Most people, with their modern lifestyles, are suffering from imbalance. They are obese. Tired. Prematurely ageing. And more importantly, the world’s top three killers – cancer, heart disease and diabetes – are all directly linked to diet. Eating the proper foods and getting the best nutrients, in balance, will help you avoid all that – along with the misery and poor quality of life that so often precedes death, sometimes by decades.
We often hear of acid and alkaline balance in the body but what does this mean or relate to?
Our body has an acid-alkaline (or acid base) ratio called the pH (potential of hydrogen). This is a balance between positively charged ions (acid-forming) and negatively charged ions (alkaline-forming.) Our body continually strives to balance pH. When this balance is compromised and the pH becomes too acidic, many problems can occur. These are said to include skin problems, such as: acne, psoriasis and eczema, cardiovascular damage, including the constriction of blood vessels and the reduction of oxygen, weight gain, obesity and diabetes, bladder and kidney conditions, including kidney stones, immune deficiency, acceleration of free radical damage possibly contributing to cancerous mutations, premature ageing, infertility, osteoporosis, weak, brittle bones, hip fractures and bone spurs, joint pain, aching muscles and lactic acid buildup, low energy and chronic fatigue (to name a few).
A recent seven-year study conducted at the University of California, San Francisco on 9,000 women showed that those who have chronic acidosis are at greater risk for bone loss than those who have normal pH levels. The scientists who carried out this experiment believe that many of the hip fractures prevalent amongst middle-aged women are connected to high acidity caused by a diet rich in animal foods and low in vegetables. This is because the body borrows calcium from the bones in order to balance pH. This can be just as much of a problem for men, as it is for women.
pH is measured on a scale of zero to 14. The lower the pH, the more acidic the solution is; the higher the pH, the more alkaline (or base) the solution is. When a solution is neither acidic nor alkaline it has a pH of 7, which is neutral.
Continue to Page 2...
|
|
