When you metabolize foods and extract the energy (calories) from them, you are actually burning the foods, except that it happens as a slow and controlled process.

When you burn foods, they leave an ash residue, just like when you burn wood in a furnace. This ash can be acidic, illness and alkaline or neutral… and this ash is one of the factors that directly affect the acidity or alkalinity of your body.If you eat more foods with acidic ash, makes your body acidic. If you eat foods with alkaline ash, it makes your body alkaline. Neutral ash has no effect.

Acid ash makes you more vulnerrable  to illness and disease, whereas alkaline ash is considered protective. 

Certain food groups are considered acidic, alkaline or neutral:·  

 Acidic: Meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, grains, sugar, and alcohol.·  

 Neutral: Natural fats, starches, and Natural sugars.· 

Alkaline: Fruits, nuts, legumes and vegetables.

 Today’s diet trends: 

According to the Journal of Environmental Health review, following the agricultural revolution and then mass industrialization of our food supply over the last 200 years, the food we eat has significantly less potassium, magnesium and chloride and much more sodium, acidifying foods compared to diets of the past. Our typical diet consist of acidifying foods(animal proteins, cereals, sugars, refined and packaged food). Alkaline foods such as fruits and vegetables are often eaten in much smaller quantities; not enough to neutralize the excess of acidifying foods we consume.  Common habits like tobacco, coffee, tea and alcohol are extremely acidifying

The result of acidifying foods·  

  • All the above changes in the human diet have resulted in increased “metabolic acidosis”, which means the pH levels of many people’s bodies are no longer optimal. On top of this, many are suffering from low nutrient intake and problems such as potassium and magnesium deficiency.   
  • A seven-year study conducted at the University of California, San Francisco, on 9,000 women showed that those who have chronic acidosis areat greater risk for bone loss than those who have normal pH levels. Many of the hip fractures among middle-aged women are connected to high acidity caused by a diet rich in animal foods and low in vegetables.· 
  • “Immune cells that are too acid or too alkaline do not produce antibodies or cytokines (chemical messengers to regulate other immune cells), destroymicrobesand they have impaired phagocytosis (the abilitydestroy microbes).  As a result, the affected individual becomes susceptible to viral, bacterial, fungal and other infectious microbes as well as cancer,” saysDr. William Lee Cowden.

 Benefits of AlkalineDiet

 1. Protects Bone Density and Muscle Mass: An alkaline diet can help balance ratios of minerals calcium, maintainingleanmagnesium and phosphate, which are important for building bones and maintaining lean muscle mass. Alkaline diets also help improve production of growthhormones and vitamin D absorption, which further protects bones.

 2. Lowers Chronic Pain andInflammation: Chronic acidosis contributes to chronic back pain, headaches, muscle spasms, menstrual symptoms, inflammation and joint pain.Study conducted by the Society for Minerals and Trace Elements Germany found that when patients with chronic back pain were given an alkaline supplement daily for four weeks, 76of 82 patients reported significant decreases in pain as measured by the “Arhuslow back pain rating scale.”

3. Lowers Risk for Hypertensionand Stroke: Anti-inflammatory effect of alkaline diet has been shown to improve cardiovascular health and offer protection against common problems likehigh cholesterol and hypertension.

4. Helps Improve Immune Function and CancerProtection: Research published in the British Journal of Radiology showed that cancerous cell death(apoptosis) was more likely to occur in an alkaline body. Cancer prevention is believed to beassociated with an alkaline shift in pH due to an alteration in electric charges and the release of basic components of proteins. 

Alkaline diet has also been shown to be more beneficial for somechemotherapeutic agents that require a higher pH to work appropriately.

5. Can Help You Maintain a Healthy Weight: Limiting consumption of acid-forming foods and eating morealkaline-forming foods can prevent obesity by decreasing leptin levels helping your body feelsatisfied from eating the amount of calories you really need.

6. Aging process: Alkaline diet decreasesinflammation and causes an increase in growth hormone production thus slowingthe aging process.

  Importance of soil

Buy only organic alkalinefoods.The type of soil in which the produce is grown has significant effect. Theideal pH of soil for the best overall availability of essential nutrients inplants is between 6 and 7. Acidic soils below a pH of 6 may have reducedcalcium and magnesium, and soil above a pH of 7 may result in chemicallyunavailable iron, manganese, copper and zinc. Soil that’s well-rotated, organically sustained and exposed towildlife/grazing cattle is best. 

Best Alkaline Foods:· 

All raw foods and fresh fruits andvegetables: Ideally try toconsume a good portion of your diet raw. Uncooked fruits and vegetables are biogenic or “life-giving.” Cooking foods depletes alkalizing minerals. Increase your intake of raw foods, and try juicing fruits and lightly steamingvegetables.· 

Plant proteins: Almonds, navy beans, lima beans and mostother beans are good choices.

Alkaline water: Alkaline water has a pH of 9 to 11. Adding pH drops, lemon or lime, or baking soda to water can boost its alkalinity. ·

Green drinks: Drinks made from green vegetables and grassesin powder form are loaded with alkaline-forming minerals and chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is structurally similar to our own bloodand helps alkalize our body.