Our Guide to Alkaline Foods


Our Guide to Alkaline Foods - What to Know

If you want to improve your bone health, then you must know how to keep your acid-alkaline balance in check. Apart from exercising and restricting toxins, a healthy acid-alkaline balance is the key to maintaining your bone health in the long run. One way to make sure that your acid-alkaline balance is not off-kilter is to eat an alkaline diet.

 

Acid-Forming Versus Alkaline Forming Diet

An alkaline diet allows you to maintain the body’s pH between 6.5 (slightly acidic) and 7.5 (slightly alkaline). Most of the things you consume can affect your pH. Some foods are acid-forming foods, which are foods that leave acidic by-products in the body, while others are alkaline-forming foods or foods that leave alkaline by-products. Acid-forming foods include a range of high-protein foods, such as fish, meat, eggs, and some legumes including beans and peas. Grains, coffee, alcohol, and sugar are also acid-forming foods. On the other hand, almost all vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, and spices are all alkaline-forming foods.

Back in the Stone Age, people consumed a variety of natural whole foods, including seeds, nuts, vegetables, fruits, along with game animals and fish. These foods provide a pH-balanced diet. As the organs and body systems evolved in adaptation to the alkaline diet, it has become natural that the body must have a good acid-alkaline balance in order to stay healthy. This means that you are allowed to eat acid-forming foods, but you have to also balance those with plenty of alkaline-forming foods as well.

 

Problems With Acid Diet

Today, humans have become more and more unaware of the importance of the acid-alkaline balanced diet that the ancestors brought about. Most people nowadays enjoy acid-forming foods, such as sugars, low-mineral processed foods, meat, and grains without balancing them with enough alkaline-forming vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. As a result, a condition called “chronic low-grade metabolic acidosis” is developed. Although the body can manage an acid load occasionally, the lasting acid build-up can deplete the body’s available alkalizing reserves. Without neutralizing these acids, there could be a detrimental effect on the overall health, causing a wide range of problems, including bone loss or osteoporosis.

 

Signs of an Acidic Diet

If you notice the following signs, then it is likely that you may eat an acidic diet rather than an

acid-alkaline balanced diet:

 

– Weight gain

– General aches and pains, particularly in the bones and joints

– Acid reflux or heartburn

– Bad digestion, irritable bowel, and intestinal cramping

– Fatigue

– Loss of muscle mass or muscle weakness

– Urinary tract problems

– Receding gums

– Kidney stones

– Bone loss

– Skin conditions

 

How to Start an Alkaline Diet Plan

If you start to notice three or more symptoms from the list above, then you should start incorporating more alkaline-forming foods into your daily diet. It is recommended that you eat 80% of alkaline-forming foods and the other 20% of acid-forming foods. Once your pH balance and symptoms have improved, you can begin to reduce the alkaline-forming percentage to about 65%. To help you get started, take a look at some basic guidelines for eating an alkaline diet below:

 

– Eat whole foods, such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, root crops, whole grains, spices, and beans, particularly lentils.

– Drink more alkalizing beverages such as spring water, water with a whole lime or lemon juice, and ginger root or green tea.

– Refrain from eating large amounts of essential fats, meat, fish, pasta, and other grains.

– Avoid processed and artificial foods, caffeine, white sugar, and white flour.

– Consider using real butter, ghee, and full-fat milk.

– Cook with quality fats such as cold-pressed virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil.

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