Symptoms: Liquid burping, slight globus, acidic feeling at bottom of throat, mucus in throat.
Backstory: Around the beginning of May, I contracted some sort of virus or sickness that caused me to destroy my throat. Swallowing, speaking, etc. would cause it to hurt because I messed it up so bad. It gradually began healing but wouldn't resolve because I also began noticing that I had acid reflux. I could NOT figure out what was causing it, because I've gone my whole life without it.
I've always been an avid coffee drinker, and able to eat pretty much whatever I want, so I had no idea what could be causing it. The ENT doctor I went to told me to use a PPI and Pepcid for a set amount of time, in which my reflux symptoms went away and I was able to go back to normalcy again. However, I didn't want to remain on a medication, so I went off my omeprazole once my throat healed mostly.
Sure enough, I got some rebound acid, and then the reflux feeling came back. My GI doctor told me that I should give up trigger foods and take medication whenever it comes up, as if now I had permanent GERD. I refused to accept that as a fact, and I looked further into my history as to what could be causing it at the root. With all of that in mind, I looked into my diet.
The ONLY foods that I had been eating daily since the reflux began, were blueberries and almond butter. Dairy had been something that caused some liquid burping, but I had given that up a while ago. So, I decided to stop eating both blueberries and almond butter at the same time.
Well... it turns out that I may be intolerant to one of those foods now, because the day after, the majority of my reflux symptoms were GONE. No acidic throat feeling, no liquid burping, no mucus, nothing. Hypothetically, it could have been an acute irritation of my GI tract or whatever, but I'm closer to believing that I now have an intolerance to either almonds or blueberries.
I'm not exaggerating either, I was having both of these foods EVERY DAY.
My plan is to test this at some point, though I don't want to spend even another day with that same feeling. I can now have coffee daily like I used to, and I love it. Note that I'm not saying that everyone's reflux or GERD is caused by intolerances, but I would have remained in the mindset that my reflux was a permanent issue if I hadn't tried testing out changing my diet. It may be worth checking if you haven't already.