Foods to Eat and Avoid if You’ve Got an Ulcer
Everyday Health
While it was long believed that the impact of stress and eating spicy foods could cause digestive ulcers, scientists now know that Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) bacterial infections or long-term use of high-dose nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) actually cause most cases.
When H. pylori causes the immune system to release inflammatory cells, or NSAIDs erode the stomach’s protective mucosal lining, an open sore (aka an ulcer) is formed. “Once the protective wall erodes away, a pit forms, and that’s where an ulcer is,” says Matthew Hoscheit, MD, a gastroenterologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
While they don’t cause ulcers, certain foods can irritate an ulcer if you have one. “Since the sore develops where the protective lining has eroded,
