Food is essential for life. There is a direct relationship between what we eat and how we feel. There is also a direct relationship between what we eat and how our bodies fight illness. The right balance of acid/alkaline foods in your diet is essential for equilibrium of life and health. In his book Alkalize or Die, Dr. T. A. Baroody Jr. claims that acidosis is the foundation of all disease. "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!"
Alkalize Your Diet---Alkalize Your Body
Step 1
Increase the amount alkalizing foods in your diet. Fruits and vegetables are at the top of the alkalizing food list. You can find an acid/alkaline food list on line. This list will help you know which foods to focus on for alkalinity. Foods that are alkalizing to the system are beets, broccoli, kale, eggplant, collard greens, lemons, tangerines, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, green tea and all berries. A quick step forward in alkalizing your diet is use green drinks or raw fruit juices. Juicing greens or fruits will boost your immune system and kick up your energy levels fast because they're packed with natural enzymes, vitamins, minerals and co-factors that support alkalinity.
Step 2
Decrease the amount of acidic foods in your diet. This means cutting out the major offenders such as alcohol, soda, caffeine (coffee and black tea included), and cutting back on the rest of the guilty felons like white flour, white sugar, white pasta, as well as all meat and dairy products. What's left to eat, you may ask? Fruits and vegetables of course! However, all is not lost. Striving for a balance of 80 percent alkaline foods and 20 percent acidic foods is ideal. Thus, including fruits and vegetables as the majority of each meal helps maintain that balance.
Step 3
Access your body's response to alkalizing. Once you've made diet changes to include mostly alkaline foods, determining whether or not your pH levels are predominantly alkaline is easy. You can purchase pH test strips to test urine and saliva right at home. The best time for testing pH is one hour before a meal or two hours after a meal. pH levels do not need to be checked more than twice a week. Also, ask yourself how you're feeling? Are you experiencing more energy? Sleeping through the night now? Have those hot flashes stopped flashing? How your body reacts to an alkaline diet may surprise you, so be sure to ask.
Tips and Warnings
- Our bodies fight hard to neutralize acids and maintain the proper pH is organs, tissues, and body fluids. But it can only do that for so long before a condition known as acidosis occurs. We have to give the body what it needs, in the form of alkalizing fruits and vegetables, so that it can properly maintain the delicate acid/base balance. Acidosis is associated with nearly all diseases; acidosis is the common denominator in all forms of illness and disease. Being selective about the types of foods we eat goes a long way in helping to maintain a healthy alkaline pH balance within our bodies---and balance equals health. Keeping a food journal is a great way to track the ratio of acidic to alkaline foods you eat each day.
Things You'll Need
- Acid/Alkaline food list
- Juicer
- Raw fruits and vegetables
- Personal pH testing kit
- Food journal
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