Here’s an important Truth revealed — individuals vary, but the Optimal Diet is approximately 75% alkalizing foods (minimum) and 25% acidifying foods (maximum), by volume. Why do you need this ratio and how do you achieve it? If you are overly acidic, what Danger are you in? It would be nice to know, don’t you agree? You need this information especially seeing the vast majority of Westerners are dealing with an overly-acidic life-style. If you have any chronic health issue you also need these answers, and then please share them to help prevent illness from starting in the first place.
As humans, we evolved in an alkaline ocean environment and even today our body’s internal environment needs to remain alkaline, with a pH in a narrow range just above 7.0. All of our enzymatic, immunologic, and body-repair mechanisms function at their best in an alkaline environment. How do we become and remain alkaline to be Optimally Healthy? Many of our habits, even seemingly-healthy ones, are counter-productive. But, you can get out of the maze! Here’s how to start.
Well, we first need targeted scientific information and then educated action. This is critical because while we strive for the optimal internal alkaline balance, we are constantly thwarted — as our biochemical functioning, the processes of living and the metabolism of food — always produces a great deal of acid, which we must eliminate daily. Once we are not able to handle the acid-load, we die.
For example:
___ when we exercise or move we produce lactic acid in our muscles which must be disposed of along with its accompanying carbon dioxide.
___ when we eat, we generate acids. For example, we can produce sulfuric acid when sulfur-containing amino acids are metabolized and we often consume high amounts of phosphoric acid whenever drinking soda beverages and we eat other acids (like regular, commercial vinegar) as a food additive.
___ acids are also generated in immune responses, which manifest as allergies and hypersensitivity, and also from stress reactions, which generate substantial amounts of acidic by-products.
To regain the life-supporting alkaline state, we must buffer / neutralize metabolic acids from all sources. We do this through combination of the acids with salts of alkaline minerals – calcium, potassium, magnesium and sodium.
And, as bio-electrical Beings, all of this biochemistry happens in the realm of the tiny positive and negative charges that are part of the innate structure of the atomic world we are made of. Negative charges are healthful. Positive charges are harmful, and acid status is based on an excess of positively-charged ions which need partners to be neutralized. By providing negatively-charged atomic partners (electrons), we “neutralize” the acid.
Food is the way we bring new bio-electricity into our system. Some foods have more beneficial negatively-charged ions than others. The best alkaline foods have lots of negative ions available. Many of the beneficial buffering salts are naturally occurring in fresh vegetables and some fruits.
For example, potassium citrate and potassium malate are salts of organic anions (negatively-charged ion particles) commonly found in fresh produce. In metabolism, these organic anions have the ability to accept positively-charged hydrogen cation particles and this is how our human bodies reduce the acid load and create an alkaline balance or neutrality.
The common, root-cause of all Dis-ease is having an excess of positively-charged ions from food and external stressors and metabolic processes which act as free-radicals, damaging your organs, tissues and DNA until they are neutralized by the chelated-forms of the alkaline minerals: calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. Acid – Alkaline imbalance is the cause of all illness, and Balancing pH is the start of Health.
Start by reviewing the foods listed below. These are mostly winter foods, (it’s important to eat most of your food in its true-season of harvest, but these days, I include off-season foods, like most salad greens, as most people need all the “help” they can get!).
I will list more summery foods, for the Southern Hemisphere’s current needs, another time. Concentrate on eating these charted foods at least 75% of your intake and go online, if necessary, to find the pH alkaline waters – I recommend Evamor and Essentia.
Generally, regardless of season, other whole fruits and animal protein should be only a tiny % of your diet, but if you are Healthy, then summer is the time to eat more whole fruits and more juicy vegetable types.
Back to water. You can get an idea of your tap water’s pH from your water company, but only certain spring’s waters qualify to drink, these days. Unfortunately, today very little tap water is pH neutral; most is pH acidic. You need alkaline waters or neutral waters, only. (Look at the Title Archive tab on the top bar, above, and read my other water articles, including about Dr. Masuru Emoto’s work with the necessary structure of water — another reason NOT to use tap water!).
Remember, over-acidity is not benign. It leads to serious disease, and quickly, depending on your diet and life-style choices. Pathogenic bacteria and viruses need an acidic environment to grow and exist. Being alkaline means that your Bio-Terrain will not host these robbers-of-Health at all.
Acidic internal environments also literally eat you alive, eroding your arteries and organs and their ability to function. You must do everything in your power to keep your children alkaline, (and if they are always ill, it means they are already too-acidic — but help is worthwhile as they can still return to full pH-balanced Health faster than you can). For yourself, it takes time to undo years of ignorance or abuse, but the Journey is the only way back to Health.
American doctor William Howard Hay, MD first spoke of this theory and practical treatment in 1933, but Louis Pasteur, on his deathbed, recanted his whole Germ Theory of Disease in deference to the Truth other scientists at the Pasteur Institute had found in the late 1800s! Some of these scientists went on to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine. This research at the Pasteur Institute became the root of the Bio-Terrain Theory of Health and Disease elucidated here. The French have always subscribed to the Bio-Terrain Theory and have continued to research it.
Dr. Hay states:
Now we depart from health in just the proportion to which we have allowed our alkalies to be dissipated by introduction of acid-forming food in too great amount … It may seem strange to say that all disease is the same thing, no matter what its myriad modes of expression, but it is verily so.
William Howard Hay, M.D.
Currently, Dr. Theodore Baroody, ND, DC, PhD, Professor Felicia Drury Kliment, Dr. Robert O. Young, PhD, DSc and Christopher Vasey, ND along with Dr. Thomas Rau, MD all espouse the need for the strategies outlined in this series as the way to regain and maintain Health, as well as championing the Bio-Terrain model that all Disease comes from the same Root – over-acidity of your body’s tissues. Look for their books to learn more.
We’ll talk lots more about all of this, but get started by making 75% of your food intake, at least, from this charted-list, only.
ON THE CHARTS
This is a new nutritional science and many of the foods still need more stringent testing, so there are some discrepancies. Sources of the information are explained next.
Basic list is from: http://www.betterbones.com/alkaline/articles/chart%20p12.pdf
bold on chart is from: http://acidalkalinediet.com/foodchart.php
(food) is an adaptation from http://www.snyderhealth.com/alkalinity.htm<
(food) is based on scientific measurements from Dr. Robert O. Young, PhD in “House of Health” by Shelley Redford Young available at http://www.phmiracleliving.com
* serious disagreement about placement; all placement options are shown
+ = approximate placement, but pH group-type is correct
Note:
“that a food’s acid or alkaline-forming tendency in the body has nothing to do with the actual pH of the food itself. For example, lemons are very acidic, however the end-products they produce after digestion and assimilation are very alkaline so lemons are alkaline-forming in the body. Likewise, meat will test alkaline before digestion but it leaves very acidic residue in the body so, like nearly all animal products, meat is very acid-forming.”
http://acidalkalinediet.com/foodchart.php
The USDA Food Chart seems to just reflect external pH, and therefore is not applicable here because it does not reflect the mineral ash created as the end product of our internal metabolic processes. The pH of that ash created inside us, “in vivo”, decides the group the food belongs to, not a piece of litmus paper sitting on the food in a petrie dish, “in vitro”.
RIGHT-CLICK ONCE ON THE CHART IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT. The chart will open in another window. You can also print it there, and they print clearly, even if you don’t see them perfectly on your monitor. Then, click the back-button to return to this page.
If you make something really yummy, then please email me a copy of the recipe in the contact-box at About Me!
Be sure to open the Title Archive on the top bar to see more great articles to learn from.
Best to all — Em
(c)2007 Em http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
If you desire to use my article or quote from it, please include the full copyright citation and use my website’s address.
“Everyone knows someone who needs this information!” (TM)
You are absolutely right about an alkaline diet helping with diabetes. I like to try and eat both alkaline foods and add a few supplements to my diet. I feel better and it is easier to manage my glucose.
Thanks for your comment, Jeff. I checked out your Squidoo lense and I am interested in you mentioning here whether you have taken Eleotin yourself.
If so, what were your actual blood sugar results and how long did it take? Are you still on it?
I am convinced that the proper pH-oriented diet, alkaline waters and moderate exercise / movement are the main components needed, but I have been looking at herbal combinations, made for diabetics, to support them until their own body heals itself. Eleotin is one of several.
If anyone has any experience with any of these preparations, please share.
Best to all — Em
i want to know about the vegetables which we can eat or not eat when we have diabities
Namaste, Sarbit!
I will try to answer your question in a general way, but as you do not tell me where you live, that makes things harder.
I know Sikhs live all over the world, but as India has a magnifying problem with diabetes, I will do my best to answer the question as if you are living in India.
Because India has millions of diabetics, I will answer this in a major posting this week of August 4, 2008. I’ll post the link here when it is finished.
The permanent posting is at:
http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/food-lists-to-help-diabetics-in-india-and-beyond/
___ Until then, my first advice is to stay away from sweets. As I understand it from recent articles, too many Indians are over-indulging in them.
If you do sweeten something, do not use artificial sweeteners, and do use as unprocessed products as possible like molasses or jaggery (gur) (and the agave or stevia plants, if you can buy those products in Western stores or use the internet).
___ Secondly, especially if you are vegetarian, then it is not only the simple sugars that you must be aware of but also the complex carbohydrates – the “starches”.
Dal flours and grain flours (even moreso) are acidic pH foods which will exacerbate your diabetes, as all acidic pH foods do. As flours, besan will probably be a better choice than atta flour, but both are likely to impact pH opposite to what you need for alkaline.
The amount of complex carbohydrate starches (grains, beans, rice etc.) at each meal impact blood sugar levels, as well as time taken for digestion. Whether the foods are processed faster in your body to cause blood-sugar “spikes” is dependent on there being healthy FATS and OILS (ghee or coconut oil) and FIBER (roughage), in the meal to slow down the carbohydrate’s blood-sugar effect.
Vegetables are the healthiest complex-carbohydrates, and you have access to many varieties on the Indian sub-continent that we do not have in the West. Some of them I know from living in Asia and visiting India several times, others I know from those showcased in ethnic markets in the West.
The general guidelines is that they be:
___ nutritious
___ not dense starches
___ contain good amounts of fiber
___ be eaten raw when possible and otherwise lightly cooked.
___ Other things to learn: the karela bitter melon is a vegetable that has definite impact on blood sugar reduction, and is a potent medicine in itself. Dalchini (cinnamon) is being found to be helpful to diabetics, too. Methi (fenugreek) and kadhi patta (fresh kari leaves) are also used to treat diabetes in some way, traditionally, in Ayurveda.
Some LOCAL kala namak (rock salt) may be OK; check with a knowledgeable ayurvedic physician. Pink Himalayan rock salt is touted in the West.
___ Eating your more traditional diet will probably keep you healthier than using the “usual” Westernized one, with its factory food and emphasis on poor quality, lots of sugar, too little fresh food and the wrong fats.
___ Eat fresh foods, in their proper growing season.
I hope this helps, and if anyone else can contribute to this, please do!
Watch for the more complete post.
With Kindest Regards,
Em
What happens to vegetables when they are cooked? Do they loose the property of being alkaline therefore becoming acidic? In order to get all the benefits from alkaline foods do they need to be eaten raw?
Thank you.
Dear Sita,
Namaste!
Thank you for your question.
My understanding in my training from Dr. Robert O. Young, PhD, who is the world-expert on pH affecting Health, is that raw vegtables and fruit is best.
Dr. Young does not eat animal foods; he is vegan. Raw meat is not a safe option for those that do eat animals. Sushi seafood and fish are a popular exception, but sashimi should always have been surveyed by a long-trained sushi chef, and few outside Japan have that training, so be wary.
My understanding is that if you want to “cook” veggies, steam them lightly. They do become somewhat more acidic when cooked.
Do not cook fruit at all; cooking makes fruit VERY acidic. And, do eat it in it’s whole form, rather than as a juice, which: impacts blood sugar too quickly, is more concentrated (who would eat 10 oranges at once, but it’s “easy” to drink 8 oz. of juice — which is also WAY too much!).
Use the pH Food Charts on this page to help you in your pursuit of Health. If you have more questions, please ask.
Best Regards,
Em