Part A. - The Acid Alkaline Balance Diet - Pros and Cons
Part B. - 5 Myths About an Alkaline Diet
Alkaline diet is defined as a diet program which helps to maintain the blood Ph levels in it's natural state between 7.35 and 7.45, thereby helping our body in absorption in vitamins and minerals resulting in weight loss. Today, our diet contains more acidities leading to chronic illness and loss of health. By increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables, it helps to reduce the intake of meat, salt, and refined starches,thereby benefiting our health. It is recommended by some practitioners if a person has the following symptoms of lack of energy, excessive mucous production, nasal congestion, over weight, etc. Please consult your doctor before applying.
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The Alkaline Diet Strategy
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Part A. - The Acid Alkaline Balance Diet - Pros and Cons
The acid alkaline balance diet is often termed the acid alkaline diet, and sometimes it is simply described as the alkaline diet. Nevertheless, although there are a number of different names for this popular approach to eating, the acid alkaline balance diet may be the most suitable one. That is because the core fact at the heart of this diet is that you should eat in a way that helps you to achieve a balanced internal pH.
It is true that some fad diets that you may have seen tell you to eat exclusively alkalizing foods. In actuality, however, eating only alkaline-producing foods is both unhealthy and impractical.
To begin with, a 100 percent alkalizing diet would be pretty boring. Not only would poultry, fish, and dairy products be entirely off limits, but so would beans, tomatoes, and even whole-grain breads.
A second issue with such a diet is that you would miss out on important nutrients which are found in some acidifying foods. For example, tomatoes are high in cancer-fighting lycopene. And at least one study shows that prunes may guard against osteoporosis.
As its name suggests, the goal of the acid alkaline balance diet is not to go to an extreme of alkalinity. Since this is the case, you don't need to eat only alkalizing foods in order to create an ideal acid-alkaline balance.
But you probably do need to eat many more alkalizing foods, and fewer acidifying ones. Whether you eat this food or that food is not as important as the overall ratio of acidifying to alkaline-forming components in your diet.
This is to say that if you completely remove sugar and acidifying beverages like soft drinks, you have a little more margin for error, which means that you can eat a little more meat and dairy products without your body becoming too acidic. To give you another example, if you choose to eat poultry, you should compensate by eating less dairy, and so on.
There is no one right answer for how to use your "budget" of acidifying foods, but in general it is always a good idea to emphasize foods that are low in calories and rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other health-giving nutrients.
The bottom line, however, is that no matter what kind of diet you currently have, you can start making simple changes to create a healthier acid alkaline balance.
Graham Stoking is a passionate advocate of nutrition, exercise, and the healing power of nature. He writes about the acid alkaline diet also known simply as the alkaline diet.
Recommended Reading
The Alkaline Diet Strategy
Say Good-Bye To Low Energy, Poor Digestion
, Extra pounds, Aches and Pains, and Diseases
The alkaline diet principle is based upon the belief that when we eat foods, they release either acid or alkaline bases into our systems after digestion. For example, foods such as meats, poultry, dairy products, grains, and salt produce acid. Fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, and tuberous vegetables such as potatoes produce an alkaline base. Today, most modern doctors do encourage more consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, but most do not believe in the basics of an acid versus alkaline diet.
Many people believe that acid-based diets promote health problems, including headaches, ovarian cysts, nervousness and irritability, frequent illness such as colds, excessive mucus and nasal congestion, and a lack of energy overall.
Further, some people believe that an acidic diet can cause cardiovascular damage, weight gain and obesity, diabetes, a weakened immune system, kidney stones, osteoporosis, premature aging and slow digestion and elimination, which in turn can lead to buildup of toxins in the system.
Proponents of the alkaline diet say that consuming it restores the body's natural pH balance of between 7.35 and 7.45. There are many places on the Internet you can find that will sell you pH strips so that you can test yourself to see what your own pH balance is.
There are many myths about the alkaline diet.
Among them are:
Myth 1: It's hard to follow.
Is it hard to follow and alkaline diet if you want to try it? No, not hard at all.
In fact, the alkaline diet is very much like the common vegan diet, with the exception that it greatly limits the amount of grains eaten. However, you can take any vegan recipe (recipes abound on the Internet) and simply substitute grains for any other type of starch allowed on the diet, such as potatoes.
Myth 2: You're greatly restricted in what you eat.
To some extent, this is true, but this diet basically seeks to restore your body's balance. Yes, you're greatly limited in the amount of sugar, simple carbohydrates, and other unhealthy foods you can eat, including an excess consumption of meat and dairy. But in fact, you are allowed an unlimited amount of fruits and vegetables, beans, legumes, and the like, as well as tuberous vegetables and starches. This in fact provides a wide array of foods available to you, so that you're you won't feel deprived once you get used to it.
Myth 3: You can never have "forbidden" foods again once on the alkaline diet.
In fact, this isn't true, either. If you want to, you can occasionally have meat, dairy, or grains, for example. Doing this "once in a while" isn't likely to greatly impact your body's pH. However, you may find that once you're on the diet, you will not want to eat these other foods, because they'll lose their palatability.
Myth 4: An alkaline diet is unhealthy because it doesn't let you eat meat or dairy, two foods that are believed to be very important to health.
In fact, for centuries, vegans have eaten diets completely free of animal products, including dairy or meat. And in fact, vegans have lower incidences of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and may also be at reduced risk for osteoporosis. They are also much less likely to be overweight or obese.
Myth 5: You can't get enough protein on an alkaline diet without meat or dairy.
This, too, is false. Plant-based sources provide plenty of protein for those who consume them. It's long been a myth that animal-based proteins are superior to plant-based proteins. In fact, with the standard American diet, most Americans get too much protein, not too little.
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The Alkaline Diet Strategy
Say Good-Bye To Low Energy, Poor Digestion
, Extra pounds, Aches and Pains, and Diseases
