Is your diet over-acidic?

Almost everyone has experienced heartburn, indigestion or acid-reflux, at some point in his or her life. But if it’s an all-too-common occurrence, an over acidic diet may be the cause – which is why we recommend maintaining a proper acid/alkaline balance in your diet – also popularly known as an ‘alkaline diet’. An alkaline diet might sound like a fad – but it’s not! It’s actually a long-term lifestyle change that promotes good health and may assist your body’s repair process.

Heartburn is not the only potential result of an over acidic diet – there may be risks of osteoporosis as well. (If you’ve heard of osteoporosis, but aren’t exactly sure what it is, keep reading. We’ll explain it in simple terms) ‘How so’, you ask? Well, you probably already know this, but your body is quite amazing and has many complex systems that keep it functioning and healthy. One of those systems works to maintain a correct acid/alkaline balance in your blood. Let’s call this a ‘buffer system.’

Your body’s buffer system utilizes minerals that come from the foods you eat and minerals found in your bones. To keep the acid levels in check, these minerals to be used in buffering must come from somewhere. Too much excess acid causes wear and tear on this buffer system, creating a need for more minerals that end up being drawn from the place where they’re stored: your bones. If we force our body to continue buffering utilizing the minerals drawn from our bones, and the over acidity continues as well, this may lead to a breakdown of bone materials, also known in the medical world as osteoporosis.

To take it a step further, where chronic over-acidity is a factor, lowered immunity, premature aging, kidney stone formation, muscle loss and joint problems may also come into play. Degenerative diseases can develop in an over acid environment. And, if you experience a tired, headachy, heavy headed feeling after eating, this too may be the result of over-acidity.

Geez, there may be lot of implications to an over acidic diet! Keep on reading. Next is a fun chemistry lesson (no really, it’s cool stuff), and after that are some helpful tips on taking control your own alkaline diet.

Measuring your pH balance

With the following little bit of chemistry knowledge, you can find out how your body’s buffering system is doing. The important question at hand is: are you in need of a lifestyle change toward an alkaline diet? (Well, we’re pretty sure that almost everyone may benefit tremendously from it, of course)

Let’s begin here: The pH scale goes from 0 to 14 with 7 being neutral. Your body’s buffering system keeps your blood’s pH naturally maintained between 7.35 and 7.45. In fact, a slightly alkaline level of 7.40 is ideal. If you blood’s pH goes above 7.8 or sinks below 6.8 you can have serious health issues like the ones we mentioned above.

To find out about your own pH, you can measure it at home with litmus paper, which can be bought at most drug stores. Drop the tape into a container with a small amount of your urine. (Don’t worry, it’s not as gross as it sounds…) The tape will turn a color that you can then compare to the color chart on your litmus paper package. This color chart corresponds to the acid/alkaline levels—lower than 7 is acid, higher than 7 is alkaline. The test should be done several times to get an accurate reading, both early morning and during the day, continuing over several days since your pH levels may fluctuate over short periods of time. The numbers should not be consistently on the acid side (acidosis) or to far on the alkaline side (alkalosis). Ideally, You want to see an optimum level of 7.40 – which is our blood;s optimal pH level.

Now, before you go out and get yourself some litmus paper and venturing into new territory behind closed bathroom doors, have a look at the steps below which can be taken towards a healthy alkaline diet.

How to correct an over acidic diet

Something else you probably know already is that our contemporary American diet isn’t what is should be. So many foods we eat may have an acidifying effect on the body; processed foods, refined sugars, caffeine, alcohol, many prescription drugs and even too much meat. By switching to a diet containing fresh vegetables and low glycemic fruit you may start to correct this imbalance in nutrition and take some pressure off your body’s natural buffer system. An 80/20 balance is recommended for your consumption—80% alkaline forming foods/20% acidic forming foods.

The following formula has also been recommended; for every 10 foods eaten: make 6 vegetables, 2 fruits, 1 protein, 1 starch and whole, organic grains.

And not surprisingly, some experts cite chronic stress as acid forming. In our fast paced world it is important to manage stress by introducing activities that help you relax, like yoga or exercise. Even simple breathing exercises can help.

Furthermore, it is generally accepted that the body rids itself of toxic materials while resting or sleeping. It releases these toxins into the blood stream and some practitioners believe the most toxic time of the day is the morning. In fact, many European health clinics have adopted an approach of starting the morning with cleansing fruits, followed by other alkaline forming food in order to correct the over-acidity of those toxins and to stimulate the intestines to eliminate waste. Perhaps this is justification for your next European vacation…. why not go see first-hand what they’re up to over there?

A few more tips for a healthy Alkaline balance

You can take a lesson from early man in correcting over acidity. He ate a more unadulterated plant based diet, had fewer choices and never had to face our contemporary diet that is high in processed junk food, artificial sweeteners and preservatives to name a few. He only had to fight off saber-toothed tigers with his bare hands and start fires with two sticks…. boy did he have it easy! Really though, consider opting for organic whole foods with the emphasis on vegetables, especially green leafy ones.

Find ways to deal with stress too. This can be as simple as taking 5 minutes to breath deeply. Many experts agree that exercise, meditation or yoga can all be effective stress relievers.

Lastly, drink plenty of water. Qure Alkaline Water was developed with an alkaline balance of 9.5pH to help counter-balance acidity and aid in the alkaline diet. It contains pristine clean purified water infused with a special blend of Mother Nature’s 100% absorbable BASIC minerals. And dare we say that Qure not only counterbalances acids but it tastes great too!