Peptic ulcer affects the stomach and the duodenum, giving symptoms like burning and pain in the upper abdomen frequently after one or two hours after eating was done. This discomfort is relieved after taking antacid drugs and food.

Keeping a diet is very important in treating ulcer. A few years ago it was thought that food can cause ulcer but now it has been proven that certain aliments can only aggravate the symptoms of ulcer and delay healing.

Some tips you must follow in order to prevent or heal faster the ulcer are:

1. Try to avoid the following aliments because they only injure your stomach line: pepper,

chilly, peppermint, citrus fruits, cocoa, chocolate, cola, and fried fatty foods. This list can be adjusted according to your tolerances but the doctors should be consulted about it too.

2. When eating try to eat slowly, chewing well the aliments in a non-stressful atmosphere.

3. Try to take your meals two hours before bedtime.

4. If you smoke, you should quit because smoking only delays ulcer healing.

5. Pay attention to the foods that cause you pain and burnings and try not to eat them any more.

6. If you caught a cold do not use aspirin because the substances it contains are harmful to your stomach and will delay ulcer healing.

7. Do not skip taking the drugs the doctor recommended: antacids, antibiotics.

Here is a scheme of a diet you can follow, approved by the National Research Council's Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA):

At breakfast, eat one toast with margarine and jelly; drink half a cup of apple juice, skim milk-one cup; you are allowed one teaspoon of sugar and a quarter of a teaspoon of salt.

At lunch, you can have a cream of potato soup with broiled chicken patty and tossed salad, one teaspoon of mustard, and a quarter of salt. If you want you can have peaches after.

At dinner: baked fish with mashed potatoes and one slice of bread; half a cup of apricot nectar and vanilla pudding. Margarine is admitted in one teaspoon.

This type of diet can also be followed by those who suffer of non-ulcer dyspepsia. This affection is similar to the peptic ulcer but the differences are that non-ulcer dyspepsia does not give an ulcer, a lesion on the stomach or duodenum; it only gives the same symptoms as peptic ulcer.