Most health experts agree that an alkaline body pH promotes good health and an acidic body pH is an environment for potential health problems. To go one step further, there are many who also claim that cancer can only thrive in an acidic environment. Candida (yeast infections) also thrive in an acidic body.
To review pH, a pH of 7 is neutral, which is not acidic or alkaline. The more positively charged particles called ions that we have in our bodies, the more acidic we become. Acids have a lower pH than 7. The more negative ions that we have in our bodies, the more alkaline we become are we then will have a higher pH than 7. Between each pH number, the number of positive or negative ions vary by a factor of 10. For example, a pH of 5, has 10 times more positive ions as compared to a pH of 6. A pH of 4 has 100 times more positive ions than a pH of 6.
There are some other interesting factors to consider:
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1. If you eat something that is acidic, for example citrus, it may not have an acidic impact on your body. Citrus becomes alkaline as it digests.
2. Your stomach produces hydrochloric acid to help break down and to digest food. The pH inside the stomach during digestion can vary between 1.5 and 3.5. If you drink alkalized water, it will in my opinion, neutralize some of your stomach acid and make your stomach work harder to digest the food, consequently producing more acid.
3. Drinking a high volume of liquids during a meal will dilute your stomach acid and may raise your stomach’s pH above the level for optimal digestion.
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If you want to alkalize your body, you will help to reduce your free radical burden, slow down your aging process, increase your energy levels and reduce inflammation. The result is overall improvement of your health. Following an alkaline diet regimen is one of the easiest ways to significantly improve your health.
The key is to eat and drink those things that will have an alkaline-forming, rather than acid-forming effect on your body.
It’s all about supporting your body and giving it the tools it needs to maintain an ideal pH of 7.365.
5 Steps to An Alkaline pH From FoodMatters.com:
1. Go Green - The most alkaline foods on earth are those that contain the richest amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients - and the foods at the top of that list are all leafy greens. In 2014, research published in the journal “Preventing Chronic Disease” listed the 41 most ‘powerhouse fruits and vegetables’. The top 16 were all leafy green foods.
Try adding spinach, arugula, kale, chard and lettuce to your daily diet in juices, smoothies, soups and salads. In teaching and coaching the alkaline diet for the past eleven years, I have found a dramatic increase in energy, weight loss and vitality in people when they can add 4 or more serves of greens (approximately one juice) to their daily diet. On those days when greens are hard to fit in, a powdered green drink or liquid chlorophyll supplement can really help.
2. Hydrate - In my experience, the vast majority of people who are struggling with fatigue or who have ongoing health struggles are chronically dehydrated. Getting enough water each day is one of those ‘to-dos’ that we often forget, because it just seems so obvious. But so few of us get enough. The general, mainstream recommendation is 8-glasses-a-day, and even though this is actually nowhere near enough, most people don’t even reach this daily milestone! The trick is to make it easy to remember, and to set goals. Use alarms on your phone, leave reminder notes and set habits such as always having a glass of water when you get to your desk at work, having a glass when after you clean your teeth and so on.
Starting the day with warm lemon water is a great habit to form, as it kicks off your day hydrated every day, with a nice and alkaline start. And if you switch to hydrating herbal teas, such as peppermint and rooibos, instead of dehydrating coffee & regular black tea, you’ll find yourself easily hitting your daily quota. For most people that daily target is: 1 litre of water per 40lbs of body weight. It may sound a lot, but don’t try to get there on day one! Build up to it slowly, and relax - you will get there.
3. Get Oiled - Getting enough omega oils, particularly omega 3 is critically important to so many bodily functions and processes. Omega 3 is known as an ‘essential’ nutrient, because the body cannot manufacture it alone, it relies upon you to consume it! But so few people get enough. And nobody is to blame, it’s actually pretty hard to get enough through diet alone! Even if you eat oily fish every day, you still wouldn’t be hitting your target. I recommend that everyone adds 2-3 tablespoons of omega 3 to their diet every day. And if you do this, the results are fantastic. More energy, soothed digestion, soft skin, clearer thinking, better recovery from exercise and more. Just from adding in oils!
The easiest way to add this is through supplementation, but I also recommend making your own salad dressings using flax oil, chia seed oil or walnut oil with lemon, herbs and so on. Be creative - it’s hard to go wrong. Think about it, if you had one salad per day with your own omega-3-rich dressing, you’d be hitting 2 of these 5 steps every day!
4. Cut Out Excessive Acids - I never recommend anyone tries to be perfect with the alkaline approach (or any healthy living approach) from day one. It’s a surefire way to give up, fast. But I do recommend you start to transition away from your habitual strong acids as quickly as you can. The worst offenders include soda, sugar, gluten-containing grains and processed meats. If you can start to cut these back, a little each day, then you will be going a long way towards helping your body maintain that pH balance. Again, you don’t have to give it all up at once, on day one. Just try to cut back on each and set targets for yourself.
5. Reduce Stress - Stress can have more of an impact on the body than any food or drink we consume. Why? Because when we’re under stress, the body produces cortisol. This is fine in genuinely stressful situations, but repeated stress and ongoing cortisol production can have a huge impact on the body. Cortisol serves a very important function, preparing your body for fight or flight situations. But in doing so it shuts down all ‘non-essential’ functions changing immune system responses and suppressing the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes.
One More From Me:
Get Grounded - The earth is more negatively charged than the human body. Earthing or grounding was recognized by many “primitive” societies and now is being rediscovered. The earth has a healing power. That power comes from the earth drawing positive ions from the human body when we are in contact with it. Walking barefoot and going swimming in the ocean are two examples of earthing. The easiest way to accomplish earthing is by sleeping on grounding sheets. Grounding sheets have tiny electrical wires running through them. These wires connect to the grounding receptacle in an electrical outlet. In essence, you are sleeping on the ground. Positive ions leaving the body alkalizes the body and promotes good health. It is as simple as that!