Before considering ways to alkalize your diet, let’s just review the basics of why this is important.
Roughly speaking your body’s pH level is an indication of whether your body is too acid or too alkaline. A normal blood pH level is 7.40 on a scale of 0 (acidic) to 14 (alkaline), but this can vary slightly in either direction.
The gastric acid in your stomach is very acidic (pH 1.5 to 3.5), so that the food you eat can be broken down.
If your body’s pH level is too far out of balance inflammation can develop, and inflammation is linked to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol – and obesity.
So for good health it’s essential to maintain a pH balance as close to that 7.4 as possible.
You can check your body’s pH level with simple pH paper tests that you should be able to buy at your local pharmacy – but there’s an extremely high chance that, if your diet is high in the ‘Foods to avoid list below’ your result will be on the acidic side of the range.
Caution about pH Imbalance
It would be unusual (but potentially serious) for your body’s pH level be too alkaline. This can be caused by insufficient potassium, possibly due to kidney disease, excessive sweating or diarrhoea, because there’s usually adequate potassium in people’s diets. Symptoms of potassium deficiency include: nausea, numbness, muscle twitches and spasms, dizziness, confusion and difficulty breathing. Seek medical advice if you notice those symptoms.
How Does Your Diet Stack Up?
Ideally your diet should be 80% alkaline forming foods and only 20% acid forming foods. Here are some acid / alkaline foods to give you an idea of how you can start to achieve that:
Acid forming foods to avoid on an Alkaline Diet
- Dairy products
- Meat
- Processed foods
- Caffeinated drinks
- Eggs
- Alcohol
- Bread
- Sugar and artificial sweeteners (check for hidden sugar – even in savory foods)
Alkaline forming foods to enjoy on an Alkaline Diet
- Fruit
- Vegetables (especially dark-green leafy vegetables)
- Most nuts – but don’t go mad on the higher calorie varieties!
- Seeds
- Lentils
- Chickpeas
- Broccoli and cauliflower
- Root vegetables
- Plant-based protein such as soybeans and tofu – protein is essential for the amino acids it contains, to build and repair every cell in your body
Following an Alkaline Diet
You’ll see from the above lists of foods to avoid and foods to enjoy that it is possible to design yourself an eating plan to alkalize your diet (or find a book to help you).
However, some people find it rather a challenge:
- There can be a lot of food preparation – which is good, but time-consuming
- If you have family, they may be less enthusiastic than you are and tempt you off the straight and narrow path
- Eating out can be difficult – for instance if you attend a lot of events for work
A Simple Way to Alkalize Your Diet
Unless you need, or are prepared for, the drastic changes of following an alkaline diet, you may find it easier to simply supplement a ‘good but not perfect’ diet with an organic superfood powder designed to support detoxification and maintain your body’s pH level.
One such powder is SOUL <<Click here
SOUL is packed with alkalizing super-foods to promote your body’s detoxification with herbs that support the liver and kidneys. It contains powdered ingredients such as Chlorella, turmeric, alfalfa grass, Astragalus, barley, lemon, coconut, kale, spirulina, Rhodiola rosea and many others. More details on the ingredients tab on the link above.
There’s no blending, no juicing and no clearing away.
Simply add to your favourite yoghurt, cereal, juice, milk – or any way that will quickly become obvious to you
My Experiences of Taking SOUL
I was pretty sure I needed to detoxify – although I eat plenty of fresh vegetables, nuts and seeds I knew there was still room for improvement. I also knew I would be most unlikely to stick with a full-on alkaline diet. As a simpler approach, to fit into my busy lifestyle, I decided to use SOUL superfood powder.
It’s very early days still, but I had to write about one very welcome side-effect…
I had a real problem with ‘night-time munchies’, but happily my night-time cravings are far less frequent now so I can reach bed-time without reaching for unhealthy snacks!
You can either BUY SOUL HERE or as part of a weight loss pack HERE
