon juice. Last month, I received a young man in his 20s from the outpatient clinic. His ulcer healed just two days ago. He went out with friends to drink skewers and drink cold beer. Within two hours after eating, he vomited blood and was sent to the emergency room. Endoscopy showed that the ulcer that was about to heal was stimulated to bleed profusely. He suffered for an extra half month.

When many people are first diagnosed with gastric ulcer, the first thing they do is search for a bunch of fasting lists online. They don’t even dare to touch rice and eat plain porridge and rotten noodles. In fact, this is a big misunderstanding. Porridge has a high glycemic index and is liquid. Drinking it will dilute it. Stomach acid stimulates the body to secrete more gastric acid for digestion, which is equivalent to repeatedly soaking the recovering ulcer surface in high-concentration gastric acid. I have met many patients who suffered from acid reflux and belching after drinking plain porridge every day. The ulcer that was supposed to heal in two weeks has not healed for more than a month. There are still many people who firmly believe in "drinking milk to nourish the stomach". This is actually still controversial in the academic circles. Early clinical experience believes that milk can neutralize gastric acid and temporarily relieve the burning sensation. However, recent studies have found that the calcium and milk protein in milk can stimulate gastric acid secretion. Drinking whole milk during active periods can easily aggravate discomfort. If you really want to drink it, there is no problem in taking a few sips of warm skim milk. There is no need to touch it at all.

In fact, when gastroenterologists tell patients to pay attention to their diet, they never make a long list of things that must not be touched. Everyone's gastric tolerance is very different. I have an old patient from Hunan who was really greedy during the ulcer healing period. He ate two bites of the slightly spicy fish head with chopped peppers made at home. Just remember the most practical criterion: if there is no burning sensation, pain, or acid reflux in your stomach after eating, then you can eat it. If you feel uncomfortable immediately after eating it, just walk around next time.

In the final analysis, dietary taboos are to help ulcers recover faster, not to put shackles on you. You don’t need to compare them one by one with the online list. Your own stomach feeling is the most accurate.