Your body's pH balance is an indicator of your overall health, says author Larry Trivieri Jr., co-author of "The Acid Alkaline Food Guide." In an interview featured on the Natural News website, Trivieri points out that an alkaline environment is necessary to assimilate nutrients and minerals and energize the body. In contrast, in an acidic environment, bones must release minerals to re-establish alkalinity.
Function
Alkalinity and acidity refer to the pH balance of the fluids in your body. A pH of less than 7.0 is acidic, and more than 7.0 is alkaline. Diet, environmental stress and allergic reactions foster acidosis, a condition characterized by excessive acid in body fluids, which may lead to diseases such as hardening of the arteries, arthritis and cancer. Joseph Sweere, a professor at Northwestern Health Sciences University, says maintaining the body's pH between 7.0 and 7.5 may prevent most diseases.
Benefits
According to research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, an alkaline environment is necessary to maintain muscle mass and keep bones healthy, while an acidic environment causes the body to burn muscle and store fat. An alkaline diet provides the body with potassium bicarbonate, the mineral that neutralizes acid in the body, and helps to prevent deficiencies of the alkalizing minerals calcium and magnesium.
Diet
Vegetables and most fruits are alkaline foods. Meats, wheat products, sugar, coffee and alcohol---mainstays of the Western diet---are acidic. Although some protein is necessary for optimal health, keep in mind that fried and grilled meat change the chemical composition of the food, and the digestive process can cause acidosis.
Misconceptions
Foods with a low pH don't necessarily raise acid levels in the body. For example, following digestion, some acidic foods such as orange juice and tomatoes have a net alkaline-producing effect. In reality, a high acidic diet is less of a problem than the fact that the diet is deficient in alkaline-producing foods, according to Anthony Sebastian. M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco.
Recommendations
The pH of your saliva indicates the pH of the fluid surrounding your tissue cells. While a balanced diet should ideally be made up of 20 percent acid-forming foods and 80 percent alkaline foods, your pH balance will likely vary from day to day. An easy way to determine if your body is in an alkaline state is to purchase a home test kit and measure the pH of your saliva each day for a week. Home test kits are available in many drugstores and health food stores.
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