The exact diet that stopped my acid reflux permanently in three weeks – now I can go to bed without antacid tablets and I lost 45kg

For most of her adult life, Lois Wagner thought waking in the middle of the night with burning acid clawing at her throat was simply part of getting older.

The 71-year-old leadership coach from Johannesburg, South Africa, had spent decades swallowing antacid tablets before bed, propping herself upright on pillows and trying to ignore the discomfort that arrived almost every night without fail.

Like millions of people living with acid reflux, Lois simply learned how to manage the symptoms and carry on.

‘I honestly cannot remember exactly when it started because it feels as though I lived with acid reflux for most of my adult life,’ Lois tells the Daily Mail.

‘Looking back, I think it became significantly worse after my divorce in my early 30s.’

At night, the reflux would become almost unbearable.

A burning pain would creep into her chest and throat, making sleep difficult and leaving her exhausted the next day. She tried everything she could think of, including avoiding lying flat at night, but the only real relief came from antacid tablets.

‘It became part of my nightly routine,’ Lois says. ‘The burning pain could become severe enough to keep me awake for hours. Sleep was often disrupted, and I became dependent on antacid tablets to get through the night.’

For years, Lois carried on with life as normal. She built a successful career, stayed socially active and kept pushing through the discomfort.

Even when the symptoms worsened after heavy meals or processed foods, she simply treated the reflux and moved on.

What makes her story so relatable is how ordinary it felt to her at the time. There was no dramatic medical emergency or terrifying diagnosis. Instead, there were years of quiet discomfort and gradual decline that slowly became normalised.

‘It never really embarrassed me because I became very good at hiding it,’ she says.

‘I would simply take tablets and carry on as though nothing was wrong. But in hindsight, constantly treating symptoms instead of addressing the cause was exhausting.’

Behind the scenes, her health was deteriorating in ways that went far beyond reflux.

For most of her adult life, Lois had also struggled with fluctuating weight. At times, she was active and fit; during other periods, she found herself trapped in cycles of obesity, exhaustion and poor mobility.

Then came the moment she now describes as her wake-up call.

When Lois moved into an independent-living retirement village at age 70, she weighed 145kg (320 lbs or 23 st) and relied on walking sticks to get around.

Rather than slowing down quietly into retirement, she suddenly found herself surrounded by residents in their 80s and 90s who were living far more active and independent lives than she was.

‘What struck me most was seeing older people walking around independently, looking healthy, energetic, and engaged with life,’ she says.

‘I realised I was younger than many of them, yet physically struggling far more. That was the moment I knew I could not continue as I was. I wanted quality of life, mobility and independence.’

Lois began researching healthier lifestyles online and repeatedly came across information about low-carb and keto-style eating.

Unlike many people who approach keto as a rapid weight-loss trend, Lois says she saw it as a way to simplify her eating and regain control over her health.

‘As a pescatarian, it actually felt like a manageable way for me to start because I already did not eat meat or chicken,’ she says.

‘At the same time, I began reading about intermittent fasting, and the positive stories and research intrigued me.’

She insists she was not desperate at the time, but determined. She felt hopeful that improving her lifestyle might help her health overall, but never imagined the change would eliminate the reflux that had been part of her life for decades.

The changes she made were significant but surprisingly straightforward.

She cut out processed foods, refined carbohydrates and sugar entirely. Processed oils were replaced with extra virgin olive oil, while foods like eggs, Greek yoghurt, seeds and fermented vegetables became staples in her diet.

These days, her meals focus on whole foods: breakfast might be avocado, eggs and sauerkraut, or Greek yoghurt with berries. Lunch is often sardines with a tomato, cucumber, rocket and seed salad, while dinner centres on vegetables such as broccoli, mushrooms, onions, garlic and cauliflower cooked in olive oil in the air fryer.

She also practises intermittent fasting, delaying her first meal until mid-morning.

Lois says the adjustment was easier than expected because the physical improvements gave her motivation to continue.

At first, Lois focused mainly on the scales. The weight began dropping steadily at about one to two kilograms a week, which encouraged her to keep going. But the biggest surprise came just a few weeks into her new lifestyle.

‘What shocked me most was that within about three weeks, the acid reflux had disappeared completely,’ she says.

‘One day, I suddenly realised I had gone several nights without needing antacids. The burning had simply stopped. It was the moment I realised, “This is actually working.”‘

For someone who had relied on tablets for decades, the moment felt almost surreal.

Remarkably, Lois says the reflux has never returned.

Over time, the transformation extended far beyond her digestive system. Lois eventually lost 45kg (99 lbs or 7 st 1.2 lbs) and no longer needed walking sticks to move around the retirement village.

Her blood pressure stabilised, allowing her to stop medication, and her energy levels improved dramatically.

‘The biggest changes were my weight loss and mobility,’ she reveals. ‘Losing 45kg allowed me to stop using walking sticks completely. That alone changed my quality of life enormously.’

Today, Lois still works online as a leadership trainer and coach while serving as chairperson of her retirement village residents’ committee.

Her days are filled with community projects, social activities, exercise and work that keeps her mentally engaged. Although she still wakes during the night occasionally, she says the constant burning reflux that once dominated her evenings is gone.

‘Overall, my sleep quality is far better than it used to be when reflux was constantly disturbing me,’ she says.

Looking back now, Lois believes one of the biggest problems is how easily people dismiss symptoms like reflux, bloating and exhaustion as inevitable parts of ageing.

She says many people see acid reflux as something normal that simply has to be managed with medication, rather than asking why it is happening in the first place.

She also believes modern diets filled with heavily processed foods may be contributing to far wider health problems than many realise, particularly when those symptoms are treated as isolated issues, rather than part of a broader picture.

‘We often separate these issues as though they are unrelated. Weight gain, fatigue, reflux, blood pressure, poor mobility,’ she says. ‘In reality, they can all be connected.’

For Lois, the biggest lesson was discovering how quickly the body could respond when she changed the way she ate.

After spending decades masking symptoms with tablets, she says she only wishes she had understood earlier that feeling unwell did not have to be accepted as normal.

Now 71, she says the transformation has given her something she feared she was losing forever: independence. While she knows her approach may not work for everyone, she hopes her story encourages other people not to simply accept poor health as an unavoidable part of getting older.

‘I think modern life has normalised feeling unwell,’ she concludes.

‘People accept bloating, indigestion, reflux, exhaustion and poor sleep as part of ageing, when sometimes the body is actually asking for change.’