How a Custom Gastritis Diet Helped Me Overcome Chronic Gastritis and GERD

A plate of sliced cantaloupe and honeydew melon.

The food I ate and eating habits I introduced while I had gastritis.

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I had a horrible time with chronic gastritis and GERD, diagnosed via endoscopy with biopsies, for 1.5 years. I’ve had so many people asking me what I ate during this time that I decided to write this post about my custom GERD and gastritis diet and eating habits for anyone who is curious. This is not medical advice. The most important thing to keep in mind is that this gastritis diet was customized for me. It doesn’t mean that this gastritis diet will work for you, and, in fact, should highlight the importance of tracking your foods, symptoms, and customizing your own gastritis diet with medical professionals.

My gastroenterologist had me take tests to rule out other medical conditions that could be causing gastritis, such as H. pylori. It was determined that my symptoms were likely caused from stomach-damaging medication and stress, so there was no treatment needed for an underlying condition, and I just needed to focus on healing my stomach.

I’m sharing this as an example of an experience of what it’s like for someone to have gastritis, as motivation to work with your own medical team to create a custom gastritis diet and/or treatment plan that works for you, and to encourage you that healing from chronic gastritis and GERD caused by gastritis can be possible, because I’ve done it.

Here’s my custom gastritis diet and eating habits that helped me recover from chronic gastritis and GERD.


Obligatory disclaimer: I am not a doctor, this is not to be taken as medical advice, and I’m not telling you to eat the foods listed here or to do anything that I did. I’m simply sharing my own personal experience with my personal gastritis diet and personal eating habits for general knowledge sharing, and to share an experience of what it’s like for someone to have gastritis. I worked with my gastroenterologist, and a nutritionist who was working with my gastroenterologist, to figure out which foods and medications would work best for me. You should work with your own medical team to determine what’s best for you.


My stomach was so damaged with chronic gastritis and GERD that it hurt to eat anything and everything. My gastroenterologist explained that it was going to take time to heal, so I needed to give my stomach the best chance to do that by avoiding acidic foods. Avoiding acidic foods is a common treatment for GERD. I felt like I was always hungry, but it hurt too much to eat enough food to satisfy my hunger.


A graphic that says: some of the foods I avoided when I had gastritis. It contains the following foods with a red "X" over them: oranges, donut, onions, pineapple, coffee, cookies, chocolate, french fries, soda, pizza, peppers, tomatoes, fried chicken, and grapefruit.

Since I was experiencing gastritis and GERD (the GERD appeared to be caused by gastritis), I needed to avoid acidic foods. The thought was that acidic foods could do further damage to my stomach since it was in such a fragile state, and would exacerbate my GERD symptoms. My gastroenterologist provided me with a list of common irritating and acidic beverages, foods, and medication that I should avoid until I was feeling better. Some things on the list were:

  • Coffee
  • Alcohol
  • Carbonated beverages (e.g. soda, seltzer water)
  • Caffeine 
  • Tomatoes, tomato sauce 
  • Chocolate 
  • Citrus fruits (e.g. lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruits)
  • Onions 
  • Peppers 
  • Vinegar 
  • Fried food (e.g. french fries, fried chicken)
  • Sugary food
  • Deli meat, overly processed meat (e.g. bacon)
  • Ibuprofen 

I then researched the acidity of the foods I usually eat to make sure I wasn’t unknowingly eating a food that was very acidic. I discovered that according to the pH scale, which ranges from numbers 0 to 14, 0 is the most acidic, 7 is neutral, and 14 is the most alkaline / basic. I made a big list of foods and their pH, and this became my personal gastritis diet guide of how to plan my meals to make sure I wasn’t eating a super acidic food, and that overall my meals weren’t too acidic (I could get away with some mildly acidic foods if they were balanced in a meal with alkaline foods).

I wanted to learn more, so I read The Acid Watcher Diet: A 28-Day Reflux Prevention and Healing Program by Jonathan Aviv, MD, FACS. I also discovered the r/gastritis sub on Reddit, which recommended The Gastritis Healing Book: A Comprehensive Guide to Heal Gastritis and Restore Your Stomach Health by L. G. Capellan, which I then purchased the ebook of. I was happy to see it aligned with my doctor’s recommendations of foods to avoid, and with some of the things I was already doing, and gave me some additional insights. And the Reddit group was good for my mental health — having other people who understood what I was going through, and discussing symptoms and progress.


My nutritionist had me keep a food journal to determine if how I felt after eating a certain food made my stomach pain feel the same, better, or worse. I quickly determined that no foods made me feel better, but some foods made me feel much worse. So if I felt the same level of pain, or only slightly worse, after eating something, I considered that a win, and I’d keep it on my “safe foods” list. If I felt significantly worse, that food was removed from my list.

I recommend starting your own food journal and keeping track of your symptoms from eating those foods so that you can create your own custom gastritis diet. Just because a food or beverage worked or didn’t work for me doesn’t mean that it will be the same for you.


Related: 30 Easy Gluten Free Lunch Ideas for Work


I ate a super bland gastritis diet to promote healing. My stomach was very sensitive to everything, so eating bland foods and making sure any acidic foods were balanced with alkaline foods was the only option for me.

A bowl of oatmeal with mashed banana and banana slices on top.

My Gastritis Diet: Breakfast Foods

These are the foods that personally worked for me during my worst stage of chronic gastritis:

  • Plain rice cakes
  • Scrambled eggs 
  • Hard boiled eggs (they were great for on-the-go)
  • Roasted potatoes 
  • Roasted sweet potatoes
  • Plain oatmeal 
  • Bananas
  • Cantaloupe 
  • Honeydew melon
  • Plain dairy-free coconut yogurt (I liked Siggis plant-based, and Cocojune) 
  • Smoothies made with oat milk, a banana, pre-soaked oats, dates; sometimes I added coconut oil

Some of my typical breakfasts were scrambled eggs with roasted potatoes or roasted sweet potatoes, followed later by a breakfast snack of a rice cake or fruit — you can see my typical eating schedule in a section below; or oatmeal with banana; or scrambled eggs on rice cakes; or a smoothie and hard boiled eggs; or banana + egg “pancakes.” I pretty much always included eggs for protein, because they worked well for me.


My Gastritis Diet: Lunch and Dinner Foods

These are the foods I ate most often that personally worked for me during my worst stage of chronic gastritis:

  • Plain boiled chicken breast 
  • Plain ground turkey
  • Baked white fish (e.g. halibut, cod, sole, tilapia), or occasionally Arctic char, with a small amount of olive oil for cooking
  • Plain jasmine rice
  • Roasted, baked, or mashed potatoes 
  • Roasted, baked, or mashed sweet potatoes 
  • Chicken bone broth (turmeric flavor; turmeric is supposed to be anti-inflammatory)
  • Chicken broth with no onions (the only one I was able to find was from Whole Foods)
  • Plain steamed zucchini
  • Plain steamed yellow squash
  • Plain steamed baby spinach 
  • Plain cooked mushrooms
  • Smoothies

Some typical lunch and dinner meals for me always included a protein (boiled chicken breast, plain ground turkey, baked white fish); with either jasmine rice, potatoes or sweet potatoes; with a vegetable (zucchini, squash, spinach, or mushrooms). I would also switch it up by making a “soup” with bone broth or chicken broth, chicken breast, and rice. Sometimes I had a smoothie for lunch if I didn’t have one at breakfast. I was able to add in more foods after getting through the initial worst stage.


My Gastritis Diet: Beverages

These are the drinks that personally worked for me throughout my entirety of having gastritis:

  • Tap water — this is what I mainly drank
  • Plain coconut water (no other ingredients listed)
  • Oat milk — for smoothies
  • Coconut milk beverage — used occasionally in smoothies

In theory, these low-acid foods could have worked, but I found them to cause too much pain. My doctor explained that for some of these foods, it was possible that the higher fat content could have been too difficult to digest at the stage I was at. This is an example of why it’s important to figure out what works for your own body and not blindly follow a list.

  • Avocado 
  • Beef
  • Salmon
  • Peanut butter 
  • Almond butter
  • Watermelon 
  • Gluten free bread
  • Yogurt made with dairy
  • Quinoa
  • Pasta

Every month or two I retested some of these items, and was eventually able to add them back into my diet if they didn’t cause additional pain anymore.


After 3 months with painful gastritis symptoms I had lost a lot of weight because I was eating smaller portions to avoid pain, and needed extra help to gain it back. Since I was having trouble eating normal portions of food, my nutritionist recommended these items to add to my daily smoothies:

  • Protein powder — I used hemp protein powder and occasionally pea protein powder (my body doesn’t tolerate whey protein powders, even before gastritis)
  • Benecalorie  — I really didn’t like this, and could only stand to have it in smoothies, which I forced myself to do once a day or every other day for a few months

A glass of tap water.

In addition to following a strict gastritis diet, I also implemented these eating habits that noticeably helped with my gastritis symptoms:

  • Making all of my own food, not eating food from restaurants (so I could be sure of all ingredients)
  • Chewing my food really well
  • Making sure I drank enough water to aid in digestion
  • Eating slowly, stretching my meal times longer
  • Eating smaller portions more frequently instead of a large portion all at once
  • Puréeing homemade soups (so I wouldn’t have to chew it so much, and it felt easier for me to digest)
  • Drinking smoothies every day (they felt easier for me to digest)
  • Not lying down for 2–3 hours after eating

I never cheated on my gastritis diet by eating the acidic foods from my doctor’s list, fried foods, sugary foods, coffee, or alcohol. I wanted to heal as quickly as possible, so it wasn’t worth it to me. It’s not like when you’re on a weight loss diet and you cheat by eating a bunch of desserts and then make up for it by exercising longer the next day. Gastritis doesn’t work like that. Every time you eat something that’s harmful for gastritis, you’re risking further damage to your stomach lining, setting back your overall healing and prolonging your suffering.


Related: The Best Gluten Free Foods at Trader Joe’s


I couldn’t tolerate eating full portions of anything for the first few months, so I was eating smaller amounts of food more frequently instead of having three larger meals. This is what my typical daily eating schedule looked like, which worked well with my medication schedule:

  • 10:00am – Breakfast
  • 11:30am – Breakfast snack 
  • 1:30pm – Lunch
  • 4:00pm – Lunch snack 
  • 6:30pm – Dinner
  • 8:30pm – Dinner snack 

Note that I ate my last snack kind of late, and couldn’t lie down for 2+ hours after eating, to help the GERD. Having a later bed time worked with my schedule, as I would go to bed around 11-11:30pm. This could all be shifted earlier or later if I needed.


I was also taking medication throughout this healing process as directed by my gastroenterologist. I never noticed a difference in my symptoms whether I took medication or not. These are the prescription medications my doctor had me try (some of these are available over the counter, but I got them as prescriptions, which saved a lot of money):

  • Omeprazole 
  • Lansoprazole
  • Pantoprazole
  • Sucralfate – I took this 2–3x a day: before breakfast, sometimes before dinner, and before bedtime
  • Famotidine

After about 6–8 months my stomach had healed enough that I was able to slowly eat additional foods again, until one and a half years later I was eating the same way I was before I got gastritis. However, I still avoid coffee (which I never drank previously), super spicy foods, and avoided eating citrus by itself for a while afterwards. I also rarely eat fried food anymore and don’t binge drink.

Healing my gastritis was a rough journey, and for many months I felt like I was always hungry, but eating caused so much pain that I ate as little as possible. Now I’m back to eating anything I want in any amount, although I do eat healthier now as a result of all of this, and don’t drink alcohol very often.

There’s no way to know for sure, but I feel like the two things that helped heal gastritis and GERD for me were sticking to a low acid diet, and giving my body time to heal. It was a slow healing process. In this way, having chronic gastritis and GERD was as much a mental struggle as a physical one. If you’re currently struggling, I recommend working with your own medical team to create a custom gastritis diet and find a treatment plan that works for you.


Pin this graphic on Pinterest, or bookmark this page, if you want to refer back to my custom gastritis diet experience later. And follow Stars & Anchor on Pinterest and on Instagram for coastal lifestyle and beach inspiration.

A graphic showing a plate of sliced cantaloupe and honeydew melon, with text that says: everything I ate while healing from GERD and gastritis – the food I ate and eating habits I introduced that helped my symptoms.

Everything I ate for my GERD and gastritis diet that helped my symptoms.


Are you currently working on creating your own gastritis diet? What foods are working best for you? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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