LPR: How to get enough vitamin C?

I've always been sensitive to acorbic acid/vitamin c long before I had LPR: acidic apples, vitamin c in supplements, homegrown tomato in summer, etc.=all produced stomach pain (so I simply avoided them). Now that I have LPR, the only fruit that doesn't cause a reaction is bananas. I had to give up pears, grapes, melons, etc. After developing a lot of bruising with LPR, I discovered that vitamin c is destroyed by heat/cooking. I need to soften veggies by cooking in order to eat them. Broccoli is a big vitamin c veggie but cooking destroys the vitamin C quickly; potatoes have vitamin C before they're cooked, but cooking kills C there, too. What do others do?

I was already sensitive to concentrated vitamin C when I was healthy, but that did not trigger the LPR, something else did. Once I had full-blown LPR, however, I had to stop eating the fruits I usually ate (pears, grapes, cantaloupe, etc.) as in addition to the problem with acidic fruit, I also began reacting to high fodmap fruit even if it wasn't particularly acidic (ex: cantaloupe). So I can't eat fruits anymore and I need to cook veggies to soften them (to get down my throat) which destroys vitamin C. This has caused bruising issues due to vitamin c deficiency. And now even a TINY amount of a vitamin c supplement triggers reflux. I can't take multiple vitamin supplements, can't even take a small amount of vitamin B complex vitamins if they include vitamin c with them. (And for some reason, rice triggers reflux. I stick with noodles and the like for carbs.)

I would try and incorporate the vegetables containing vitamin C into your smoothies.

Hi Kat0707. My diet is very bland and basic due to my swallowing troubles and a lack of interest in food. I have two smoothies and two soups a day that add up to 2,000 calories (I need to keep my calories up as I lost a lot of weight not eating).

I put all my supplements into my smoothie, which is two tablespoons of coconut oil (had to work up to this amount), a tablespoon of mixed nuts, a pinch of salt, a cup of rice chex, and two scoops of protein powder (I use vega protein powder with greens as one of the scoop for additional vitamins). I add kiefer (for probiotics), almond milk, and a dash of liquid fish oil to it. Sometimes I add Greens powder to it, which has vit c as well. It's pricey stuff, but it's another alternative for you. (you can typically buy it at a pharmacy or on amazon).

For the soup I bought an instapot and set it to soup mode. I basically take frozen or fresh veggies and slow cook them for 2-4 hours in water and a splash of olive oil and salt. Then I puree it. It's normally a variance of kale, cabbage, sweet potato, potato, carrots, spinach, zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower. I make it in bulk so I do up individual meal size mason jars where I'll add a table spoon of coconut oil, 1/2 cup of rice, some salt (I add pink sea salt to everything as I don't eat any processed food, and this type of salt contains trace minerals) I'm like you in that I can't eat rice on it's own, but I don't find it sticky in the soup as it absorbs the soup liquid and goes mushy. I freeze several of the jars for future meals. I think some of the vit c is destroyed but there is still plenty of it in the broth and veggies to keep healthy.

It's not amazing in taste but it's not horrible either. It's also nice in that I can go to family dinners or even out to restaurants and just ask them to heat my soup (as choking and having trouble eating food can segregate you socially).

Finally, there are better recipes and perhaps more specific advice for your symptoms if you go on the 'fast tract diet' facebook page. (my diet is a cross between the acid watcher diet and fast tract)

If you can't find a way to get sufficient Vitamin C from food, consider magnesium ascorbate. The magnesium should act as a buffer to the acid, and with the way food is farmed these days, most people are not getting enough magnesium in their diets, so it could be a win/win.