Esophageal Guardian Alternatives

A Quick View of Esophageal Guardian Alternatives

If you’re looking for fast, long-lasting relief from acid reflux, I’ve put together the top alternatives to the supermarket alginate Esophageal Guardian. Here are my top alginate-containing picks for better reflux solutions:

1. Reflux Gourmet – The all-natural choice for maximum relief with minimal ingredients.
2. Gaviscon Advance (UK version) – The long-term clinical option for tried and true results.
3. Refluxter – The sugar-free option with high alginate concentration.

The holidays are upon us, which for many means rummaging through the medicine cabinet looking to cure indigestion, reflux, and the food poisoning you might have gotten from grandma’s fruitcake. You’ve probably got the supermarket staples like Tums, Gas-X, and Esophageal Guardian, but are they really working for you? 

Most reviewers online either love or hate Esophageal Guardian. It works well for some people, while others find it ineffective and unpleasant to chew and swallow. If you’re in the latter boat, this article is for you. We’ve spent hours researching other alternatives so that you can get the relief you need without all the searching.

What Makes Alginates like Esophageal Guardian Effective for Acid Reflux? 

If you’re new to alginates, they are a derivative of brown seaweed that can be used to treat reflux and heartburn. Harvested and then cleaned, refined, and processed into supplements and medications, alginate creates a raft over the top of the stomach’s contents. It floats there, keeping the acid and other contents in the stomach, rather than letting them come up the esophagus. 

Alginate has been shown as an effective means for treating acid reflux at the source. It works differently than antacids like Tums, which simply neutralize stomach acid, but don’t actually stop it from coming up. Supplements like Esophageal Guardian, Reflux Gourmet, and Gaviscon Advance all have alginate in them to varying degrees. Alginate supplements typically come in liquid, capsule, or chewable forms, so there are options to fit your preference. Esophageal Guardian comes in a chewable form, which, as I mentioned, is a bit polarizing. 

If you’ve tried Esophageal Guardian and found it isn’t for you, we’re here with the best alternatives the internet has to offer.

Why Consider Alternatives for Esophageal Guardian?

The most obvious reason for looking for an alternative to Esophageal Guardian is that it isn’t working for you, but there are several other reasons you might be looking for another product to tame your acid reflux. 

Now, more than ever, people are starting to look for better solutions for their health – ones with fewer side effects, ones that are more natural, or ones that work faster or better. 

I’ve seen Esophageal Guardian online through Walmart or Amazon, but it hasn’t been getting the greatest of feedback from users. Many want a different flavor or texture, or simply more transparency from the brand. 

Two of the primary complaints users have are that Esophageal Guardian has xylitol and citric acid in it. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that can help with reflux in some cases, but in others, it can cause gas and greater stomach discomfort. Citric acid has been known to trigger or exacerbate acid reflux, making Esophageal Guardian more of a trigger than a help for those sensitive to it.

So I went out in search of other options that contain fewer trigger ingredients and allergens, and guess what, my friends? They’re out there! There are vegan-friendly options, allergen-free ones, and ones that just flat out work better. So let’s talk about them!

Alginate Alternatives for Esophageal Guardian

1. Reflux Gourmet – The All-Natural Alginate Choice

Reflux Gourmet took the cake as my favorite alginate supplement (and not just because it tasted like cake). Like Esophageal Guardian, Reflux Gourmet is an alginate supplement, except that it’s all-natural.

It is the only alginate supplement I found that was 100% natural. When I looked into its ingredients, I was pleasantly surprised. The company went to great lengths to create a product that meets standards for being vegan, gluten-free, and kosher. It was also the most allergy-friendly supplement we found. So, if you have specific dietary needs, this is the first place I would look. It does contain 3 grams of sugar, which makes up the 10 calories. 

All that aside, Reflux Gourmet actually works. Sometimes natural supplements don’t seem to work as well as chemical ones, but this one did. Reflux Gourmet has a 425 mg blend of alginate and sodium bicarbonate to create the raft and neutralize stomach acid. Esophagaeal Guardian has 1000 mg, so there’s quite a bit more alginate in Esophagaeal Guardian. 

I didn’t honestly find a big difference between the amounts and found that Reflux Gourmet worked even better than Esophageal Guardian. If it works the same, I prefer to take a lesser amount of a supplement, so this was a win for me. Reflux Gourmet also seemed to work a little faster, since there was no chewing or rehydrating needed.

Reflux Gourmet was definitely easier for me to swallow than Esophageal Guardian’s chewable tablets. At first, I thought I would like the tablets more, since they looked kind of like Tums and were berry-flavored. But I found them more chalky, and they made me gag a bit, which is the last thing I want when I already have heartburn. Reflux Gourmet had more of a creamy, gel texture, kind of like pudding. I tried the Chocolate Mint, and it was much better than the berry flavor of the tablets. 

Price-wise, Reflux Gourmet costs $28 for a tube, which has 47 1-teaspoon servings, when purchased on Amazon or Reflux Gourmet’s website. Esophageal Guardian is $21.60 from Walmart and includes 30 2-tablet servings, making Reflux Gourmet $0.12/serving cheaper.   

2. Gaviscon Advance (UK version) – The Long-time Clinical Option

A popular choice in clinical studies and Reddit forums, Gaviscon Advance has a positive track record for alginate supplements. It is the most “medicinal” sounding (and tasting) of any of the products I reviewed. If you’re looking for something tried and true, and don’t mind the medicine taste, Gaviscon is a great choice. 

Gaviscon Advance is a liquid, so it’s easy to drink. The taste, however, leaves something to be desired. It comes in Peppermint and Aniseed. Neither flavor is particularly desirable. I prefer the flavor of Reflux Gourmet or Esophageal Guardian above Gaviscon. 

Gaviscon’s website indicates that you can take 5-10 ml (about 1-2 teaspoons), and there’s 500 mg of sodium alginate per 5 ml dose (or 1,000 mg per 10 ml dose), which makes it just slightly higher in alginate than Reflux Gourmet, and half of what’s in Esophageal Guardian. 

Gaviscon Advance is a solid choice that works for most people I’ve talked to. The one (very big) caveat is that it’s not available in the US. If you’re in the UK, it’s easy to find, but not so much in other places. There are other Gaviscon products available in the US, but not with the same formulation as the Gaviscon Advance with alginate. 

It’s available at Tesco for £12.50 or about $16.35 USD for a 250 ml bottle. You can also get it from Amazon in the US; however, these are almost always from 3rd party sellers, so expect to pay more, and always double-check the reviews before you buy! If you take 5 ml doses, there are 50 doses per bottle, or 25 doses if you take the full 10 ml.

3. Refluxter – The Sugar-Free Capsule

If liquid supplements aren’t your thing, Refluxter offers another alginate option in capsule form. Like Reflux Gourmet, it’s made in the US, so it’s easier to find stateside. It’s also vegan and free of parabens. Their website states that Refluxter is natural, but it’s unclear if it was entirely natural or if just some of its ingredients are.

Refluxter comes in a vegetarian capsule, which can be a better fit for those with flavor sensitivities. Some users have said that it is a little slower acting than other methods, since the capsule has to dissolve before the alginate raft can form.

The biggest thing that Refluxter has going for it is that it’s sugar-free, making it a good option for individuals with diabetes or on reduced sugar diets.

It also contains almost 3 times the amount of alginate as the other products I looked at. Refluxeter has 1,470 mg of its alginate blend. After my research, I realized how widely alginate products vary, from Reflux Gourmet with a smaller, but still highly effective amount, to the variable mid-range quantity from Gaviscon, Esophageal Guardian on the high end, and then to Refluxter at a seemingly almost extreme level in comparison. 

I wondered if more alginate translated directly to more effectiveness, but I found that this was not at all the case. In reviewing user reviews of all four top alginate supplements, there did not seem to be any more results or better reviews from higher levels of alginate. This brings me back to one of the reasons Reflux Gourmet was my top pick. It kept the minimum needful amount without stuffing in more unnecessary or unusable amounts of ingredients.

Refluxter is available on Amazon for $29.99. A bottle has 30 2-capsule servings, making it a bit more expensive than my top pick, but fairly in line with other options.

Final Thoughts  

I really don’t think you would be going wrong by using any of these products. They all contain alginate, which is the common factor that makes these acid reflux products really shine. A lot of what it comes down to is the method you prefer to take your supplements in and how much of them you need for it to be effective. I’d recommend starting with Reflux Gourmet, because it’s a lower-dose, more natural choice than Esophageal Guardian for your everyday acid reflux relief.