Cabbage and Heartburn: What You Should Know
Digestive HealthGERD
Explore This Topic

Does Cabbage Trigger Heartburn? It’s Not So Simple

Does Cabbage Trigger Heartburn? It’s Not So Simple
Adobe Stock
By
Updated on July 31, 2025
by
Many foods may come to mind when you think of common causes of heartburn. This symptom of acid reflux causes a burning sensation in the chest, which can extend up into the throat.

 One food that may seem like a clear culprit to some is cabbage. For example, Johns Hopkins lists fried foods, chocolate, and tomato-based sauces among foods to avoid if you have reflux.

“Cabbage is missing from the list” because it hasn’t been shown to cause acid reflux, says Brooks Cash, MD, chief of gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

This article explains the connection between cabbage, heartburn, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

About Cabbage, Fiber, and Acid Reflux

The possible link between cabbage and GERD relates to fiber intake. Nutritionists generally recommend a diet high in fiber for good gut health.

Cabbage is high in fiber. One 90-gram (g) cup of cabbage provides roughly 2.25 g of fiber.

 Although it varies depending on age and sex, the recommended daily value for fiber intake is 28 g.

 So, a single cup of cabbage provides around 8 percent of your recommended daily intake.
Suddenly boosting the amount of fiber you eat can lead to gas buildup and bloating.

 And a research review found that abdominal bloating often happened before acid reflux symptoms in people with GERD.

But this isn’t always the case, and the link is only indirect. Research has found that getting more fiber led to reduced GERD symptoms over a week.

 High-fiber foods can help you feel fuller, meaning you’re less likely to eat more than your stomach can handle. This might reduce reflux heartburn.

Not everyone responds to the same foods the same way. So, working out how you respond to extra fiber in your diet might be a case of trial and error, Cash says.

Avoid Common Heartburn Triggers

The foods more commonly known than cabbage for making acid reflux worse include:

  • Foods high in fat, such as fried foods, fatty meats like bacon and sausage, pizza, and other types of fast food. They spend longer in the stomach, which raises the risk of stomach acid leaking back into the esophagus.

  • Highly acidic foods, such as tomatoes and citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruits
  • Spicy foods
  • Coffee
  • Mint
  • Chocolate
  • Alcoholic drinks
Still, people have different triggers for reflux. So, you may need to try avoiding or limiting certain foods to gauge whether your symptoms improve. You can use a food journal to keep track of what you’re eating, which may help you link certain foods with bouts of heartburn. The journal could help your doctor spots patterns in what’s triggering the bouts.

Lifestyle Changes and Medications to Reduce Heartburn

Besides keeping a food journal to figure out whether you may need to cut cabbage or other foods from your diet, try these tips to reduce heartburn:

  • Eat small, frequent meals instead of large amounts in one sitting. Your stomach makes less acid if it has less to digest at one time.
  • Skip snacks between dinner and bedtime. It’s best not to eat at least three to five hours before lying down to sleep.
  • Wear clothes that are loose around the stomach to relieve pressure on the abdomen, which may contribute to reflux.
  • Sleep on your left side, which positions your lower esophageal sphincter (LES) in a pocket of air just above the contents of your stomach.
  • If you smoke, try to quit.
If diet changes don’t help, talk with your doctor about trying medications that may ease your acid reflux and heartburn. Some antacid medications are available over the counter (OTC). Antacids including aluminum hydroxide, calcium carbonate, magnesium hydroxide, and sodium bicarbonate — found in products like Rolaids and Tums — may be helpful.

Medicines called histamine-2 (H2) blockers are also available OTC. These include cimetidine (Tagamet HB) and famotidine (Pepcid AC).

Your doctor may prescribe stronger medications, such as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), if necessary. These are 90 percent effective for reducing reflux. Other treatments may involve different drugs or surgical procedures depending on the cause of the reflux.

The Takeaway

  • Cabbage isn’t one of the common dietary acid reflux triggers. But individual reactions can vary, so it’s worth monitoring how your body responds after eating cabbage.
  • A fiber-rich diet, including vegetables such as cabbage, generally supports gut health. But eating too much fiber might worsen GERD symptoms in some people.
  • Keeping a food journal can be crucial for identifying specific triggers of your heartburn and can help you adjust your diet effectively.
  • If lifestyle and diet tweaks do not relieve heartburn symptoms, see a healthcare professional to get checked and learn about possible treatment options. They may prescribe or recommend medications, or suggest other treatments such as surgery.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Heartburn. Cleveland Clinic. January 19, 2023.
  2. GERD Diet: Foods That Help with Acid Reflux (Heartburn). Johns Hopkins.
  3. Dietary Fiber: Essential for a Healthy Diet. Mayo Clinic. December 11, 2024.
  4. Cabbage, Green, Raw. United States Department of Agriculture. October 31, 2024.
  5. Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels. Food and Drug Administration. March 5, 2024.
  6. Get Your Fiber Without the Flatulence. Michigan State University. May 10, 2024.
  7. Shacker M et al. Prevalence and Severity of Abdominal Bloating in Patients With Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. Diseases of the Esophagus. January 31, 2024.
  8. Samuthpongtorn C et al. Dietary Fiber is Associated With Decreased Risk of Gastroesophageal Reflux Symptoms. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. March 2024.
  9. Eating, Diet, & Nutrition for GER & GERD. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders. July 2020.
  10. GERD Diet: Foods to Avoid to Reduce Acid Reflux. Harvard Medical School. July 31, 2023.
Meet Our Experts
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network
ira-daniel-breite-bio

Ira Daniel Breite, MD

Medical Reviewer
Castle Connolly Top Doctor

Ira Daniel Breite, MD, is a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist. He is an associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he also sees patients and helps run an ambulatory surgery center.

Dr. Breite divides his time between technical procedures, reading about new topics, and helping patients with some of their most intimate problems. He finds the deepest fulfillment in the long-term relationships he develops and is thrilled when a patient with irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease improves on the regimen he worked with them to create.

Breite went to Albert Einstein College of Medicine for medical school, followed by a residency at NYU and Bellevue Hospital and a gastroenterology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Working in city hospitals helped him become resourceful and taught him how to interact with people from different backgrounds.

See full bio

Adam Felman

Author
Adam is a freelance writer and editor based in Sussex, England. He loves creating content that helps people and animals feel better. His credits include Medical News Today, Greatist, ZOE, MyLifeforce, and Rover, and he also spent a stint as senior updates editor for Screen Rant.

As a hearing aid user and hearing loss advocate, Adam greatly values content that illuminates invisible disabilities. (He's also a music producer and loves the opportunity to explore the junction at which hearing loss and music collide head-on.)

In his spare time, Adam enjoys running along Worthing seafront, hanging out with his rescue dog, Maggie, and performing loop artistry for disgruntled-looking rooms of 10 people or less.

See full bio
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network