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Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Alkaline Diet Plan



Alkaline Diet Plan Without referring to it as an alkaline diet, doctors and nutritionists in generally tell us to eat more fruits and vegetable and cut down on processed foods, meats, and sweets for better health. Essentially, they are telling us to have more alkaline-producing foods and reduce our intake of acid-producing foods.

How much alkaline food should we eat?
But how much more of the alkaline-producing foods should we have and how much less of the acid-producing foods is ideal? Of course, you can check your own pH level or ask a doctor to do it for you. If you want to do it yourself, you can place a litmus strip under your tongue. The color of the strip will change according to the acidity level from your saliva, after which you can match the color to the color on the chart that comes with the litmus strips.
Some doctors, or even non-doctors, can perform a live blood-cell analysis right in front of you. The test consists of taking one or two drops of your blood, placing it on a slide, and setting it under a magnifying glass or microscope connected to a monitor.

Signs that you may be acidic
There are likewise telltale signs in your body that reveal how much of those acid-forming meats and sweets you should “cut back” on. These are uncomfortable and painful signs that appear as weight gain, joint pains, heartburn, poor digestion (irregular bowel movement and intestinal cramping), fatigue, muscle weakness, urinary tract problems, receding gums, kidney stones, bone loss and skin problems. If you have three or more of these symptoms, then it may be time to shift to an alkaline diet.

What you should eat
Remember that an alkaline diet does not imply that you eat only alkaline-producing foods. It simply means that you eat 80% of your foods from the alkaline-forming group, while the other 20% should be protein-rich and other acid-forming foods. When your pH balance has improved, then you can lower the alkaline-forming part of your diet to around 65%.

An alkaline diet consists of whole foods, particularly fruits, vegetables, and root crops. This may also include nuts, seeds, spices, whole grains, and beans. Alkalizing beverages, like spring water and green tea, are also essential elements of this diet. Avoid processed and artificial foods, caffeine, white sugar, and white flour when possible, but don’t be afraid to use real butter and full-cream milk. For cooking purposes, use only virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil.

These are daunting tasks, considering that American diet invariably includes meat, dairy, saturated fats, sugar, alcohol and caffeine. They can cause a build up of acid wastes in the body that is likely to become a perfect nesting ground for yeasts, fungus, molds, bacteria, and viruses. As you grown in age, too much acid in our body could result into adverse consequences, such as overweight, allergies, fatigue, diabetes, heart problems and cancer.

The principle of behind the breakthrough alkaline diet, also known as alkaline ash diet, is to produce a healthy balance between acid and alkaline in our system, not to eliminate them altogether. There are no shortcuts in doing this, unlike certain fad diets that encourage extreme starvation to attain their desired results.

Its principle is not anchored on extreme diet or heavy eating, but rather on eating food in moderation. In this light, an alkaline diet plan encourages healthy and moderate eating for the growing number of people using this principle.

A high alkaline diet is helpful, plain and simple. Although there will always be those who want to debate the validity of the supporters of such claims, the truth will speak for itself. An alkaline diet is a basic hunter gather’s diet with lots of fruits and vegetables and with an emphasis on legumes and nuts. To understand more about the alkaline ash diet, you must first understand the differences involved in maintaining a healthy body that is not acidic or acid forming.

Checking your PH will show how acidic or alkaline you are. Keeping your PH between 7.3 and 7.45 is considered to be ideal. A PH of 7 is considered neutral and anything above 7 is considered alkaline. Anything below 7 is considered acidic. Fruits and vegetables are alkaline foods and almost everything else is acidic including, meats, dairy, soda, sugary snacks, caffeine and processed foods. In other words most of the American diet and lifestyle.

How to Check Your PH
The easiest way to check your PH is first thing in the morning using a PH strip. To monitor more exact, you can measure your PH one hour before the meal or two hours after the meal. The strips are quite inexpensive and can be purchased at most pharmacies. The PH will normally be lower in the morning and higher in the evening due to normal or abnormal eating habits. The urine strips measure the PH between 4.0 and 9.0.

Can Disease and Cancer Live in an Alkaline State
The main reason to stay on high alkaline food diets is to be free of disease and cancer. Cancer will be destroyed in a matter of hours when the body achieves an 8.0 PH reading. Most all cancer diets are free of meat and are mainly vegetarian diets. As meat is acidic and damaging to the body, meats and acid forming foods should be minimized. By eating fruits and vegetables, the body maintains a healthy PH and therefore in most cases avoids disease and cancers.

Not all fruits are alkaline though. In order to understand more, it is important to understand glycemic index foods and how food is rated. Some fruits will fall into high glycemic ratings such as bananas and mangoes and must be limited. Lemons are acidic but are alkaline forming on your body and therefore allowed. You should stick to low acid fruits – See the acid alkaline food chart for more explanation on alkalizing foods to eat. For protein, the alkaline balance diet suggests legumes and nuts rather than acidifying proteins such as red meat.

High Alkaline Diet
When considering the low acid high alkaline diet compared to other health improving diets look at the basics of the diet and ask yourself if it is a diet that fits into your lifestyle and taste. Health is a main consideration for any diet and this diet is a diet without any processed and canned foods. It is a diet that will bring you back to nature and improve your chances of longevity.

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