Why Alkaline Foods Prevent Disease, Boost Immune System and Increase Energy
Consuming the correct balance of acid and alkaline foods will help you maintain optimal health or recover from poor health. And even though you may be consuming an alkaline diet, lifestyle and environment can also affect the acidity of your body.
For example, stress and negative emotions produce an acid-forming chemical in the body and breathing toxins also produce an acid pH in the body. See Acid/Alkaline pH List below.
Food, or anything consumable, has either an acid or alkaline pH depending on the ash residue remaining after the food is digested and processed. The main determining factor of alkaline pH is the organic minerals the food contains. One main misconception of this balance is in tomatoes and oranges. They have an ‘in food’ acidity, but this is not an acid pH that leaves a harmful residue and brings your health down.
Acid Alkaline pH Explained - Short and Simple
All chemical processes have an ideal pH at which they are most efficient between 0-14. An acid pH is below 7, 7 is neutral and above 7 is alkaline. The human body functions best with an internal chemistry being slightly alkaline - a pH of 7.0 to 8.0. Your blood must maintain a pH of 7.4. If the blood pH falls below 7.2, you die. Cells die at about 3.5 pH and are in disease when below 7.0.
<------------Acid------------>7<–7.4-------Alkaline---------->14
7 = Neutral 7.4 = Blood pH
Your body does not manufacture alkaline but, in fact, produces acid as a by-product of normal metabolism. Considering this, plus many other factors like stress that contribute to an acid pH, is why you must supply a higher amount of alkaline from food sources to keep a healthy balance.
How Alkaline Foods Reverse Disease
When you eat food with an acid pH, the body must neutralize the acid to keep the blood from getting too acid. When there is not enough alkaline food in the diet to neutralize the acid, it must be extracted from the cells. If this cycle continues, the cells become acidic and diseased.
One example of why disease sets in is that bacteria and cancer cells thrive in an acid pH body. Another is osteoporosis. Calcium is the most abundant alkaline mineral in the body with the bones being the most abundant source. With an acid diet, calcium is constantly being removed from the bones to neutralize the acid causing osteoporosis.
When the body is in the correct alkaline state (which comes from consuming plenty of alkaline foods) it is able to function at its best, better able to heal itself, dump toxins and heavy metals that are poisoning the body and have higher energy production. You just feel better!
The Original Diet God Gave Man was Mostly Alkaline Foods
Look at the original diet God created for man in Genesis 1:29. It is a raw food diet - fruit and vegetables. Most of these raw foods are alkaline with only a few being acid which brings us to the perfect pH balance of low alkalinity (equal to that required by the blood to maintain life). This is why the acid/alkaline balance truly is scientific proof that the Genesis 1:29 diet is the most perfect diet for the human body. Of course! God designed it that way.
Raw foods are extremely powerful for boosting the immune system! Even so, I will be the first to admit an all raw food diet is not one of my goals and probably not yours, either. However, as you come to realize the importance of these raw foods for your health, it is easier to incorporate more of them into your diet. It’s the percentage that counts!
The human body has miraculous self-healing abilities. But remember from ‘Home Page’ that YOU are the one responsible for providing the cells with what they need to function best.
Now you can look at the pH balance as one of your
indicators of what will give you better health.
The following list is a general guideline showing what is acid and what is alkaline with ‘most alkaline (best)’ at the top and ‘most acid (worst)’ being at the very bottom. As you can see, the most alkaline foods which help reverse disease, boost immune system and give you your best health and energy are the raw foods from plants at the top of the list.
Since the organic mineral content is the main determining factor for pH, each category will vary somewhat in real life - per plant - based on its mineral content. For instance a tomato will be more or less alkaline depending on the mineral content of the soil it was grown in. Organic and home-grown produce is usually grown in more mineral-rich soil and so would be more alkaline.
Acid/Alkaline pH List
Alkaline Ash
- Most raw fruits
- Raw leafy greens such as romain, spinach, chard, etc.
- Raw (unheated) green powders such as barley, chlorella, spirulina and alfalfa
- Dried fruit (if dried without heat)
- Most raw vegetables
- Frozen fruit and vegetables
- Lightly steamed fruits and vegetables (still crunchy)
- Raw nuts: almonds, pecans, walnuts, etc.
- Raw seeds: sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, etc.
- Sprouted grain
Acid Ash
- Some raw fruits and vegetables such as plums, cranberries, blueberries, prunes, squash
- Cashews (which are heated in the shelling process)
- Cooked whole grains
- Some herbs, spices, condiments, hot peppers, garlic, onions, horseradish, etc.
- Overcooked fruits and vegetables
- Dairy products (cheese, eggs, milk, etc.)
- White meat (clean according to Leviticus 11 w/natural diet): fish, fowl
- Red meat (clean according to Leviticus 11 grass-only fed): beef, mutton, etc.
- Sugar and refined grains
- Meat (unclean according to Leviticus 11): pork, shellfish, catfish, etc.
- Fried foods
- Coffee and tea
- Any meat cooked well done
- Common table salt (conventional processed)
- Alcohol
- Chemicals such as dyes, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, etc.
- Most drugs/medication
- Tobacco
- Stress - though not ‘consumable’, produces chemicals that are acid
- EMF radiation - produces a type of stress the body was not designed to cope with. More info at www.Best-EMF-Health.com The average U.S. diet consists of 20% alkaline foods and 80% acid. A super healthy diet consists of 80% alkaline foods and 20% acid.
Now for help in preparing more alkaline food recipes - go to my section of
'Easy Healthy Recipes'. And for alkalizing supplements - request my Resource List below and look for the 'K' for alkalizing at the end of each supplement.
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Go to 'Detox is Important!'
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Go to 'Easy Healthy Recipes'
Go to 'Supplements and Vitamins to Boost Immune System'
