Video narration
Why can a meal travel down comfortably, yet leave a burning feeling in your chest afterward? It can feel as if spicy food set something on fire. But the food itself is not burning. Your stomach makes hydrochloric acid—stomach acid—to help digest the meal. As food moves down the food pipe, a small valve between it and your stomach normally closes, keeping stomach contents down. If that valve relaxes too much or weakens, acid slips upward into the food pipe. That is the turn: the burning is acid moving up, not food catching fire. For some people, symptoms are triggered by spicy or oily foods, skipping meals, late-night dinners, too much tea or coffee, stress, or poor sleep. These triggers differ from person to person. So why the burning after a meal? Because the valve lets stomach acid move upward. That movement is acid reflux, often called acidity.