Naturalpath

Our Body's Acid vs. Alkaline Balance: Why Do We Care?

What is pH anyway? Most of us know what an acid is, but many of us are confused by what a base is, and what the acids and bases have to do with each other, or what they mean to our health is even more of a mystery. It turns out that many diseases rampant in today's society may have a common cause.

Our bodies normally work hard to eliminate waste acids, but when we're overloaded with acidic foods (and lack of exercise and stress), the body has more than it can handle. Excess waste acids that are not eliminated are reabsorbed from the colon into the liver and put back into circulation in our bodies.

Many wellness practitioners have come to believe that a host of ills that assail us today result from our bodies losing their natural acid-base balance. Elson Haas, MD teaches his patients that eating too many acid-causing foods leads to inflammation and the breakdown of tissues. Naturopath Christopher Vasey, author of The Acid-Alkaline Diet, recommends that people eat an 80% alkaline diet (a diet with more non-acidic, base-like foods) to avoid providing a receptive environment for bacteria and yeast and to prevent a host of diseases, including cancer.

Dr. Theodore A. Baroody in his book Alkalize or Die, is that viruses and bacteria thrive in an acid environment. They eat waste acids and create toxicity with their own wastes. So, if a person is in balance with a healthy pH balance, they should be much less likely to get sick.

Luckily, there's a remedy for acidosis -- alkalizing yourself through diet, exercise and mental attitudes (like stress).

Acid-Alkaline Forming Foods and Ph Balance

Whether something is "acidic" or "alkaine" is measured on a pH (potential of hydrogen) scale. This scale measures the number of hydroxl (OH-) ions, which are negtative and alkaline forming, as opposed to the number of hydrogen (H+) ions that are positive and acid forming. Water, which is considered neutral, has a pH of 7.0. Anything with a pH below 7.0 is considered acidic; anything with a pH above 7.0 is considered alkaline. The ideal range for the human body is between 6.0 and 6.8 (because the human body is naturally slightly acidic). So, for foods, values below pH 6.3 are considered acidic, and those above are considered alkaline.

Many charts outlining the acidic/alkaline levels of food abound in nutritional books and the internet. We found a good list of both alkaline and acidic foods at Rense.com, which combines several charts from their research and not only goes through produce, meat, grains, dairy and nuts, but also looks at spices and emotions (it's fairly easy to guess that stress has an acidic effect on the body!).

Some foods are not intuitively acidic or alkaline -- lemons, for example, are highly alkalizing on the body, even though they taste acidic; and though one might think lentils are alkaline, they have an acidic effect on the body. Dr. Baroody's book, Alkalize or Die, contains a tremendous amount of detail as to which foods, spices, herbs and supplements have an alkalizing effect on the body.

Here is a quick list of alkaline foods to balance your body:

• Most vegetables, especially asparagus, onions, vegetable juices, parsley, raw spinach, broccoli, and garlic
• Beans: Green beans, peas, lima beans, soy beans
• Grains: Amaranth, millet, quinoa
• Nuts: Almonds pine nuts
• Juices: Carrot, spinach, beet, celery, wheat grass, barley grass.

Here is a quick list of acidic foods to limit to increase alkalinity:

• Meat, chicken, fish
• Dairy, including butter, cheese, yoghurt
• Grains: Wheat, rye, corn, barley, rice (even brown rice)
• Beans, including black, kidney, mung, lentils
• Nuts: Walnuts, peanuts
• Sweeteners, including sugar, honey, maple syrup

What's the bottom line with diet and the acid-alkaline connection? Try to eat a balance of foods, with most of your foods coming from somewhere on the alkaline side of the charts. It's balance we're aiming for, not total alkalinity, which would also be unhealthy.

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