(HealthDayNews) -- If you suffer from heartburn, you may have heard that drinking a glass of milk or sucking on a peppermint candy will ease your discomfort. It's not true. In fact, both so-called remedies can actually worsen the problem, according to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
While milk can wash acid in the esophagus back down onto the stomach, it also causes the stomach to produce more acid. And peppermints weaken the valve-like sphincter muscle at the base of the esophagus that serves as a lid on the stomach.
Other foods that can worsen heartburn include chocolate, coffee, alcohol, onions, fatty foods, carbonated drinks and tomato and orange juice.
