Heartburn from bread - truth or myth

Bread is the most popular, if not mandatory, product in every home; not a single meal goes without it. However, few people know that this seemingly completely harmless product can provoke attacks of heartburn, which every person also experiences throughout his life. Based on the above, it is important to understand why heartburn occurs from bread, what is the mechanism for the appearance of unpleasant burning sensations in the chest area, and also how to react to such manifestations.

What ingredients are in the baked goods?

To understand why heartburn occurs from bread, you need to find out what is in its composition. So, most often it consists of:

eggs or egg powder;
kefir or milk;
sourdough or yeast;
flour;
nuts and raisins;
soda or baking powder, salt;
cream and water;
animal or vegetable fat. For example, butter and margarine;
easily soluble carbohydrates necessary to give a certain taste to flour: honey, sugar and sucrose;
poppy seeds, as well as dried apricots and chocolate.

Most of these products can cause a burning sensation in the chest in a person with gastrointestinal pathologies.

This is interesting! Heartburn from white bread occurs much less frequently than from rye bread. This is due to the fact that the latter contains many ingredients that provoke flatulence.

Causes of heartburn

Before talking about the causes of burning and its accompanying symptoms, it is important to understand that isolated attacks of heartburn, which rarely make themselves felt, should not cause concern. If a burning sensation appears frequently, regardless of the intensity of the clinical signs, it is important to consult a doctor, because frequent attacks may signal the development of pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract.

Now we list the most common factors and reasons why a person experiences heartburn:

Consumption of junk food - people who suffer most are those whose diet is dominated by fatty, fried, hot, smoked, spicy, sweet, salty and sour foods, as well as baked goods, if they are abused,
Violation of the diet and culture of nutrition - we are talking about a whole complex of violations, including overeating, heavy dinners before bed, lack of a full breakfast, dry food, eating fast food, etc.,
Constant stress provokes heartburn,
Bad habits, among which smoking and alcohol abuse play a special role,
Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract - the list is dominated by reflux esophagitis, gastritis, peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, pancreatitis, but heartburn is also possible with other diseases,
Pregnancy - in this case, the reflux of gastric contents and the corresponding burning sensation often begin to bother closer to the third trimmeter, when the growing fetus props up the stomach,
The use of various medications that affect the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.

Heartburn from flour: what causes it

Bakery products are made from low carbohydrate products. Their breakdown begins in the mouth. Only a small part of them reaches the stomach. As a result, hydrochloric acid, produced in excess, begins to exit into the esophagus, irritating its mucous membrane.

The influence of products (which may be contained in bread) on the gastrointestinal tract:

Honey, cream, sugar and other sweet ingredients in cakes and biscuits irritate the esophagus. As a result, unpleasant sensations appear in the chest.
Nuts and seeds, once in the stomach, are processed there for a very long time.
Baking powder, like yeast, has a weakening effect on the muscles of the esophagus. They provoke their failure.
Cream, milk, and fatty fats are not processed well enough by the stomach and digestive glands of an adult. This is due to the fact that by the age of 20 the number of enzymes for their processing decreases. There are not enough of them to carry out this process.
Margarine and butter provoke the production of bile, which can cause esophageal sphincter insufficiency.
Baking soda stimulates the secretion of acid in the stomach.
Gluten. Normally, its content in bread should not exceed 5-7%. Now it contains 50-70%. This increase in flour products is associated with its ability to improve the taste and shape of the product and increase its shelf life. These are its positive properties. However, there are also many negative ones. So, these include the fact that if a person is intolerant to gluten, he may develop celiac disease. In addition, it slows down the processing of food, which is why the process of rotting in the stomach eventually begins to activate. Also, under the influence of gluten, the functioning of internal organs may be disrupted in humans.

Reference! Nowadays, yeast from low quality raw materials is most often used in baking. For example, thermophilic. After they enter the human body in large quantities, he may have problems with digestion: increased gas formation, which will lead to constipation. Heartburn from bread often occurs precisely because of this ingredient.

How to get rid of it?

The key factor in the occurrence of heartburn is not only the consumption of bread itself. Ingestion of flour products, in general, acts as a trigger for pathology of the gastrointestinal system. They act as the cause of an increase in the amount of acidity of gastric juice, as a result of which an inflammation process occurs, additionally accompanied by discomfort in the chest.

If products are consumed in large quantities, the following pathologies may develop :

The appearance and progression of pancreatitis and other processes in the pancreatic system. It is especially dangerous if you develop type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
Increased cholesterol levels in the blood fluid. Worsening of hypertension and other pathologies of the cardiac system.
Inflammatory process in the liver.

The ideal option is to make bread at home, during which hop starter is used instead of yeast. In such a baked product, yeast fungi have little activity, which helps improve digestion and speed up processing.

Interesting article: Foods that cause heartburn

A little about the quality of flour

Previously, bran flour was used in the production of baked goods. It was they that contained all the microelements, fatty acids and vitamins useful for the body. Now producers of black bread are getting rid of them, as this allows them to increase their shelf life. As a result, all its value is lost. People who consume baked goods are increasingly developing heartburn and various pathologies of the digestive tract.

Attention! Normally, bread should contain 30% bran of its total composition. Now, as a rule, there are no more than 10%.

The effect of bread on the stomach

Bread is a product that can be found in any home. Almost no meal is complete without this food. The composition includes yeast, flour, leaven and water. Homemade loaf contains many useful substances: various vitamins, fiber, protein. Such baked goods are quite healthy and low in calories, which makes it possible to eat even people with diabetes.

However, more and more often you can find another product on sale. Often, when preparing buns, manufacturers use low-quality ingredients, various dyes and additives that are harmful to the body.

Currently, thermophilic yeast is used in baking. Loaf based on this substance is harmful to the body. What is the harm? The fact is that such yeast has greater resistance than human cells. Once inside, they begin to suppress the weaker ones and multiply quite actively. As a result, they simply corrode the gastric mucosa, thereby causing heartburn and various diseases (gastritis, peptic ulcer).

Absorbed internally, thermophilic yeast begins to spread throughout the body. The fact that they are the cause of many cancers has been scientifically proven.

White bread is not considered healthy. Once in the body, it triggers fermentation processes, and a large amount of gases is released. As a result, ulcers develop, dysbiosis occurs, and gastritis appears. In addition, the high gluten content in such foods leads to clogging of the stomach and intestines.

Prevention

To avoid heartburn from flour, you should follow the following recommendations:

Don't eat baked goods on an empty stomach.
After each meal, if possible, take a walk in the fresh air rather than lie down to rest.
Use yesterday's bread rather than freshly baked bread.
Avoid baking. Not quite, of course, however, remember that the amount eaten per day should not exceed 2-3 slices.
Eat black bread not dry, but together with some other food. For example, with soup or vegetable salad.
Train yourself to eat 5-6 times a day in small portions. Take your last meal no later than 2-3 hours before bedtime.
Don't overeat!
If you prepare your own baked goods, try not to add a lot of fatty dairy products to it.
Buy whole grain bread that does not contain yeast or various impurities.
Drink water or tea with muffins and pies rather than coffee or carbonated drinks.

For which diseases is it prohibited to eat baked goods in large quantities?

A burning sensation behind the sternum and sour belching that often occurs after eating bread are signs that its consumption should be limited. The reasons for this phenomenon are the presence of various pathologies in a person, which, under the influence of the ingredients contained in flour products, provoke the occurrence of heartburn. What diseases could these be:

diabetes;
diseases caused by high cholesterol;
pathologies of the gallbladder and digestive tract;
pancreatitis;
hypertension and other diseases of the cardiovascular system related to fat metabolism;
liver pathologies.

Black

Heartburn after eating black bread appears much more often than after eating white bread. This is due to the fact that rye bakery products contain elements that provoke flatulence.

A burning sensation in the chest due to eating a pie, pancake or a piece of white bread made with wheat flour appears only when the product has just been prepared and immediately consumed.

How to choose baked goods

The choice of bread must be approached carefully. It should be understood that flour products that contain margarine, large amounts of fat, salt and dairy products, as well as various additives (creams, raisins, nuts) can provoke not only heartburn, but also other gastrointestinal pathologies. In addition, large consumption of baked goods can affect your figure.

It is best to buy whole grain bread without yeast or made with sourdough from live yeast. The white loaf should be replaced with buckwheat bread, unleavened flatbread or gray bread with seeds.

Features of the choice of flour products for various diseases

Depending on existing diseases, the same bread can worsen one person’s digestion and, on the contrary, improve another’s digestion. So:

Unleavened bread is recommended for people with dysbacteriosis, as well as gastrointestinal diseases. In addition to it, you can eat bread made with hop sourdough.
Rye bread can be eaten by diabetics, but is prohibited for people with gastritis and stomach ulcers. Men and women with pathologies of the biliary tract and enteritis should not eat it.
People with exacerbation of gastritis, pathologies of the pancreas and liver should avoid whole grain bread.

Attention! For peptic ulcers, as well as chronic pancreatitis, it is recommended to eat dry rather than soft bread.

Heartburn from pie, cake, bread can occur in people with various diseases of the digestive tract. However, this is not a reason to completely abandon their use. Because with the correct selection of bread, in accordance with the existing disease, and compliance with the rules prescribed by the gastroenterologist, heartburn may not remind the patient of itself for a long time.

Causes

During the normal functioning of the human body, food enters the oral cavity, after which it passes into the esophagus, stomach, and from there into the intestinal loops. However, the presence of excess hydrochloric acid affects the cardiac house. He comes into a state of relaxation and the acidic contents penetrate into the area of the esophagus, the walls of which are not protected from its negative effects.

As a result, a chemical burn occurs in the digestive system. Therefore, even a healthy person may experience an unpleasant sensation in the upper abdomen, throat and in the form of a sore or burning sensation when eating baked goods.