Papaya Good for GERD? The Jury's Still Out

There's tons of articles, blogs, and websites out there that talk about the benefits of Papaya fruit and GERD:

Papaya is a powerhouse fruit that is not used nearly enough in our society. Papaya is an excellent natural remedy for acid reflux disease.  It is not only a low acidic food, but contains an enzyme called papain that is designed specifically to help with digestion.  It also consists of potassium which is helpful in providing  an healthy bacterial setting for your intestines.  This eases the digestive process and helps your stomach not work as hard.  This is the underlying source of health to fix the disease process. 

Papaya also has more than the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C.  vitamin C also helps with digestion.  You don't necessarily have to eat papaya to get it's benefits.  You can also buy a papaya enzyme supplement.  My family uses this to get our papain and it comes with a mint taste. 

and

Papaya : If you have access to fresh papaya, eat half of one for breakfast every morning with half a cup of yogurt and you will see a huge improvement in the amount of acid your body is producing. Papayas contains papain which will aide in the digestive process along with the live cultures in the yogurt. Squirt a slice of lemon over the flesh of the papaya for added flavor and Vitamins before eating, or sprinkle with a Tablespoon of wheat germ for a nutty flavor. If papaya is not available in your area, pick up some papaya tablets at the health food store. Read the label to be sure they do not contain any salt, sugar or sorbitol (sugar substitute).

However, after more digging, it seems there's still no real evidence, or consensus on Papaya: 

Papaya Enzyme 
One of the alternative treatments for GERD that you may have heard about is papain, or papaya enzyme.Papaya enzymes occur naturally in the fruit of the papaya plant, and they have well established proteolytic properties, meaning that they help digest proteins. For this reason, one of the historical uses of papaya has been as a meat tenderizer -- marinading tough cuts of meat in papaya for several hours can soften the muscle fibers, making the meat easier to chew.

Enzyme FunctionThere simply isn't any scientific evidence that papaya enzyme can help reduce symptoms of GERD. In part, this is because enzymes are very reaction-specific, as explained by Drs. Mary Campbell and Shawn Farrell in their book "Biochemistry." Enzymes with roles in metabolism don't play a part in digestion. Enzymes that digest fats can't affect carbohydrates. In the specific case of papaya enzyme, because it digests protein, it has by definition no effect whatsoever upon acid production or reflux.

Other Considerations

A further reason that papaya enzyme can't affect or reduce your GERD is that enzymes operate within a very narrow range of temperatures and acidity levels. Very few enzymes can survive the highly acidic interior of the stomach, and papaya enzymes aren't among them. As such, when you consume papaya enzyme, your stomach acid renders it inactive. You simply digest the enzyme, which is itself a protein, as you would any other dietary protein.

For now, I've added papaya to my list of items to buy at the super market.  We'll see how it goes.