A Secret to Peak Performance...
The latest diet touted by celebrities from Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston to Jared Leto and Super Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady and wife, model Gisele Bündchen is the alkaline diet. The diet is based on the premise that replacing acid-forming foods with alkaline foods will improve your health, and maybe even prevent cancer. By focusing on what foods you eat; you can alter the acidity or alkalinity (the pH value) of your body. Of course, it will also be good for your skin.
You can actually buy test strips and test your own saliva to gauge your pH balance, which is what I recently tried. Ideally your PH should be around 7.4. I was surprised to find out which foods are acidic and which are alkaline based (click here to see a list) and you might be too! Did you know lemons are on the top of the list of alkaline foods, even though they are acidic? Why isn’t baking soda – a very alkaline food – not at the top of the list?
The more I thought about it, I realized why. Your stomach is full of acids and if you put something very alkaline into it, your stomach needs to turn on the acid to get back to normal. When you metabolize foods and extract the energy from them, you are actually burning the foods and leaving a residue, which can be acidic, alkaline, or neutral. Essentially, if you eat foods with acidic ash, it makes your body acidic. Same goes for alkaline, though neutral ash has no effect.
Food groups you should focus on are those with calcium, magnesium, and potassium, including fresh, preferably organic fruits, vegetables, millet, quinoa, spelt, and sprouted breads. Acidic foods are sugar, wheat, processed foods, meats, coffee, black tea, trans fats, and soda. Smoking also makes your body acidic. Legumes are neutral.
The alkaline diet presumes that acidic ash makes you more vulnerable to illness and disease, whereas alkaline ash is considered beneficial and protective. By choosing more alkaline foods, you can alkalize your diet and improve your overall health. The general rule is to eat about 80 percent alkaline and 20 percent acidic foods. And don’t forget to take it one step further – use only all natural products with organic ingredients like Edye’s Naturals to truly live your healthiest, happiest life.
You can actually buy test strips and test your own saliva to gauge your pH balance, which is what I recently tried. Ideally your PH should be around 7.4. I was surprised to find out which foods are acidic and which are alkaline based (click here to see a list) and you might be too! Did you know lemons are on the top of the list of alkaline foods, even though they are acidic? Why isn’t baking soda – a very alkaline food – not at the top of the list?
The more I thought about it, I realized why. Your stomach is full of acids and if you put something very alkaline into it, your stomach needs to turn on the acid to get back to normal. When you metabolize foods and extract the energy from them, you are actually burning the foods and leaving a residue, which can be acidic, alkaline, or neutral. Essentially, if you eat foods with acidic ash, it makes your body acidic. Same goes for alkaline, though neutral ash has no effect.
Food groups you should focus on are those with calcium, magnesium, and potassium, including fresh, preferably organic fruits, vegetables, millet, quinoa, spelt, and sprouted breads. Acidic foods are sugar, wheat, processed foods, meats, coffee, black tea, trans fats, and soda. Smoking also makes your body acidic. Legumes are neutral.
The alkaline diet presumes that acidic ash makes you more vulnerable to illness and disease, whereas alkaline ash is considered beneficial and protective. By choosing more alkaline foods, you can alkalize your diet and improve your overall health. The general rule is to eat about 80 percent alkaline and 20 percent acidic foods. And don’t forget to take it one step further – use only all natural products with organic ingredients like Edye’s Naturals to truly live your healthiest, happiest life.
