A healthy and healed gut is crucial for optimising your overall health. Tanya Malik Chawla, a digital creator and “biohacker,” in an Instagram reel, recently suggested taking a one-minute test to find out whether you are prone to acidity.
Chawla explained that the test involves taking baking soda with water on an empty stomach. Baking soda (an alkali) will mix with stomach acid to produce carbon dioxide (gas), leading to burping.
The time you take to burp is used as an indicator to decide whether a person has low stomach acid, she revealed.
Reportedly, the test is a popular home method for assessing stomach acid production. However, this is not a widely accepted diagnostic test.
“This is not a widely accepted, standardised diagnostic test. Some people with digestive issues burp even before eating, making it difficult to determine whether burping is caused by the baking soda or pre-existing conditions,” Meenu Balaji, chief nutritionist at Pragmatic Nutrition, Chennai said as quoted by Indian Express.
Balaji also said that stomach acid levels vary from person to person, and fluctuate throughout the day, making it even harder to draw conclusions based solely on burping.
According to Balaji, the most effective way to determine stomach acid levels is to consult a doctor about your symptoms. The doctor may recommend tests such as the Heidelberg pH test for a precise assessment, she said.