The thing about diets is that they seem to very frequently come and go. A lot of people ride the diet wave like a roller-coaster, hopping on whatever fad-diet comes along—often experiencing ups and downs in weight and overall health as a result.

Before I go on to talk about the alkaline diet, let me say a little about these diet trends. They truly do come and go with every passing wind. Here’s an example of how these things can change:

• 25 years ago, the common advice was to eat less meat and more carbs. For example, if you were eating a plate of spaghetti, a dietitian might tell you to use 1/4 the sauce if you wanted to stay lean and fit.
• In the last 10 to 15 years, the “low carb” diet has caught on. Now if you talk to a dietitian, they might be more concerned with your intake of carbs than your intake of meat.

Which way is it? And how do you know which advice is best?

Knowing What’s Best

I could list a wide variety of diets that make all kinds of health and weight-loss claims, and many would give 100% contradictory instructions. Eat fish. Don’t eat fish. Eat raw veggies. Eat mostly meat. Eat mostly carbs. It very few carbs. High fat. Low fat. Good fat. Bad fat. (Is it me, or is it starting to sound like a Dr. Seuss book?)

The bottom line is that these trends change. The advice changes. The beliefs about what is good for us change. But here’s the thing…

The alkaline diet, which some might lump in with the others mentioned above, is actually a little bit different than some of the others. Here’s why:

It has been scientifically verified repeatedly that too much acid is bad for us. That is not going to change. Obviously, your body needs some acid (your stomach uses it to digest food)… but too much acid leads to problems.

At no point in the future will there be a “pro-acid” diet. There will never be a “lower your pH to lose weight and feel better” diet plan, just as there will never be an “eat poison to live longer” diet plan.

The advice about carbs and proteins and vegetables and fruits, and whether you cook food or not, and how much… all that is subject to change. But nobody is ever going to tell you that getting too much acid in your body is good for you!

Healthy Eating

Another thing that separates the alkaline diet from the pack is this:

It naturally lends itself to healthy eating.

Think about it. The alkaline diet involves the following main components:

1. Eat less meat.
2. Eat more fruits and vegetables.
3. Eat less unhealthy starches and sugars, and eat more healthy whole grains.
4. Eat less processed foods and other foods known to promote acidity in the body.

If you made an alkaline diet grocery list and compared it to the typical American grocery list, you would quickly see a major difference. The alkaline diet grocery list would clearly be healthier—even if it weren’t labeled as the “alkaline diet” list! You could ask any doctor, any dietitian, any politician, any teacher, any parent or grandparent… “Which list is healthier?” And guess which list they would choose? They would choose the alkaline diet grocery list!

This can’t be said for many other diets. A lot of modern “weight loss” diets depend on highly processed food that is barely identifiable as food. They use TV dinners packed with flavor enhancers and preservatives. They use special drinks and “treats” with artificial sweeteners. Make a grocery list for any of these diets and compare it to the alkaline diet list. The alkaline diet grocery list will be the healthier list—every single time.

Better Focus

Another reason the alkaline diet is here to stay is that it is not focused primarily on weight loss. Weight loss, instead, is rather a natural result of the healthier eating habits promoted by the alkaline diet.

There is a huge psychological advantage to this that a lot of people don’t realize.

You see, a lot of people have spent a lot of time on a lot of diets, and ultimately failed to lose weight. They have wasted money, energy, effort, and time chasing this diet fad or that diet fad. In even the best of scenarios, people tend to lose weight temporarily and then gain it back when they change their diet again. In many cases, people aren’t able to lose the weight in the first place using the fad diets. This may be because the diet plan is just too hard to stick to, or it could be because it is simply not an effective way to lose weight (which is sadly the case with some).

Because of this pattern of defeat, a lot of people are almost diet-immune. They are basically wired to fail, because they have been repeatedly let down by diets that have repeatedly led them to failure.

But what if it could be different? What if you could simply focus on a proven healthy lifestyle, and watch the pounds fall off as an effect of that lifestyle choice? It can and does happen with the alkaline diet! The alkaline diet is, by nature, vegetarian or mostly vegetarian. As anyone who has made the switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet can tell you, one of the side effects of this change is weight loss. When you follow the alkaline diet—even if you are not trying to lose weight—chances are you will lose a few pounds (or more than a few, depending on your body type), and you will in turn feel and look healthier and happier.

The whole key here is having better focus. Sometimes the best way to reach a goal is to aim at it indirectly, and weight loss is very much that way. The people who are most successful at losing weight and keeping it off are those who have some other goal that drives them through the process of losing weight. Losing weight is secondary. It’s a healthy side effect. (This way of doing things, if you’re wondering, is the ultimate answer to the all-too-common yo-yo dieting that happens in today’s modern world.)

Whether you want to lose weight or not, you should consider the alkaline diet as a way to be healthier, happier, and more vibrant. If there is one diet that is here to stay, this is it… because over-acidity is a silent pandemic, and one of the simplest and most natural answers to the pandemic of acid is the alkaline diet. But don’t take my word for it. Try it yourself. Give yourself just a few weeks on the alkaline diet and see for yourself how it feels. You’ll be amazed at what a difference this simple change can make!