The Whole Food Blog

Human blood registers a pH balance of about 7.4, and in order to maintain that level the body functions better with more alkaline foods than acid foods.  The pH balance scale is a way of measuring the acidity or alkalinity of a substance from zero to fourteen, with seven being “neutral.” A pH above seven is alkaline and lower than seven is considered acidic.

Vast amounts of research now reveal the various ways that alkaline foods, acid foods and pH balance can affect overall health.  Bacteria, viruses, yeast, and other harmful organisms thrive when the blood system is more acidic. Maintaining alkalinity in your body is a good way to create an uninviting environment for things that might make you sick.  That’s why consuming more alkaline foods than acid foods can be very beneficial to your overall health.

The best alkaline foods to consume are fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. Leafy green vegetables such as lettuce and spinach are easy alkaline foods to have on hand.  Orange and yellow vegetables, carrots, peppers, sweet potatoes and pumpkin will help alkalize your pH balance, too.  Herbs and spices such as basil, garlic, and hot chili peppers can be excellent alkaline foods as well.

There are a few fruits and vegetables that are considered to be acid foods.  Be aware that plums, corn, green olives, and cranberries may lean slightly to the acid side of the pH balance scale.  It is interesting to know that ripe bananas are considered alkaline foods, but green bananas are acid foods.  Also, this may seem to be at odds with prior beliefs, but citrus fruits are usually alkaline.  Keep in mind that we are talking about the pH balance these alkaline foods and acid foods register once they have been digested and their components are in the blood stream.

It is important to remember that you do need about 20% of your diet to consist of acid foods for sound pH balance.  Common acid foods are pasta, breads, meats and fish. Of course, coffee, soda, sugar, artificial sweetener and alcohol really swing pH balance to the acid side of the scale.  Other items that are healthy might also be acid foods, such as nuts, rice and beans.  This doesn’t mean you should stop eating them, but that you should consume more alkaline foods to manage a healthy pH balance.

Natural weight loss is different from shedding pounds with fasting programs or diet pills.  It is ideally achieved by adding more whole foods that are nutrient dense, while avoiding highly processed fake foods.  Instead of searching for low carb, low fat replacements to your favorite foods, this method of natural weight loss involves an entirely different way of fortifying your body.

Changing your diet to include more whole foods requires a mental shift in the way you think about nutrition.  One switch is to eat only raw fruits and vegetables, but that is very hard for most people to do.  While this method has worked for some in their efforts to achieve natural weight loss, it is very difficult to stick to this kind of diet.  The time and effort to buy, prepare and consume only raw, whole foods is just too much for most people.  That’s why it’s easy to quickly give up on this method of natural weight loss.

Fortunately, in our world of modern conveniences we now have access to perfectly formulated products that contain all the whole food nutrients of raw fruits and vegetables without the hassle.  I’m not trying to advertise a specific product here, but rather to open your eyes to a different way of achieving natural weight loss while also gaining better overall fitness.  The key is to adjust your perception of how you can make your nutritional purchases more productive. Thanks to modern advances, it’s really not any more difficult or expensive to have a healthy diet than to have one full of junk, but you have to change they way you shop.

There are so many options available now that the biggest barrier to natural weight loss often is a mental one.  Once you make the choice to lose weight naturally, however, you will find that the information and products necessary are easier to find than you ever realized.  The best place to start is the Internet.  Search for all natural nutrient dense foods to find the concentrated whole food formulas that will lead to natural weight loss.