Will an acid alkaline diet help you lose weight? Many people believe that the answer is yes. Today, I want to talk about some of the theories about the connection between the alkaline diet and weight loss.
According to some experts on the acid alkaline diet, notably Dr. Robert O. Young, being overweight is actually a defense mechanism against excessive acid production. Their theory is that eating the typical western diet leads to the build-up of acidity in the body. If the body is unable to detoxify these acids, it reacts by storing fat as a way of buffering the harmful effects of the excess acid. When the body’s pH is restored to a healthy balance, this theory suggests, the body will naturally shed the extra fat. Although mainstream medicine tends to dismiss this explanation, there is no question that Dr. Young’s books feature many success stories of people who lost weight while on an alkaline diet.
However, this is the only explanation for why an acid alkaline diet can lead to weight loss. Another reason is that the alkaline diet tends to be lower in calories than the standard American diet. People gain weight when they consume more calories than they expend through exercise and basic metabolic activities like digestion and respiration. This means that if you want to lose weight, you either need to exercise more or eat less. Unfortunately, downsizing your portion sizes can leave you feeling hungry and dissatisfied. Is there any solution to this dilemma? The answer is yes. By eating foods that are lower in calories per ounce, it is actually possible to eat more food while consuming fewer calories. As luck would have it, many foods that are high in calories are also acidifying. Therefore, an acid alkaline diet is likely to lead to a reduction in your total caloric intake.
Another thing to consider is that many junk foods encourage compulsive eating. People joke about not being able to stop eating potato chips, but some experts say that many of us are truly addicted to these foods. These compulsively eatable foods are things like candies, chips, cookies, and fast food–all of which are also acidifying. Have you ever seen someone unable to stop himself from polishing off a salad? No, me neither. By minimizing junk foods in the diet, we can make it less likely that we will eat when we aren’t hungry.
Don’t worry–you can still enjoy your food on the acid alkaline diet. But because the foods you will be eating are natural and unadulterated, it is easier to stop eating them when you are full. In conclusion, there are several reasons to believe that the acid alkaline diet can help you lose weight and keep it off.
You probably already know that the alkaline diet is the fastest and most effective way to create an alkaline body pH. But you may be wondering what exactly you should do to quickly turn an acidic body into an alkaline body. In this article, you will learn five tips that will help you to quickly create an alkaline body pH.
1. Eat a Salad Every Day
Salads are one of the best ways to increase your intake of whole vegetables. But don’t just stick with the same boring old iceberg lettuce and tomatoes. Instead, enhance flavor and boost the nutritional benefits by using a variety of ingredients. For example, kale, spinach, and Swiss chard can add major nutrition. Almonds or pumpkin seeds can add crunchiness. And don’t forget the dressing–for the greatest health benefits, make it from flaxseed oil or olive oil.
2. Use Cheese as a Condiment
Some alkaline diet experts will tell you to avoid cheese altogether, and I can see their point. In addition to being acidifying, cheese is high in calories and saturated fat. My view is that you should either eliminate cheese, or use it sparingly. If you want to, it’s okay to add a few teaspoons of grated feta, mozzarella, or Parmesan to your salad or vegetable dish.
3. Add Flavor to Your Meals with Chicken Broth Instead of Meat
Here’s another suggestion that may ruffle the feathers of those who equate the alkaline diet with a vegan or vegetarian diet. But not everyone wants to give up meat altogether. It’s mostly protein that makes chicken acidifying. (The saturated fat is also problematic, but for different reasons.) Canned chicken broth adds flavor to soups and other dishes, without adding much protein, fat, or calories. It’s mildly acidifying, but much less so than whole chicken. The biggest drawback? It’s often high in sodium, so look for a reduced-sodium variety.
4. Boost Flavor (But Not Calories) by Adding Herbs and Spices
Make food flavorful without making it acidic or boosting your intake of fat or calories. It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But it’s as easy as adding spices or herbs to your favorite foods. (Some of my favorites are chili flakes, garlic powder, thyme, oregano, and dried onion.) All of these ingredients are extremely low in calories and fat, and they don’t contain much sodium unless it has been added by the manufacturer. Best of all many herbs and spices are alkalizing–unlike table salt, which makes your body more acidic and can contribute to high blood pressure.
5. Try a Green Drink
Green drink powders contain different combinations of alfalfa, barley grass, oat grass, and wheat grass extracts, along with fruits and vegetables and other nutrient-rich ingredients, such as chlorella, spirulina, fiber, probiotics, lecithin, and bee pollen. Although barley and wheat are acidifying, barley and wheat grass are alkalizing foods with very different nutritional properties than the grains from which they are sprouted. A green drink is a healthy alternative to soft drinks. Unlike these acidifying beverages, green drinks help to create an alkaline body. They’re also rich in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Simply mix the green drink powder with water, or blend it with frozen fruit to create a delicious smoothie.
I’ve just given you five ways to create an alkaline body pH without needing a lot of time, money, or expert advice. The sooner you get started, the sooner you will create an alkaline body–so get started today!
What do people mean when they talk about the importance of an alkaline vs acidic body? First of all, it’s important to understand that your pH affects every organ and cell in your body. When your pH is perfectly balanced, your body’s systems function correctly. When your pH is out of balance, many health problems can result.
One of the clues to the importance of pH is the fact that your body has many systems for removing excess acid from your organs and tissues. Inside your body, carbonic acid is turned into carbon dioxide, which your lungs expel every time you exhale. Your kidneys expel various acids in your urine. Finally, your skin expels acid through your sweat. If pH didn’t matter, would your body go to all this trouble to maintain a very specific acid-alkaline balance? No, of course it wouldn’t.
Although doctors are sometimes skeptical that the foods you eat can affect your body’s pH, no one disputes that a proper acid-alkaline balance is absolutely essential for health. In fact, if your body became extremely acidic, you would quickly die. The symptoms of severe acidosis can range from shortness of breath to diarrhea, vomiting, seizures, and lapse into unconsciousness.
Fortunately, such extreme acidosis is rare. But many people in the United States and other Western countries do suffer from a milder, but still problematic, degree of overacidity, known as chronic low-grade metabolic acidosis. This condition is caused by a diet that contains too many acidifying foods and beverages, and not enough alkalizing ones.
The harmful effects of low-grade acidosis take two forms. First, some of the damage occurs as a byproduct of your body’s efforts to neutralize excess acid. This process of neutralizing acid is life-promoting. If your body did not neutralize acid, you would quickly become so acidic that you would die. Unfortunately, the process of neutralizing acid uses up alkaline minerals, including calcium, magnesium, and potassium. As these minerals are depleted, several harmful effects can occur, including bone loss and osteoporosis, elevated levels of parathyroid hormone, high blood pressure, muscle wasting, pain and inflammation.
The second reason that an acidifying diet harms your health is that it can overwhelm your body’s efforts to neutralize the acid, causing your body to become chronically acidic. This can lead to a number of problems, including accelerated aging, dental and periodontal disease, fatigue, frequent and painful urination, inflammation, weakened immune function, and yeast overgrowth.
Now that you understand the differences between an alkaline vs acidic body, you can see the importance of transitioning from an acidic body to an alkaline body. Because the cause of acid-alkaline imbalance is a diet that contains too many acidifying foods and not enough alkalizing ones, then the best way to alkalize your body is to follow the alkaline diet.
In recent years, many people have discovered the benefits of the alkaline diet. When you eat mostly alkalizing foods, you alkalize body chemistry. And when you create an alkaline body, many aspects of your health are positively affected. Many people have found that this way of eating leads to improved health, increased energy, and sustainable weight loss.
You might be thinking that this sounds like an impossibly complicated or restrictive way of eating. But the good news is that to alkalize body chemistry, you don’t need to give up acidifying foods altogether. The fact is that virtually everyone eats a combination of acidifying and alkalizing foods. The problem is that whether you live on processed foods, or you follow a trendy low-carb diet, you could be eating 70 percent, 80 percent, or even 90 percent acidifying foods.
In contrast, to achieve a proper pH balance, you need to turn that ratio upside down and eat 65 to 80 percent alkalizing foods. This means that the bulk of your diet should consist of fresh fruits and vegetables, along with a moderate amount of alkalizing whole grains, nuts and seeds. In addition to being alkalizing, these foods are low in fat, sugar, and calories, but rich in fiber and complex carbohydrates.
On the other hand, high-protein diets are strongly acidifying, because nearly all high-protein foods are acidifying. Of course, you do need some protein for optimal health. Fortunately, 20 to 35 percent of your diet can consist of acidifying foods, and your protein foods will fit into this part of your diet. You can get your protein from some combination of lean meats, fish, low-fat dairy products, and eggs. If you are a vegan or vegetarian, you can combine whole grains with legumes to create a vegan source of complete protein. Nuts and seeds are mostly fat, but they also contain some protein, and can be a good supplementary source.
Finally, you want to include some foods that provide healthy fat. These foods include nuts and seeds, avocados, and healthy oils, especially olive oil and and flaxseed oil.
As you can see, you don’t need to have a Ph.D. in biochemistry to alkalize body chemistry. You just need the right information and the will to succeed. Why not get started creating an alkaline body today?
If you have been learning about the alkaline diet, you may have heard certain foods referred to as alkaline diet foods. But what exactly does this phrase mean? As it happens, there are several related terms that have the same meaning as “alkaline diet foods.” These terms include “alkalizing foods,” “alkaline-forming foods,” and “alkaline foods.” All of these terms refer to foods that make the body more alkaline.
The term “alkaline ash” comes from the scientific process that is used to determine how a food will affect the body’s pH. In this process, the food is literally burned, and the resulting ash is then analyzed. This technique is not 100 percent accurate, but it is more useful than simply measuring the pH of the food directly. This is true because acidic food doesn’t always make the body more acidic, and alkaline food doesn’t always made the body more alkaline.
For example, vinegar and lemon juice are both very acidic. But once it has been eaten, digested, and assimilated, lemon juice actually has an alkalizing effect on the body. This is also true of other types of citrus fruits and their juices. Also, while most vinegars have an acidifying effect on the body, apple cider vinegar is alkalizing because of its high mineral content.
In short, alkaline diet foods are foods that are rich in alkalizing minerals. These minerals include calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and sodium. Iron is a micromineral, which means that it is needed only in very small quantities. The other minerals are macrominerals, meaning that they are needed in larger quantities. While all these minerals are essential for health, potassium is the mineral that has the largest effect on acid-alkaline balance.
The richest sources of potassium are fresh fruits and vegetables, which is one of the reasons that fresh produce is so important on the alkaline diet. Of course, this isn’t the only benefit of these foods. Fruits and vegetables are high in vitamins, minerals, and beneficial phytonutrients. At the same time, they are high in fiber and low in calories, making them excellent options for anyone who is on a diet for weight loss.
Besides fresh produce, alkaline diet foods include some whole grains, certain beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, and healthy fats. These natural ingredients make the alkaline diet an excellent choice for energy, weight loss, and overall health.
If you are looking for alkaline diet recipes, you can choose from among several cookbooks that are specific to the alkaline diet.
Alkaline Foods Cookbook. By Keith Exum. Middletown, DE: Jazzy Kitty Greetings, 2007. ISBN: 978-0976854029
This book is by Keith Exum, who has been an herbalist and a chef for over twenty-five years. This 131-page book includes recipes, food preparation tips, and an alkaline food list. At the time this article was written, Keith’s book has received 5 reviews on Amazon.com, with an average rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars.
The Amazing Acid Alkaline Cookbook: Balancing Taste, Nutrition, and Your PH Levels. By Bonnie Ross. Garden City Park, NY: Square One Publishers, 2010. ISBN: 978-0757003165
This book will be published in 2010. Since it is not yet available, no reviews have been posted on Amazon.com.
Anti-stress: Recipes for Acid-alkaline Balance. By Dagmar Von Cramm, Angelika Ilies, and Friedrich Bohlmann. London: Gaia Books, Ltd, 1999. ISBN: 978-1856751452
This book is 64 pages long. No reviews are currently available on Amazon.com.
Back to the House of Health: Rejuvenating Recipes to Alkalize and Energize for Life! By Shelley Redford Young. Pleasant Grove, UT: Woodland Publishing, 2000. ISBN: 978-1580540711
Shelly Redford Young is the wife of Robert O. Young, the well-known advocate of the alkaline diet. Her book is 140 pages in length, and spiral bound for easy use in the kitchen. It includes over 100 alkaline diet recipes, from AsparaZincGusto Soup to Popeye Mousse Pie. The book has been reviewed 17 times on Amazon.com, with an average rating of 4.5. Some readers praise the recipes in this cookbook as delicious and healthful, while dissenters say that it is based on questionable science, and that it fails to include clear instructions.
If you don’t find any of these cookbooks to your taste, you can also try other cookbooks that are compatible with the alkaline diet. For example, consider vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, raw food, and vegetable-based cookbooks as possible sources of alkaline diet recipes.
Many factors affect your body’s pH, but the most powerful factor is the food you eat every day. Many people take food for granted, not realizing that food is as powerful as a drug. Every bite you eat is either bringing you closer to perfect health, or taking you farther away from it.
Many factors help to determine whether a food will help or harm your health. One factor that is important, but often overlooked, is how a food affects your body’s internal pH. Few foods or beverages are truly neutral. Most have some effect on your body’s pH, either making it more acidic or more alkaline. However, some foods are more powerful than others–and this is important information if you want to speed up your progress with an alkaline diet detox.
First, cut back on meat and dairy foods. You don’t have to become a vegetarian or a vegan, but it’s nearly impossible to do an alkaline diet detox while consuming the oversized quantities of red meat, poultry, and dairy products that most Westerners consume on a regular basis.
Second, cut out soft drinks and other sweetened beverages. No, I’m not just talking about colas and lemon-lime flavored soda pop. I’m also including energy drinks, sports drinks, coffee drinks, iced tea, and fruit juices that contain added sugar. And don’t think you’ll be doing your health a favor by substituting diet sodas: The artificial sweeteners used in these products are also acidifying.
Third, cut out processed snacks. I’m talking about sweets, like candy, breakfast pastries, and pop tarts, as well as crunchy, salty snacks, like corn chips, potato chips, and pretzels. All of these foods are acidifying, they’re also high in salt, fat, and refined carbohydrates. If you don’t want to give up these foods altogether, cut back on the quantity, and choose whole-grain snacks with minimal added fat.
Fourth, eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. These are the most alkalizing foods on the planet, and they have many other health benefits as well. For example, they’re high in fiber but low in calories, which makes them ideal for losing weight, since they fill up without maxing out your daily caloric intake. They’re also the richest source of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.
18 Foods for Your Alkaline Diet Detox
Some foods are mildly acidifying or mildly alkalizing, while other foods can give your body a powerful push in one direction or the other. Nearly all alkalizing foods can be a healthy part of your alkaline diet. But when you’re on an alkaline diet detox, it can be helpful to incorporate the following highly alkalizing foods: Brocoflower, burdock root, daikon radishes, lentils, lime juice, lotus root, nectarines, onions, persimmons, pineapple, pumpkin seeds, raspberries, seaweed and sea vegetables, sweet potatoes, tangerines, taro root, watermelon, and yams. Some of these foods are exotic, but give them a try anyway. You may be surprised at how enjoyable they can be.
Just these four tips can go a long way toward helping you achieve a healthy alkaline diet detox. Why not start incorporating more alkalizing foods into your diet today? You have nothing to lose, except for some extra pounds!
A healthy alkaline diet menu is based upon the simple truth that the foods you eat have an important effect on your body’s acid-alkaline balance. In turn, overacidity can lead to many chronic health problems, while an optimum internal pH has a positive effect on virtually every cell and organ in your body. But even if you are currently following an alkaline diet menu, you may not be aware of the five surprising benefits listed below:
5. Healthier Teeth and Gums
An acid-forming diet can make the mouth too acidic. An acidic oral environment promotes the growth of harmful bacteria which cause tooth decay and periodontal (gum) disease.
4. Fewer Yeast Infections
Because candida albicans and other potentially harmful microorganisms thrive in an acidic environment, an acid-forming diet can lead to an increased risk of vaginal and systemic yeast infections.
3. Improved Energy
A crucial part of your body’s energy cycle is the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) by the mitochondria inside each cell. If the pH inside each cell is either too high or too low, the mitochondria cannot perform this role as effectively, and fatigue results.
2. Improved Immune Function
When the blood becomes too acidic, cells become less efficient at absorbing nutrients and eliminating waste. These weakened cells are much less effective at defeating infectious microorganisms.
1. Slower Aging
When the body becomes too acidic, cells are less capable of repairing themselves, and premature aging occurs. Acidity also promotes aging in a second way, by impairing organ function.
Conclusion
Not convinced by these benefits? There are plenty of others to choose from. All in all, an alkaline diet menu is an exciting nutritional approach for gaining energy, losing weight, and improving overall health.
Warning: You could easily ruin your alkaline diet almost before you get started. How? By basing your food selections on an inaccurate alkaline diet chart that you found on the Internet. After careful research, I have found that many, if not most, of the food charts around the web are riddled with inaccuracies.
Does this mean that nutritional authorities can’t be trusted, or that the alkaline diet itself is worthless? The answer to the second question is that thousands of people have seen firsthand the powerful health benefits of this natural diet. As for the first question, some alkaline diet experts may be frauds, but I believe that the majority are genuinely trying to provide useful information. The trouble is that many people rely on outdated sources to determine which foods are acidifying and which ones are alkalizing, ignoring the fact that the science behind the alkaline diet is rapidly evolving.
Unfortunately, when you base your food choices on an inaccurate alkaline diet chart, you set yourself up for failure. After all, the essence of this diet is eating more alkalizing foods and fewer acidifying ones. If you’re relying on inaccurate food chart, it says if you were flying a plane with broken navigation controls. It doesn’t matter how hard you try or how carefully you read the instructions if those instructions are wrong.
Another problem with most alkaline diet charts is that they fail to include some common foods. The weird thing is that they sometimes do include strange foods that hardly anyone eats, yet they leave out one or two foods that are in almost everyone’s shopping cart. It can be pretty frustrating to wonder if you should eat a certain food on this diet, and not be able to find out for certain because you don’t have access to a reliable source of information.
Looking for an alkaline diet book? This article will offer a few suggestions for your healthy reading list.
More than any other, the alkaline diet book that really launched the alkaline diet into the spotlight was The pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health. Written by Dr. Robert O. Young and his wife, Shelley Redford Young, this book was published by Warner Books in 2003. Separately or together, the Youngs have written or co-authored a number of other alkaline diet books, including the following:
- The Alkalarian Diet: See Your Health In A Whole New Light! by Robert O. Young and Manuel Ortiz Braschi
- The pH Miracle for Diabetes: The Revolutionary Diet Plan for Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetics by Robert O. Young and Shelley Redford Young
- The pH Miracle for Weight Loss: Balance Your Body Chemistry, Achieve Your Ideal Weight by Robert O. Young and Shelley Redford Young
- Back to the House of Health: Rejuvenating Recipes to Alkalize and Energize for Life! by Shelley Redford Young
- Sick and Tired?: Reclaim Your Inner Terrain by Shelley Redford Young
However, the Youngs are not the only people who have written an alkaline diet book–or several. In fact, at last count, there were at least 33 books and e-books on this subject listed on Amazon.com. Here are a few of them:
- Acid and Alkaline by Herman Aihara
- Alkalize or Die: Superior Health Through Proper Alkaline-Acid Balance by Theodore A. Baroody
- The pH Balance Diet: Restore Your Acid-Alkaline Levels to Eliminate Toxins and Lose Weight by Bharti Vyas and Suzanne Le Quesne
Also, many other books mention the alkaline diet, at least in passing, even if they aren’t exactly “alkaline diet books” in particular. Happy reading!
Most people eat too many acidifying foods, creating an acidic internal environment and putting themselves at risk for many chronic health problems. On the other hand, when you follow an alkaline diet plan, you begin to take control of your health. Like regular exercise, a well-designed alkaline diet can make a huge difference in your longevity as well as your quality of life.
In this article, you’ll learn about five reasons to eat more alkalzing foods. Some of these reasons will be news even to many people who currently follow an alkaline diet plan.
1. Reduce Pain and Inflammation
Magnesium is an alkaline mineral which your body uses to neutralize excess acid. This process of neutralizing acid is vital to your health. If it did not take place, acid would accumulate in your tissues and you would eventually experience severe, even life-threatening, illness. Unfortunately, when your body uses magnesium to neutralize acid, there is less of this important mineral available to perform its many functions in the human body. Numerous problems can result, including inflammation and pain.
2. Prevent Muscle Wasting
Another side effect of your body’s attempts to neutralize excess acid, muscle wasting can occur when the body breaks down muscle tissue to release glutamine, an alkalizing amino acid. Your body can then use the glutamine to neutralize acid, but at the price of reduced muscle tone.
3. Build Healthier Teeth and Gums
An acid-forming diet can make the mouth too acidic. Unfortunately, an acidic oral environment is perfect for the growth of the harmful bacteria which contribute to cavities and periodontal (gum) disease.
4. Avoid Urinary Tract Problems
When your body’s acid level goes too high, your body responds by eliminating more acid through your urine. Again, that’s a positive response. But the downside is that acidic urine can irritates the bladder and urinary tract, leading to frequent and painful urination.
5. Reduce Your Risk of High Blood Pressure
One of the major causes of high blood pressure is too much sodium and too little potassium. Our ancestors consumed much more potassium than sodium, but today this ratio has been turned on its ear by an abundance of salt and a scarcity of fruits and vegetables. An acid-producing diet can make this problem worse, because your body draws upon potassium reserves to neutralize excess acids. Once used in this way, the potassium is excreted in your urine, throwing your potassium-sodium ratio further out of balance.
Conclusion
By now, it should be pretty obvious that when you eat an acid-forming diet, you set yourself up for many health problems. On the other hand, when you follow an alkaline diet plan, you start down the path toward abundant health, improved energy, and lasting weight loss. Now that you understand some of the benefits of the alkaline diet plan, why not see what this ancient yet scientific way of eating can do for you?
The alkaline diet is a way of eating that emphasizes foods which have an alkalizing effect on your internal pH. The popularity of this diet has exploded over the past several years, and it shows no signs of going away anytime soon. But what exactly are the alkaline diet benefits that are making this approach so popular?
A great deal of confusion is created by the fact that alkaline and alkalizing are not always synonymous. In other words, a food that tastes very acidic, such as apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, can actually have a strongly alkalizing effect once your digestive system has had a chance to digest and assimilate it. By the same token, a food that does not seem at all acidic, such as table sugar, can in fact be highly acidifying inside your body.
Alkaline Diet Benefits: How It’s Different from Other Popular Diets
You may be wondering how alkaline diet benefits compare to the benefits of other well-known diets, particularly low-carb diets such as the Atkins diet and the South Beach diet.
At first glance the alkaline diet appears to be the polar opposite of the low-carb diet, but this is only partially accurate. As you are undoubtedly aware, the low-carb diet drastically restricts your intake of high-carb foods, including bread, pasta, rice, sugar, beans–even fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, you are allowed to eat as much as you want when it comes to meat, cheese, and other foods that are high in fat and protein.
In contrast, the alkaline diet restricts consumption of meat and dairy products, nearly all of which are acidifying. And while low-carb diets restrict fruits and vegetables, one alkaline diet benefit is that these foods are strongly emphasized. After all, fresh produce contains the most nutrients and the fewest calories of any food, making it a must-have for anyone who wants to lose weight, increase energy, or overcome chronic health problems.
In another regard, however, the alkaline diet and the low-carb diet do have something in common. Both diets restrict consumption of sugar and processed grains, but for different reasons. Advocates of the low-carb diet correctly point out that these abundant carbs are a major reason for the explosion of obesity over the past 30 years. As this own author Barry Sears has said, the central aisles of any grocery store are pretty much one big lump of carbohydrates divided up into different packages. (Although there’s plenty of fat in those packages as well.)
Interestingly, these processed carbs also tend to be acidifying. This is because the most commonly consumed grains, including corn, rice, and wheat, have an acidifying effect on the body.
When you get down to it, the big difference between these two diets is that the low-carb diet takes a sledgehammer to carbs, while the alkaline diet uses a scalpel. True, some high carb foods are very harmful to your health, especially when they are consumed in large quantities. But something is wrong when anti-carb hysteria reaches such a pitch that people begin eliminating even apples, carrots, and butternut squash from their diets. These nutrient rich foods are some of the healthiest around, and they’re certainly not the reason that so many people are fat. On the contrary, they are an important key to losing weight, because they fill you up without adding many calories to your daily intake. So start alkalizing today, and reap these alkaline diet benefits for yourself.
If you want to learn about acid alkaline diets, you need to learn a little about chemisty. Don’t worry, though, if you’re having flashbacks to your high school chemistry class. I’m going to make this as simple as possible!
Let’s start with the term pH, which means “potential for hydrogen.” If a liquid contains a lot of hydrogen ions, this means that it’s acidic. On the other hand, if it’s capable of absorbing a lot of hydrogen ions, this means that it’s alkaline. The more hydrogen ions something contains, the more acidic it is.
pH is measured on a scale of 0 to 14. Each one-point increase in pH means a ten-fold decrease in hydrogen ion concentration. Because 7 is in the middle of the scale, it is considered neutral. Any number lower than 7 is acidic, and any number higher than 7 is alkaline.
Each type of bodily fluid has a different normal pH. For example, normal blood has a slightly alkaline pH of between 7.34 and 7.43. The pH of saliva ranges from 5.5 to 7.5, while urine pH ranges even more widely, from 5.0 to 8.0. But on the whole, a healthy body has a slightly alkaline pH, a little above 7.0 on the pH scale.
Many factors can influence your body’s internal pH: Genetics, kidney function, illness, smoking, urban and industrial pollution, prescription and over-the-counter medications, and even the altitude at which you live. However, the most important factor is determining your body’s pH is what you eat (and drink).
Nearly every food affects your pH, either making your body a little more acidic or a little more alkaline. So now that we’re through all the science, the key to acid alkaline diets is pretty simple: Eat more alkalizing foods and fewer acidifying ones.
To get a little more specific, alkalizing foods include most fresh fruits and vegetables, along with some grains, one legume (lentils), nuts and seeds, and healthy oils. On the other hand, acidifying foods include meat and poultry, fish and seafood, dairy and eggs, along with nearly all processed foods, such as bread, potato chips, candy bars, and soft drinks. Most alcoholic beverages are also acidifying.
Of course, there’s a lot more to acid alkaline diets than this. But even with the information you have learned from this article, you have enough knowledge to begin to build an alkaline body. Why not pick one of the acid alkaline diets on the market, and get started?
Although many factors affect your body’s internal pH, the most important one is the food you eat (and the beverages you drink). Luckily, these things are entirely within your control. But what exactly should you do if you want to create an acid alkaline diet for optimum health? Well, when you’re giving people nutritional advice, you can either tell them what they can eat or what they can’t eat. Both kinds of knowledge are important, but this article focuses on the second approach. Below are the top five foods to avoid if you’re following an acid alkaline diet for optimum health.
1. Soft Drinks
Colas and other soft drinks are loaded with sugar, which is highly acidifying. They also contain phosphoric acid, making them even more acidifying. Besides, they’re full of empty calories, but no nutrition. Sure, some soft drinks contain added vitamins, but don’t be fooled–they’re still no substitute for real food. And while energy drinks, sports drinks, and vitamin waters may have a healthier image than colas, they’re just as acidifying. The same applies to diet or “zero-calorie” soft drinks. Unfortunately, the artificial sweeteners in these beverages are highly acidifying, as well.
2. Coffee
Coffee is highly acidifying, partly because it contains caffeine, a chemical that can have a number of harmful effects on your health. If you drink several cups of coffee a day, you will probably feel terrible if you quit cold-turkey. Remember, caffeine is a drug, so withdrawal symptoms are to be expected. You can make it easier on yourself by replacing one cup of coffee with green tea. After a few days, add another cup of green tea, and cut back one cup of coffee. Continue until you are off of coffee completely. Green tea contains some caffeine, but less than coffee does. On balance, it is an alkalizing beverage. Plus, it contains other substances that appear to have powerful health benefits. Among these is l-theanine, an amino acid that helps reduce anxiety and induce relaxation. There are also powerful antioxidants which can help prevent cancer, according to some recent studies.
3. Alcoholic Beverages
Almost all alcoholic beverages are acidifying. Another problem with alcohol is that it is a source of empty calories. According to one study, the average American drinks 28 gallons of alcoholic beverages per year. Considering that the average person already gets too many calories from sugar, white flour, and other nutritionally-empty foods, adding alcohol on top of everything else is just making things worse. As few as three drinks a week have been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer by 60 percent, and drinking also raises the risk of esophageal and laryngeal cancer.
4. Dairy Products
The dairy industry will tell you that milk is a perfect food. But the truth is that dairy foods have both pros and cons. From the perspective of the acid alkaline diet for optimum health, one of the cons is that nearly all dairy products make your body more acidic. It’s okay to eat some acidic foods, but when you add a lot of dairy on top of a diet that is already full of acidifying meat, grains, and sugar, you end up making it impossible to achieve an optimal acid-alkaline balance. The main reason to consume dairy products is that they are rich in calcium. If you give up dairy products, you can still get enough of this essential mineral, either by eating plenty of calcium-rich plant foods, like kale and spinach, or by taking a bone-building supplement. But if you continue to consume dairy products, you can still create an alklaline-leaning pH balance by making sure that your total protein intake isn’t too high. In other words, if you drink more milk, eat less meat, and vice versa.
5. Fast Food
You already know fast food is bad for you, right? But it never hurts to hear the main points again, in case you didn’t get all of them the first time. Fast food is high in calories, high in total and saturated fat, high in sugar and processed starches, and low in fiber. It’s also highly acidifying. Think of the ingredients in a cheeseburger: There’s fatty meat, fatty cheese, a white-flour bun, tomato, and a few shreds of lettuce. Guess what? All of those ingredients are acidifying, except for the bit of lettuce and the sesame seeds on the bun. But that’s not nearly enough alkalizing ingredients to compensate for all of the acidifying ones.
Some people think that an alkaline diet for optimal health is overwhelmingly complex. As you can see, however, this doesn’t have to be the case. Reducing or even eliminating the five foods in this article will go a long way toward helping you to create a healthy acid alkaline diet.
Once you have learned about the harmful effects of overacidity and the benefits of the acid alkaline diet simplified, you naturally want to know how to alkalize your body quickly and with as little effort as possible. This process isn’t as complicated as some people have made it. As with other diets, you can choose whether you want to geek out on the details, or just learn the basics. This article is brief, but it will give you enough information to start building an alkaline body today.
You need to know some chemistry if you want to understand the scientific background of the acid alkaline diet simplified, but this isn’t strictly necessary. All you really need to know is that to alkalize your body, you need to eat more alkalizing foods and fewer acidifying ones. However, this doesn’t mean that you need to eliminate acidifying foods altogether. In fact, it would be both unhealthy and impractical to do so.
Not only would a 100 percent alkaline diet be boring, but by not eating any acidifying foods, you would be in danger of missing out on some important nutrients. For example, tomatoes are rich in lycopene, an antioxidant which may reduce the risk of prostate cancer. And even though acidifying foods are usually bad for bone health, prunes have been shown to help fight osteoporosis. This just does to show that nutrition is too complicated to be reduced to a single rule, no matter how useful that rule may be.
The second problem with eating a completely alkalizing diet is that you could theoretically make your body too alkaline (although this is much likely to occur as a result of overusing alkalizing supplements than from diet alone).
So which foods make the body more alkaline? Most fresh fruits and vegetables are alkalizing, along with some grains, lentils, nuts and seeds, and healthy oils. At the other end of the spectrum, acidifying foods including meat and poultry, fish and seafood, dairy and eggs, most grains, and virtually all junk foods, such as sweet rolls, corn chips, chocolates, and soft drinks.
As you can see from the information in this article, there’s nothing too complicated about the acid alkaline diet simplified. Start eating correctly now, and you can start seeing the benefits of the acid alkaline diet simplified within days.
