Alkaline diets help cleanse waste from your body and keep pH levels balanced. Your body's pH level is determined by the amount of acid and alkaline present. To properly detox your body, you'll need to eat less acidic foods and more foods that produce alkaline.
Significance
Alkaline foods help balance your body's pH levels. Ideally, your pH level should be about 7.4. If the pH level strays too far from this number, it can be detrimental to your health. For example, you could experience problems with your heart, weight and fatigue. Many diets contain large amounts of food that form acid in our bodies, but if you eat the correct balance of acidic and alkaline foods, your body can fend off disease more easily.
Testing pH Levels
There are a couple ways to test your body's pH level. Use a pH strip, made from Litmus paper, and dampen it with your saliva. A healthy reading when testing saliva should be near 6.5 or 6.6. If it is below 6.4 your body is lacking alkaline sources. Test yourself about an hour before eating or two hours after the meal. You can also test your urine. A healthy urine test result should be between levels 6 and 7.
Alkaline Foods
Fruits and vegetables are alkaline producing foods. Alkaline fruits include lemons, grapefruit and avocados. Alkaline vegetables include lettuce, cabbage and carrots (see Reference 1). Try to eat green, leafy vegetables as much as possible and eliminate foods that are high in fat (see Reference 2). Other effective foods include pumpkin, almond milk and lentils (see Reference 1).
Acidic Foods
Intake of acidic foods should be very limited when detoxing. Avoid dairy products, proteins from animal sources and grains as much as you can. Also, stay away from sugars, coffee, alcoholic beverages and white rice. About 80 percent of your food should be alkaline; acidic foods should make up the rest.
Consderations
Drink lots of water as well as green juice. The green juices can help cleanse your body while helping the balance of alkaline and acidic foods.
Member Comments