How To Make Your Body Alkaline
In a nutshell, adopting an alkaline lifestyle will bring balance & restore its natural pH in your body. It’s a matter of incorporating healthy eating habits that actually benefit you and your family. By learning to stay away from preservatives, you open yourself to real, whole, nutrient dense food.
What It Means To Be Alkaline
Naturally, our bodies are slightly alkaline. Having an alkaline body is essentially our natural, normal state. Unfortunately, our diet and lifestyle choices sometimes throw us off balance and can cause us to become more acidic.
On a scale from 0 to 14, neutral pH is considered to be 7.
Alkaline refers to a pH range between 8 to 14. The higher the number the more alkaline it is.
Acidic refers to a pH of anything less than 7.
The average blood pH is at 7.4.
It’s important to know that the body has genius ways to regulate blood pH on it’s own. There isn’t anything that significantly affects blood pH. It’s the pH of our other bodily fluids that we need to help keep balanced.
This means you don’t need to be concerned about the actual value of the pH in each food. Instead, our job is to feed our bodies with alkaline forming foods rather than acid forming foods.
Alkaline Forming Foods vs Acid Forming Foods
In order to maintain alkalinity in the body, we must focus on replacing acid forming foods with more alkaline forming foods.
Just to clarify, acidic forming foods does not mean they taste acidic. Acid tasting foods, citrus fruits like lemon for example, are acidic in taste but alkaline forming in the body. That is why it’s good to have a glass of water with lemon when you wake up and before each meal.
Alkaline forming foods:
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Legumes
- Nuts/Seeds
- Spices
- Foods rich in essential fatty acids
Acid forming foods:
- Meat
- Eggs
- Bread
- Pasta
- Junk/Processed foods
- Sugar
- Caffeine
- Dairy
25 Acidic Foods to Avoid and Healthier Alternatives
Our bodies do need some acidity, especially in the fluids of the gastrointestinal tract, to function optimally. However, having too many acid forming foods puts our bodies in acidosis, suppressing our immune system and increasing the risk of disease. This isn’t ideal if you’re looking to lose weight, lower your cholesterol, improve skin conditions, slow down the aging process, etc.
Why An Alkaline Body Is Important
The goal is to lower the amount of acid forming foods to avoid potential adverse consequences such as osteoporosis, unbalanced blood pressure, cancer, weight loss, pancreatitis, kidney health, acid reflux and GERD.
The lungs and the kidneys are responsible for regulating your body’s pH. By choosing a more alkaline diet, you’re supporting these precious organs and minimizing the stress that an overly acidic diet can cause.
Science suggests that eating more alkaline forming foods may reduce disease risk and improve your quality of life. So try to make food choices that lower your intake of red meats, dairy products and highly processed foods and instead focus all your attention to veggies and fruits and other alkaline foods.
Balance Is Key
Try the 80/20 rule.
Eat 80% of alkaline forming foods and 20% acid forming foods, that way you have the best of both worlds. It’s beneficial to choose some acidic forming foods that are good quality, preferably organic when possible, to stay balanced and healthy.
Not all acid forming foods are bad, remember we need some acidity to support our acidic fluids like in the GI tract.
How To Get Started
The easiest way to get started is doing CPR – but not the regular CPR:
C – Clean up the pantry. Look for nasty ingredients lurking in your pantry. Stay away from highly processed foods with preservatives that clog the digestive system and limit nutrient absorption. These also tend to make your body store more fat than necessary and give you uncontrollable cravings.
P – Plan healthy weekly meals. When hunger strikes, we’re doomed to eat whatever is in front of us. Being prepared allows you to be in charge of how you nourish your body!
R – Replenish with food that loves you. Once you begin to develop better eating habits, your palate will start rejecting foods with nasty preservatives. Your body will start loving real food and the food will love you back by nourishing your beautiful body. I promise you that!
Download my free Alkaline Reference Guide!
Takeaways
Definitely look into cleaning up your pantry and get rid of processed foods with nasty preservatives.
Then, try to increase the amount of alkaline forming foods you already eat regularly. Start adding a variety of new foods when you feel ready!
Lastly, if you are curious, you can measure your pH in saliva or urine right at home to see how you’re doing with your food choices. Let me know if you need help or have any questions.
