There are numerous aspects of our health that matter if we want to live full and vibrant lives. One important aspect that cannot be overlooked is the pH of our bodies.
If your pH is too acidic, you’ll experience a number of negative symptoms—some of which are so common in today’s world that acidosis ought to be considered a pandemic. Take, for example, the symptom of peptic ulcers. Ulcers are painful stomach or intestinal sores that can lead to very serious health problems. They are associated with the h-pylori bacteria, with stress, and of course with excess acidity in the digestive system. In 2011 there were a reported 15.5 million people with peptic ulcers. This resulted in 5 million prescriptions being written, 358,000 hospitalizations, and 2981 deaths.{1}
If you want to be healthy and thrive, you owe it to yourself to give your pH levels a closer look.
The good news is that eating a diet high in alkaline-forming foods can help combat the negative effects of excess acid. You can lower your stress levels (including the stress on your body’s organs). You can protect your bones (excess acid has been linked to osteoporosis). You can reduce your chances of developing acid-caused diseases such as peptic ulcer disease.
In order to accomplish this change, you need to understand the difference between acid-forming foods and alkaline-forming foods. Generally speaking, acid-forming foods include meats and dairy products, and a number of processed foods. Also among the acid-forming foods are popular drinks like coffee and soda pop. Alkaline forming foods include many fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and certain nuts.
What happens when you eat too many acid-forming foods? The thing to understand is that your body is always working to maintain a stable pH. When you load it up with acid-forming foods, it simply must work harder to do the same thing it always does. One of the problems that arises in these cases is when your body uses extra calcium (a natural alkalizer) to offset the excess acidity. In this unfortunate case, your bones are the big losers… losing valuable calcium to the fight against excess acidity.
If you decrease your acid-forming food intake and replace some of the offending foods with their alkaline-forming counterparts, you can expect positive changes in your health both now and into the future. Increasing your alkaline-forming food intake will, in theory, reduce the amount of calcium being “leached” from your bones. It will also help fight free radical damage because vegetables and fruits are high in antioxidants. Your body—all the way down to your cells—will function more efficiently with increased intake of alkaline-forming foods.
What food should you add to your diet in order to obtain optimum pH levels? For starters, the best general rule is to eat more plant-based foods. Green foods are best, generally speaking. Foods high in chlorophyll are always a safe bet… such as dark leafy greens, broccoli, and others.
Another thing you can do is add alkalized water to your diet. Many people drink acidic drinks all day long. They start their day with coffee. They drink soda pop at lunch and supper. They are lucky if they get “real” water at all. Replacing highly acidic drinks with water is a start. Replacing them with alkalized water is even better. This will help fight acidity and balance your pH.
Aside from fresh fruits and vegetables, and alkalized water, the final thing you can do is avoid processed foods as much as possible. Generally speaking this means eating foods that you can recognize as food—and foods that contain ingredients you can recognize. Avoid frozen dinners, starchy carbohydrate snacks, and foods with long lists of mystery ingredients.
To start with, most people won’t cut out offending foods altogether. You may experience considerable health benefits by simply increasing your intake of alkaline-forming foods, and decreasing your intake of (without even fully eliminating) acid-forming foods. Many people who try this feel better, and end up eating a more or less vegan diet down the road in order to achieve optimum health and to ultimately feel their very best. How you choose to do it is up to you. The important thing is that you make the adjustments necessary—even simple and small adjustments—to improve your health for the long haul.
{1} Source: nih.gov
Most of the time we are totally unaware of the fact that our body is just like a machine, i.e. we should know ourself as how to operate it properly. But what we mostly do is, we just ignore it and insert all kinds of bad food inside it and then realize about it when sometimes it’s too late. After having spent days at Hospital when my grandma was admitted, I became more aware about my health.
I am happy to have known about pH level from this article, which I will be exploring further as I read through.
IT is true that many of us seem to take our bodies for granted, and do not provide it with the nutrients that it needs in order to function properly. If you think about it, we should be grateful that we manage to survive day to day on the junk we shovel into our stomachs, as in reality, we are literally giving our bodies junk and then expecting miracles.