Article Tags: Diet | Nutrition | digestion | education
Acid Alkaline Balance in your Diet
This is one of the most important concepts and practices in maintaining a healthy body/mind and in preventing inflammation and aging.
There’s a lot of talk about the benefits of acid-alkaline diets and lowering our diet’s acidity. Even though there’s not a lot of studies to back up this concept, there’s basic biochemistry that makes sense both in practice and in outcomes. My long-time simple Detox Diet supports the alkalinizing of the body, helping to reduce many inflammatory health conditions.
Each food when metabolized in the body breaks down into acid or alkaline elements. The body is normally slightly alkaline, the blood pH being 7.41 (7.0 is neutral, while above is more alkaline and below more acidic). A diet, which consists of 70-80% alkaline-forming foods, will keep eliminative, immune and nervous systems strong, and you will feel able to work and relax easily, with your entire body in harmony. This means eating lots of fruits and vegetables. On the other hand a diet that is too “acidic” leads to more tissue, organ and body congestion and inflammation.
Interestingly, the acid-alkaline action is not necessarily related to how foods taste. For example, citrus fruits taste acidic, but they are alkaline forming and are good to eat. Other alkaline foods include the grains buckwheat and millet, lima and soybeans, honey in moderation, along with certain seed and vegetable oils. Most protein foods like meats and other animals and sea beings, eggs and milk products, like butter and cream, most nuts and nut oils, and many of the grain and sugary foods are all acid-forming in the body.
Alkaline foods tend to be higher in “alkaline” minerals, namely Potassium Magnesium and Calcium, and these are mostly the veggies, especially green vegetables. The minerals Sulfur and Phosphorus are higher in proteins like animal foods as meats eggs and dairy, and fatty foods and tips the internal milieu to a more acid state. Also, the processed foods and sugars are more acid-forming.
You will notice that the majority of foods in the typical American diet are acid forming. That’s why we need to focus our eating around vegetables. Of course, we need some protein foods and fat-containing foods. Ideally, we are choosing about 70% alkaline-based foods. Use the simple chart linked below to check out what foods to choose.
There’s also natural medicine ideas about eating a low mucus-generating diets. Mucus is considered to be related to acid-forming foods, also called mucus-forming foods. We need some mucus for body function. However, if a diet too high in acid-forming foods, the body can become too acidic and will produce excessive mucus, which can be the medium conducive for the growth of bacteria and viruses. Protecting our body from viral invasion and infection is of key importance at this time. Excess mucus can create congestion, the cause of so many illnesses. The body’s attempt to remedy this problem of congestion by the elimination of the excessive mucus and acid elements such as through colds, sinus problems, or skin rashes is often mistakenly seen as the illness itself rather than symptoms or the body’s attempt to heal. The real problem lies more with the diet and its overall balance or imbalance.
Colds and infections, and even some chronic degenerative diseases, such as arthritis, hypertension and cardiovascular issues, will diminish as we move towards a more alkaline diet. It may take time to have the body rebalance, but even if you are not sick, you will notice a beneficial change. Try it and see for yourself.
Check out my simple guide to Acid and Alkaline foods HERE