Acidic vs Alkaline – The Battle We Must Win for Better Health.
Acidic vs Alkaline – Knowing how to keeping your body in an alkaline state may be the answer to better health and overall wellness
What the What? Acidic? Alkaline? Are you starting to think this sounds like stuff we all forgot from high school science class? As sci-fi as this sounds, understanding when our body is too acidic and how to make adjustments is key to reaching the peak of overall health.
In the plainest terms, acidic bodies are unhealthy bodies.
Which doesn’t sound good, does it? So how do our bodies become acidic?
Our bodies become too acidic when we eat junk and treat our bodies like garbage.
When our body becomes overly acidic an unwanted environment is created that invites interesting bacteria, yeast overgrowth, and funky fungi to thrive. When our body is in an acidic state, it is literally out of balance. To compensate, the body will draw minerals from vital organs and bones to neutralize the acid in an attempt to speed the removal of the acid from the body.
Sounds like a fine solution but then the body’s mineral reserves of things like calcium, potassium, and magnesium etc., become depleted. This causes more and more damage until it reaches unhealthy levels and leads to ‘acidosis’.
Acidosis – means an excessive amount of acid in our body fluids and tissues. Meaning – our bodies are unhealthy.
The result of our bodies being in this state of ‘acidosis’ are-
- Immune deficiency
- Respiratory issues
- Yeast fungal overgrowth
- Low energy and chronic fatigue
- Damage to the cardiovascular system
- Inflamed sensitive gums, cavities
- Weight gain
- Bladder and kidney infections
- Premature aging
- Nausea, diarrhea
- Weak brittle bones
- Headaches
In sum, we feel like crap.
Why? The short answer is because we forget that our bodies have limits. We take for granted the adjustments our bodies must make to “get over it” whatever stress we put on it. Stress can be caused by not enough sleep, eating nutrient-poor foods, consuming too much sugar, not staying hydrated and performing either too much or too little exercise. You get the picture. In essence, we simply place incredible demands on our bodies which throws them for a major loop and leaves them scrambling trying to fix the issues we’ve created.
I think we all get the point that we can do better to care for our bodies.
An easy way to support our amazing bodies is to stay in an optimal alkaline range. To do this we want to measure our pH range which is the measurement of acidity in our blood.
Ideally, our bodies pH levels range from 6.5 to 7.3 on a scale of 0-14, with 0 being most acidic and 14 being the most alkaline. We can easily determine this range without Petri dishes and microscopes. The pH level of your body can be determined with inexpensive tests you can pick up at the local health food store.
There is something about knowing exactly what our pH levels are that helps us get serious about taking care of our bodies by eliminating foods that are causing us to be acidic.
Something to remember; a food’s pH is not related to its physical properties. A pH test is measuring the residue left in the body after the food is consumed and metabolized. Think of a lemon. You may guess that a lemon is acidic. But not after they are metabolized in the body. Lemons are actually a very alkalizing food.
So what to eat? Which foods are more acidic and which are more alkaline?
This is determined by a foods PRAL score. (PRAL- Potential Renal Acid Load) This is a measurement of the amount of residual protein, phosphorus, and minerals that are left after the body has done the work of metabolizing.
Acidic forming foods are things like: processed food of all kinds, meats, grains, dairy, sugar in all varieties and especially artificial sweeteners. The basic idea is that when we eat these foods they are metabolized and leave behind high levels of sulfuric and phosphoric acid in our system. Eating too much of these acid-forming foods means the body is constantly generating acidic waste products. Those waste products need to be neutralized and eliminated and that means we need alkaline foods.
When alkaline forming foods are metabolized they leave behind trace minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium. For the most part, when you are eating these foods you are eating energizing plant foods, in other words, eat more fruits and vegetables.
Here is a short list of a few of the Best Alkalizing Foods-
Spinach, Kale, Avocado, Swiss Chard, Sweet Potato, Cabbage, Carrot, Cucumber, Grapefruit, Watermelon, Bananas, Kiwi, Dates.
Hope reading this list has not caused your eyes to glaze over. So many times the mention of eating more fruits and vegetables sets off a feeling of resistance. A desire to defend current diets, even if we know our poor diet is making us feel terrible.
Why? As people, we like variety. We like having choices. The idea of only eating vegetables is a turn off because it can feel limiting.
Please don’t let a knee-jerk reaction stop you from enjoying better health. You can enjoy an incredible amount of variety in your diet and still raise your pH levels. I have included some resources at the end to help you see those options. Please take the time to explore them.
At the end of the day, we have to admit we live in a society that inundates us with foods that have low to no nutritional value. We have to be aware that typical foods in the Standard American Diet (SAD) are more acidic than alkalizing. That awareness is the first step to change.
I invite you to eliminate 3 of the most acidic foods from your diet today. Replace those with 3 foods that are alkalizing. You’ll feel good again as your blood pH alkalizes and your overall health improves in significant ways.
You are so deserving of looking and feeling your best!
Super Resources:
Dr. Axe https://draxe.com/alkaline-diet/
Yuri Elkaim https://yurielkaim.com/highly-alkaline-foods/
Kris Carr https://kriscarr.com/blog/5-easy-steps-to-an-alkaline-diet/
