After enjoying a full and heavy meal, you decide to spend a little time relaxing in front of the television to watch your favorite TV series. Suddenly, you feel a burning sensation starting to build in the upper section of your abdomen. Your chest feel like it's on fire and the burning feeling and slight pain starts to travel from your diaphragm, rising through your throat. Combined with a sour taste there is a feeling that food is entering your mouth again.

This is GERD or acid reflux and diet is one way of alleviating and minimizing the occurrence of this condition.

The flow of stomach acid back into the mouth causes irritation and inflammation in the esophageal lining. Knowing the causes of acid reflux is essential in order to avoid the occurrence of this irritating and annoying condition.

Common causes may include the following:

* The main reason why gastric juices or stomach acid travels back into the esophagus is because of a weakened or relaxed Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES). When this happens, the LES is not able to function efficiently and keep all the stomach acid in its proper storage place. This results in stomach acids going back to the esophagus, causing further irritation and damage.

* There are some foods and drinks that can cause weakening of the LES. These include chocolates, tomatoes and tomato based products, coffee, alcohol, sugar and fried and fatty foods.

* Certain conditions like obesity and pregnancy where there is excessive pressure in the abdomen causing a pushing of some of the contents of the stomach back into the esophagus. This can also occur with tight fitting clothing or accessories such as a belt.

In order to minimize the occurence of GERD it is advisable to eat small amount of foods at frequent intervals instead of one big meal. Large meals are likely to lead to more bouts of painful acid reflux making you feel irritable. Everyday large consumption of fatty and spicy foods and chocolates should also be avoided. If you are worried about acid reflux, watch what you eat and choose only mild, and easy to digest food in moderate amounts.