8 Party Foods That Give You Heartburn

As you make your rounds at a party, you start to feel that familiar burn. No, not the one you get from a good buzz. The one that creeps up your throat and into your chest, causing you to shift uncomfortably as you lose your appetite and general good mood. Ah yes, that all too familiar feeling of sufferable heartburn.

Click here for 8 Party Foods That Give You Heartburn (Slideshow)

According to the Mayo Clinic, the lower esophageal sphincter normally keeps digestive acid in your stomach from moving up into your esophagus. This muscle basically functions as a valve, and sometimes the valve relaxes, causing stomach acid to flow up (reflux) into your esophagus. Excess weight, overeating, or lying down too soon after a meal may cause the valve to open slightly. And then of course certain foods can relax the sphincter, causing an increased production of stomach acid.

Unfortunately, all parties involve varying levels of overeating, so we decided to pull together a list of exactly which foods are the most harmful. And when it comes to identifying which foods cause the worst heartburn, we turned to the National Heartburn Alliance guide that tells us which foods are the worst offenders. Sadly, the results revealed some of our favorite party staples like chocolate and alcohol as serious heartburn dangers. What is particularly challenging is that people while heartburn have varying tolerance levels, meaning the soda that gives you a light burning reaction may give the next guy searing pain.

To help you manage your food intake properly at a party, we rounded up some of the most common heartburn-causing foods so you can avoid grazing on the wrong things and continue working on that "better" buzz!