Alkaline Foods And Water Tips

The "Acid Alkaline Balance" has got to be one of the most fascinating and powerful health philosophies in existence, and any student of health should pay close attention to the benefits of an alkaline diet. It will probably never become "mainstream", because there's just no money in it- (the old, "You can't get rich on spinach" philosophy) but for those of us who want to shed fat, have more energy and vitality, and live a long, dis-ease free life, we need to study the acid/ alkaline balance.

So what's an alkaline diet all about, anyway? Well, the concept is based on chemistry. Every liquid, including our bodily fluids, is either acid or alkaline, and can be measured on a scale that starts at zero, which is acidic, and goes to fourteen, which is alkaline. Neutral compounds are seven.

Human blood must maintain a slightly alkaline level of 7.365. Other bodily fluids can fluctuate, and do on a daily basis, but blood must draw from other systems in the body to retain alkalinity. For example, some health experts speculate that a cause of Osteoporosis may be that the blood leaches calcium from the bones to maintain alkalinity.

It's kind of like a bank, in that everything we take into our bodies is either an alkalizing deposit or an acidic withdrawal. For example, soda pop is one of the worst acidic offenders, requiring 32 glasses of alkaline water to neutralize the acid. On the other hand, yellow vegetables, spinach, broccoli and alkaline water are excellent contributors to a healthy alkaline diet.

Allowing the body to become acidic (and if we don't take care, this happens by default to almost everybody) is a bad thing. Diseases thrive on acidity. Some nutritionists even theorize that disease cannot survive in alkaline environments.

"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."

-Dr. Theodore A. Boroody, from his book, Alkalize Or Die.

On the positive side, when we adopt an alkaline diet great things happen, like:

-You have more natural energy

-You will sleep better, and wake more refreshed

-You will gain lean muscle more easily

-Fat will disappear naturally

-You will be much less likely to get sick

Here are seven steps you can take to help you get alkaline:

1. Get yourself an alkalinity test kit from your local health food store. They are inexpensive and very simple to use.

2. Drink plenty of alkaline water. We all know we need lots of water, and the old "8 cups" doesn't make a lot of sense (is it 8 cups for an 80 pound grandma as well as a 350 pound bodybuilder?!) One theory is that we should drink half our body weight in ounces of water. So if you weigh 140 pounds, you should drink 70 ounces of water. So, drink half your body weight in water every day, of the best water available to you. If you can, make it alkaline water. For me personally I saw more improvement from this than any other alkaline diet technique. Click here to learn more about alkaline water.

The pictures above and below were taken with a dark field microscope. The white area around the cells is oxygen. The picture below shows what the cells should look like, nicely separated and each wrapped in a healthy layer of oxygen. Samples were taken from the same patient, before and after drinking 28 ounces of alkaline water.

3. Eat lemons. That's right, lemons have a strong alkalizing effect on the body, even though they are acidic! Start your day by squeezing a lemon or two into a glass with water. A bit tart at first, but you'll learn to love it! Ask servers in restaurants to include lemon slices with your water, and generally add lemon whenever you can with meals.

4. Increase the amount of salads you eat. The old, "Salad isn't food, salad is what goes with food!" may be funny, but it's definitely not true. Add a salad to your lunch, or throw extra veggies on your sandwich, and at dinner time take less meat and potatoes, and increase the amount of salad you eat. Almost all green and yellow vegetables have a great alkaline effect on the body. And Popeye was right- spinach is VERY good for you, and is a vital part of an alkaline diet!

5. Sugar is not your friend. Cut back, not just on how much you add to things, but also on foods that already contain a lot of sugar. Did you know that the restaurant size sugar pack is about a gram of sugar? Now that you know that, become a label reader. Next time you pick up that Gatorade and see that there's 46 grams of sugar, maybe you'll think twice! Can you imagine adding 46 of those little packets to any other food? Then why allow companies to pack it into the foods you're eating. Sugar causes a lot of acidity in the body, besides all the other bad things we know it does.

6. Add "Super Alkalizers" to your alkaline diet:

-Greens like Kale, Mustard Greens, and Broccoli

-Millet or Quinoa instead of wheat

-Fish and lamb over beef

-Olive oil instead of other vegetable oils

-Miso broth. Just dissolve one teaspoon of miso into a cup of hot, not boiling water.

-Use fresh garlic in your cooking

7. Add supplements. Enzymes, ionic form minerals, and vitamins A and D are particularly good at helping the body maintain a healthy pH level.

Now, let me make it clear that I am not claiming to be an "expert" in this area, and nobody stuck a badge on my chest or a certificate on my wall. I'm just an amateur athlete who studies and practises good health on a daily basis.

I will tell you that while the alkaline diet theory is debated by some people in the medical community, the actual principles I have outlined here seem to be common sense and in line with accepted dietary principles. Putting less bad stuff and more good stuff in your body makes a whole lot of sense to me. Still, use the grey matter between your ears to determine if the alkaline diet philosophy is wise for you or not.

To your health!

Dave Sherwin