Posts Tagged ‘acid’

Maintaining Acid/Alkaline Balance

Your diet is the single most important factor when it comes to maintaining proper Acid/Alkaline balance. When ingested, all foods are either acid- or alkaline- producers in the body.* To maintain optimal health and well-being, a good rule of thumb is to eat 80 % alkaline-producing foods and 20 % acid- forming foods.  However, a balanced food intake is not the only factor affecting the pH of the body. Stress, constant worry, nervous tension, shallow breathing, not getting enough exercise and lack of sleep are other issues that need to be addressed to maintain healthy pH levels.

Herbs and Spices Can Balance Your pH

All herbs and spices are alkaline-producers in the body, except garlic. Use them liberally in your kitchen to help you balance your pH.  Some people drink alkalizing teas with their meals to assist with digestion and to balance acidic foods. Another way to balance pH is to take alkalizing herbs in the evening. In this way your body will be more alkaline while you sleep.

Some Tips for Balancing Your pH

• Eat only about 20 % acid-forming foods daily.  Common acid-forming foods are animal foods (meat, eggs whites, fish, milk), a variety of grains, nuts and beans, white sugar, alcoholic beverages, and artificial and chemical additives and drugs.
• Eat 80 % alkaline-forming foods daily.  Some good choices are fruits, vegetables, some grains, nuts and beans, cheeses, yogurt, egg yolks, tea, honey, spices and herbs, natural wines and mineral water.
• To learn more, acid/alkaline charts are available in some bookstores or healthfood stores. These can help you identify which foods produce an acidic condition in the body and which ones produce an alkaline environment.
• Find out more about the importance of food combining. The wrong combination of foods can influence your pH levels too. For example, citrus fruits create alkalinity in the body ONLY when eaten alone. If your orange juice is mixed with your toast and eggs in the morning, it will create an acid environment in your body.
• Listen to your body. Many people are able to “feel” if they are acid or alkaline. “Acid people” usually feel uncomfortably hot, experience highly nervous energy, and negative thoughts. People with the right pH (slightly alkaline) are usually balanced, calm and focused.
• Humor creates alkalinity in the body. So, go ahead and have a five minute belly laugh everyday for your overall health and wellbeing!

*A particular food’s acid or alkaline-forming tendency in the body has nothing to do with the actual pH of the food itself. For example, lemons are very acidic; however, after digestion and assimilation, lemons produce an alkaline system. In this way lemons are alkaline-forming in the body, as long as they are eaten alone, without any other foods. Similarly, meat will test alkaline before digestion but it leaves very acidic residues in the body, therefore, meat is very acid-forming.

Have you ever wondered what it would take to always be healthy? Many doctors, herbalists and nutritionists believe that by maintaining your body’s pH on the slightly alkaline side you never get ill. Dr. William Howard Hay in his book A New Health Era states that all diseases are caused by auto-intoxication (or “self-poisoning”) due to high acid levels in the body. More recently, in his book Alkalize or Die Dr. Theodore A. Baroody says: “The countless names of illnesses do not really matter. What does matter is that they all come from the same root cause – too much tissue acid waste in the body!”

When the body becomes too acidic many health problems can occur. It is very rare to find someone being overly alkaline. Most people who suffer from unbalanced pH are acidic. An overly acidic body must borrow minerals—including calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium—from vital organs and bones to buffer (neutralize) the acid and to safely remove them from the body. Because of this stress, the body can suffer severe and prolonged damage due to high acidity—a condition that may go undetected for years.  People who have chronic acidosis are at greater risk for bone loss than those who have normal pH levels. Many bone fractures due to osteoporosis is more prevalent among middle-aged women. This is because the body borrows calcium from the bones in order to balance pH. These are connected to high acidity caused by a diet rich in animal foods and low in vegetables.

If you are experiencing any of the following health challenges you may be too acidic:

• Cardiovascular damage, including the constriction of blood vessels and the reduction of oxygen
• Weight gain, obesity and diabetes
• Bladder and kidney conditions, including kidney stones
• Low immunity
• Nervousness, restlessness, insomnia
• Moodiness, irritation, mental edginess, impatience, intolerance
• Premature aging
• Osteoporosis, weak, brittle bones, nails, hair, bone spurs
• Joint pain, aching muscles and lactic acid buildup
• Vitamin/mineral deficiency
• Low energy and chronic fatigue

…and much more

What is pH?

Potential of hydrogen, pH, is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 14:  the lower the pH the more acidic the solution, the higher the pH the more alkaline the solution. When a solution is neither acid nor alkaline it has a pH of 7, which is neutral.  Another way to think of pH is as a balance between positively charged ions (acid-forming) and negatively charged ions (alkaline-forming).  This is similar to the workings of a battery. The human body needs to have a positive and a negative to create an electrical current, in other words, energy.

Our bodies continually strive to balance pH. When this balance is compromised many problems can occur. For example, the most important fluid in the body is blood, which has a pH level of 7.4, slightly alkaline. If the blood becomes too acidic the heart relaxes and ceases to beat. If the blood is too alkaline, the heart contracts and ceases to beat.

How You Can Test Your pH

You can quickly and conveniently test your pH levels with pH test strips, which are available at most drugstores. Knowing where your pH levels are may help you correct any imbalances in the body right away, before foreign invaders settle in. If your urine pH fluctuates between 6.0 to 7.0, your body is functioning within a healthy range. If your saliva stays between 6.5 and 7.5 all day, your body is functioning within a healthy range. The best time to test your pH is about one hour before a meal and two hours after a meal.

Look for Part II next week!