Reviewed by Dr. Prabhat Arya, MD (Internal Medicine) on 29 September 2026
Diet chart for acidity
Most acidity settles with simple changes in when and how much you eat. You do not need to give up all your favourite food: find what upsets you, and eat it less.
- Eat smaller meals, more often. A full, heavy stomach pushes acid up into the food pipe.
- Finish dinner 2 to 3 hours before lying down. Do not lie down or sleep right after any meal.
- Raise the head of the bed 6 to 8 inches on bricks; extra pillows do not help. If overweight, losing weight helps most.
Eat more
- Home-cooked sabzi with little oil: lauki, tori, tinda, pumpkin, carrot, beans, palak
- Roti, rice, dalia, oats, poha, idli, upma
- Dal, moong, paneer, curd, eggs, fish, chicken cooked with little oil
- Fruits: banana, papaya, apple, pear, melon, chikoo
- Chaas or plain curd with meals, if it suits you
- Plain water through the day, in sips; not a lot at once with meals
Eat less, if it troubles you
- Tea and coffee: two cups a day at most, never on an empty stomach
- Spicy food: green and red chilli, heavy masala, garam masala
- Sour and tangy food: pickle, tamarind, tomato gravy, citrus juice
- Onion, garlic and peppermint, if you notice they cause burning
- Chocolate and very sweet food
- Cooking oil and ghee together: 4 to 5 teaspoons per person for the whole day
Avoid
- Fried food: samosa, pakora, kachori, puri, bhature, chips
- Late, heavy dinners and midnight snacks
- Cold drinks and soda: the gas pushes acid upwards
- Alcohol in any form
- Smoking, bidi, hookah and gutka: they weaken the valve that holds acid down
- Painkillers like ibuprofen or diclofenac without asking a doctor
A sample day
Vegetarian first; the swap is for those who eat eggs, fish or chicken.
- On waking
- A glass of plain water. Tea later, after breakfast, not on an empty stomach
- Breakfast
- Vegetable poha, upma or two idlis, or one roti with a katori of curdSwap: Two boiled eggs or an omelette with little oil and one roti
- Mid-morning
- One fruit: banana, papaya or apple
- Lunch
- Salad, a katori of sabzi, a katori of dal, two rotis or a small katori of rice, chaasSwap: Chicken or fish in a light gravy in place of dal
- Evening
- Tea (not strong) with roasted chana or makhana, or one fruitSwap: A boiled egg
- Dinner, by 7:30 pm
- Light: khichdi with curd, or one or two rotis with sabzi and dal. Smaller than lunchSwap: Grilled or stewed fish or chicken with sabzi
- Bedtime
- Nothing to eat. Wait 2 to 3 hours after dinner before lying down
Common myths
- Cold milk cures acidity.
- It soothes for a few minutes, then the stomach makes more acid.
- Soda or cold drink settles the stomach.
- The gas pushes acid up and makes burning worse.
- Acidity means you must eat only plain, bland food for life.
- Only the foods that trouble you need cutting down.
- Antacid tablets can be taken for months without a check-up.
- Burning that keeps coming back needs a doctor to look for the cause.
Dr. Arya’s note for you
See a doctor soon if you have black stool, vomit with blood, difficulty or pain in swallowing, weight loss without trying, or burning that started after age 50. These need a check-up, not only diet.
This is general advice for adults. If you are pregnant, ask Dr. Arya. With diabetes or kidney disease, that chart's limits on sugar, fruit, salt and water come first. Chest pain with sweating or breathlessness may be the heart, not acidity: go to a hospital at once.