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.
8 responses so far ↓
Linda Leeson // Dec 30th 2008 at 5:25 pm
Muscle Memory and PH Balance:
The Onsen Technique® was developed for injury prevention in World class athletes. The Developer, Rich Phaigh, DMT, LMT stressed that achieving structural balance could alleviate pain. This is true, however, a therapist must consider what will hold that muscle memory once you have achieved it?
I now ask many questions about eating habits and PH balance from my client at their first visit. I operate a Treatment of Pain Clinic which specializes in taking cases where no one else has found the source of pain!
My secret is not only the Onsen Technique® but getting the client to heal the bowel and balancing their PH in all three areas of the body. This will help maintain the new muscle memory I have just worked on with them.
“I had a helicopter pilot who survived a 150 foot drop in a helicopter as the pilot. My first day with the client included thinking about what was affecting his muscle memory from their last injury or set of injuries from birth. I assessed that the seat belt across his torso created soft tissue injury in his bowels. His parents who sold a product containing a noni plant provided 2 bottles a week to him, so that his body would become more alkaline.
This provided the balance that helped hold all the corrections needed so that he could return to full time work pain free in 8 weeks.
Three years later he is still pain free.”~~~~~~~~~~~
You all have wonderful stories, but they could be long lasting stories if you take some direction from Cliff.
Best wishes to all of you in the new year 2009.
Remember, your technique is not the only answer in bringing the client back to their normal lifestyle! Consider the PH of your client at the first visit!
Linda Leeson, dip RM, COTT, COTTI, COTTE, COTTIE,
Dean of Onsen International® http://www.onsentherapy.com
nick friedman // Jan 21st 2009 at 9:14 am
Cliff, I thought I’d pass on this article to you as it disputes claims you make regarding the health benefits of an alkaline diet. According to this and many other articles, such a diet could be potentially dangerous.
Acid/Alkaline Theory of Disease Is Nonsense
Gabe Mirkin, M.D.
Have you seen advertisements for products such as coral calcium or alkaline water that are supposed to neutralize acid in your bloodstream? Taking calcium or drinking alkaline water does not affect blood acidity. Anyone who tells you that certain foods or supplements make your stomach or blood acidic does not understand nutrition.
You should not believe that it matters whether foods are acidic or alkaline, because no foods change the acidity of anything in your body except your urine. Your stomach is so acidic that no food can change its acidity. Citrus fruits, vinegar, and vitamins such as ascorbic acid or folic acid do not change the acidity of your stomach or your bloodstream. An entire bottle of calcium pills or antacids would not change the acidity of your stomach for more than a few minutes.
All foods that leave your stomach are acidic. Then they enter your intestines where secretions from your pancreas neutralize the stomach acids. So no matter what you eat, the food in stomach is acidic and the food in the intestines is alkaline.
Dietary modification cannot change the acidity of any part of your body except your urine. Your bloodstream and organs control acidity in a very narrow range. Anything that changed acidity in your body would make you very sick and could even kill you. Promoters of these products claim that cancer cells cannot live in an alkaline environment and that is true, but neither can any of the other cells in your body.
All chemical reactions in your body are started by chemicals called enzymes. For example, if you convert chemical A to chemical B and release energy, enzymes must start these reactions. All enzymes function in a very narrow range of acidity. (The degree of acidity or alkalinity is expressed as “pH.”). If your blood changes its acidity or alkalinity for any reason, it is quickly changed back to the normal pH or these enzymes would not function and the necessary chemical reactions would not proceed in your body.
For example, when you hold your breath, carbon dioxide accumulates in your bloodstream very rapidly and your blood turns acidic, and you will become uncomfortable or even pass out. This forces you to start breathing again immediately, and the pH returns to normal. If your kidneys are damaged and cannot regulate the acidity of your bloodstream, chemical reactions stop, poisons accumulate in your bloodstream, and you can die.
Certain foods can leave end-products called ash that can make your urine acid or alkaline, but urine is the only body fluid that can have its acidity changed by food or supplements. ALKALINE-ASH FOODS include fresh fruit and raw vegetables. ACID-ASH FOODS include ALL ANIMAL PRODUCTS, whole grains, beans and other seeds. These foods can change the acidity of your urine, but that’s irrelevant since your urine is contained in your bladder and does not affect the pH of any other part of your body.
When you take in more protein than your body needs, your body cannot store it, so the excess amino acids are converted to organic acids that would acidify your blood. But your blood never becomes acidic because as soon as the proteins are converted to organic acids, calcium leaves your bones to neutralize the acid and prevent any change in pH. Because of this, many scientists think that taking in too much protein may weaken bones to cause osteoporosis.
Cranberries have been shown to help prevent recurrent urinary tract infections, but not because of their acidity. They contain chemicals that prevent bacteria from sticking to urinary tract cells.
Taking calcium supplements or drinking alkaline water will not change the pH of your blood. If you hear someone say that your body is too acidic and you should use their product to make it more alkaline, you would be wise not to believe anything else the person tells you.
Dr. Mirkin, who practices medicine in Kensington, Maryland, is board-certified in four specialties: allergy and immunology; sports medicine; pediatrics; and pediatric immunology. He has served as a teaching fellow at Johns Hopkins Medical School, Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, and Associate Clinical Professor in Pediatrics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He has written 16 books on sportsmedicine, weight control, and low-fat eating. His Web site offers broadcasts and reports on thousands of topics. He also offers a free weekly e-mail newsletter.
This article was revised on January 11, 2009.
Cliff Smith // Jan 22nd 2009 at 4:08 pm
Nick,
Thank you for submitting Dr. Mirkin’s article. It offers us a clear perspective of an American trained medical practitioner’s view of the role nutrition plays in health and fitness. By examining his article, we can see how some doctors view certain aspects of nutrition as inconsequential to overall health.
It all too often seems that the medical establishment blames genetics or other things that are out of our control for disease. It may sometimes appear that they are telling us to eat whatever you like and they’ll fix the problems with drugs or surgery, later. However, there are millions of other doctors, medical practitioners, nutrition experts and health conscious individuals around the world who choose to adhere to a different philosophy, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food”.
There are those of us who believe that what you eat does indeed play a major role in your fitness level. If you do an Internet search on alkaline foods or pH balance, you will quickly see that Dr. Mirkin is in the minority with his viewpoint. Just look at the health of most Americans and you will see that the typical Western diet has created epidemic proportions of obesity, heart disease, arthritis and many other problems. If you are of the belief that diseases are primarily genetic and you have very little control over your health through what you consume, then you will believe that Dr. Mirkin speaks the absolute truth. However, if you choose a different perspective, you will see that there are many other ways to take control of your health. Adding alkaline foods to your diet is one of those methods.
Dr. Mirkin is correct when he says that blood pH does not change, because if it did vary as little as .2, from the necessary 7.4 to 7.2, then you would die. However, the point he fails to address is how hard do you want your body to work in order to neutralize the many acid-producing substances you take in every day, so that your blood remains at that pH level? For example, Dr. Mirkin states, “When you take in more protein than your body needs, your body cannot store it, so the excess amino acids are converted to organic acids that would acidify your blood. But your blood never becomes acidic because as soon as the proteins are converted to organic acids, calcium leaves your bones to neutralize the acid and prevent any change in pH. Because of this, many scientists think that taking in too much protein may weaken bones to cause osteoporosis.” This is the very point of consuming fewer acid forming foods, such as animal protein from meats, while taking in more alkaline forming foods such as fruits and vegetables. Do you really want to lose calcium from your bones in order to neutralize the steak or burger that you ate earlier?
Of course, too much of an alkaline diet is just as dangerous as an overly acidic diet. However, since the recommended balance is 80% alkaline foods to 20% acid ash forming foods, I don’t know anyone who needs to worry about being too alkaline. Most people are upside down, with 80% of their diet being acid ash forming and only 20% alkaline foods. There are so many acid ash forming substances available to people every day that it is hard to imagine this being a problem for the average person.
This abundance of acid ash forming substances is also why it is helpful for people to boost their alkaline intake with foods and drinks that are known to be alkaline by nature. It’s so easy to get plenty of acid forming foods and drinks, but not so easy to consume enough alkaline foods every day.
One other point that causes me to question Dr. Mirkin’s viewpoint is when he says, “You should not believe that it matters whether foods are acidic or alkaline, because no foods change the acidity of anything in your body except your urine”. Well, if your urine were not affected by what is in your bloodstream, this might be true, but since waste from the blood is passed through the urine, this cannot be true. Everything you consume passes through your blood in one form or another, so to say that it doesn’t matter what you eat is to miss the point. The foods and drinks you consume may not change the pH of your blood, but that is because your body has had to do extra work so that it wouldn’t change.
When you maintain a sound balance of alkaline foods to acid ash forming foods you give your body better tools to work with, which allows it to take on other health challenges. Your body has plenty of things to worry about in addition to your blood pH, so why not give it all the assistance you can with proper nutrition? This just seems to make common sense, but of course it flies in the face of antacid manufacturers whose advertising implies, “eat what you want, then take some drugs to bring your body into balance, later”.
Paying attention to the alkaline/acid ratio of your diet is just one way to take control of your health. I encourage you to visit the links listed below for different views from doctors and other experts who have chosen to focus on the power of alkaline foods for good health. Thank you for your submission and let’s keep the dialog open.
All the best,
Cliff Smith
http://www.healthfree.com/nutritional_power_robbins.html (Dr. Joel Robbins)
http://www.lsmusa.org (Life Science Mission)
Also, please take the Alkaline Foods Test to learn even more about acid and alkaline foods:
http://www.besthealthfoodstore.net/alkaline_food_test.html
Sara // Feb 26th 2009 at 12:32 pm
I would probably trust Dr. Robbins if he was a medical doctor from an accredited medical school in the USA. Being a Chiropractor is not a true doctor. I do believe that what you eat does effect your health, but I would not discredit most of the medical community because a “doctor” from West Indies agrees wit your theories.
Jude // May 10th 2009 at 1:32 pm
Early this year I had a lodged kidney stone that then caused, sepsis syndrome.
I was fighting for my life for 10 days.
Now I am torn between my kidney doctor telling me I need to be on Allopurinol for the rest of my life due to my kidney stone being acidic and having high acid levels in my blood system. I want an alternative and am happy to follow a low more balanced diet to achieve better health. I purchased the PH test strips and the first day my acid levels were 5.5 (taken around 6pm) then first thing in the morning I took it again as it was off the chart telling me I had high alkaline levels. (prior to bed I did take some baking soda and calm plus calcium)
This morning it was suggested I drink fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon and then in my water that I am drinking with breakfast to have 1 drop of iodine liquid and 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar.
My head is spinning and do not want to have another kidney stone attack.
Is this normal?
Cliff Smith // May 14th 2009 at 4:22 pm
Hi Jude, First, let me say that I am not a doctor and would encourage you to see your doctor when you feel it is necessary.
My approach to living a healthy lifestyle and warding off symptoms is to work gently with the body by nourishing and cleansing on a daily basis.
Sepsis is caused by infection and is seen in 20% of people admitted to hospitals, so it is sadly very common and very serious. Once you are done with it, you are done. That being said, in my opinion, you never want to experience it again and must build up your immune system so that you can fight off infection before it gets to such a point that strong drugs and constant monitoring is needed.
If I were you I’d stop trying to force the body to do what it is supposed to do on its own. Using the lemon juice, the baking soda, iodine etc is a challenge because you are not a chemist and it is dangerous to play around with trying to create a specific chemical compound to force a certain result. That’s what drugs do and they usually create an imbalance somewhere in the body, which causes other unforeseen problems down the road.
It is always best to get the body into balance by eating and drinking whole, live foods. Nature knows how to create balance. For example you can break down a piece of fish into protein, fats and carbohydrates, but you cannot take protein, fats, and carbohydrates and create a fish.
The products I use every day give the body the right tools to nourish, cleanse, and find its own natural balance so that it takes care of itself. It’s the simple Nourish, Cleanse and Balance approach to health.
Here are the basics that work for just about everyone who follows this regimen daily (I’ve been doing it for 8 years now and can’t imagine living any other way):
Drink1 QT Calli Tea in the morning, follow with 3 NuPlus & Quinary shakes throughout the day, and 2-3 Qts Fortune Delight w/SunnyDew Stevia per day. You can see these products at http://www.besthealthfoodstore.net
For table foods, stick to fresh fruits and vegetables as much as possible (Forget the meat and dairy as they are acid forming and nothing but trouble) .
If you try this plan for 2-4 weeks I believe you will look good and feel better. What do you have to lose? Give your body the best nutrients and observe how it responds. Let me know if you have any other questions.
bluelapis // Jun 29th 2011 at 4:17 pm
Well I would highly reccomend lemon juice. I have interstitial cystitis , I took something named Preleif which a lot of people with this condition take. It is calcium and phosphorus, it worked really well in taking the acicity out of everything I eat, but it made me constipated. I thought maybe huge amounts of milk (a glass with everything I ate ) may work and be cheaper, which it was, and it did work , but made me constipated as well. Buggar. So I now take, 1 dstspn of active Manuka honey and half a squeezed lemon juice first thing in the morning, and have been doing that for 3 weeks. I still cannot eat tomatoes but thats fine. This is a most dibilitating thing to have and im trying to keep of the meds and go natural.
SO LEMON JUICE IS ALKALINE ONCE IN THE TUMMY.
Cliff Smith // Jun 29th 2011 at 4:50 pm
Thank you for your comment. Seeking out more alkaline foods whenever possible is a smart decision. Keep us posted on your progress. Also, take my free alkaline food test to see how your daily diet shapes up, and to find more choices for alkaline foods that help you manage a healthy pH balance.
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