Over the years I have read a good deal of books and reports on the acid/alkaline chemistry of the body. I was not the most astute chemistry student in school but as I got older my interest increased. I became fascinated by chemistry as it applies to maintaining a healthy body. Here’s what I learned: It's all about the internal acid/alkaline balance. We get disease when imbalance occurs.
Doctors check acidity and alkaline levels by measuring the pH in our blood, saliva or urine. The pH stands for potential Hydrogen, which measures the number of hydroxl ions which are negative and alkaline-forming as opposed to the amount of hydrogen ions that are positive and acid-forming.
Don’t stop reading because the chemistry vocabulary seems boring. Just remember this: everything you eat or drink is either alkaline-forming or acid-forming. Acid and alkaline substances are opposites and when they meet they cancel each other out creating a neutral pH. However, it takes 20 times as much alkaline to neutralize an amount of acid.
The pH measurement scale runs from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. Below 7 is acid and above 7 is alkaline. Authorities have said that if you’re testing the blood, the perfect pH for human body function is 7.365. Some doctors believe that it is better to look at the range between 7.36 and 7.42 as the best. As for me, I’m just remembering that all authorities agree the body should be maintained slightly on the alkaline side.
None of this really came to life for me until I was working on my swimming pool one day. I was testing the water to see if the pH balance was correct. I know through experience that if I put the right amount of chemicals in the water to get a neutral pH, the water stays clean and crystal clear. If I goof up and let the water get out of whack and unbalanced, fungus will grow. Micro-organisms like fungus, bacteria and mold cannot survive in an alkaline environment. So as long as I keep the pH neutral in my pool, my family is safe to swim.
The importance of pH balance made even more sense to me as I learned the body is 70% water and the blood is 96% water. I realized that pH balancing is important to my health. It cleans up the water of my body and eliminates the toxic micro-organisms.
I take care of my swimming pool because I was given instructions. The instructions informed me how to keep my pool clean. I have friends that have fish aquariums. They, too, were provided with instructions. They have to keep the water in the aquarium at the correct pH or the fish will die. It’s the same with with our bodies. Just imagine that your cells are like the little fish in your aquarium. Think about how important it is that your cells are swimming in healthy internal fluids. I thought about this and realized that I didn’t get the instructions on keeping my inner body chemistry at the right pH level.
This is when I decided to do more research. I found out that if the pH in the body starts declining towards the acidic, the blood pulls alkaline minerals out of our tissues to compensate. However, if your body has been bombarded by acid-forming substances for a long time, the blood can no longer handle the imbalance. Excess acid is then dumped into the tissues. This imbalance leads to irritation and inflammation and eventual disease.
Authorities say that over acidification of our inner terrain is the underlining cause of all disease. Eating, drinking and breathing the wrong things all cause acid build-up in the body. Stress also causes acidification. The best thing for you to do is learn which foods are acid-forming and which foods are alkaline-forming. Then use the 80%/20% rule. Eat 80% alkaline-forming foods and 20% acid-forming foods. Here is a short list to get you started.
Acid-forming: All meat, pastries, pasta, cheese, milk, ice cream, all chemicals/preservatives, aspartame, potatoes, white flour, white rice, fried foods, processed foods, all fried oils, white sugar, coffee, alcohol and all drugs.
Alkaline-forming: spinach, romaine lettuce, seaweed, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, garlic, almonds, millet, quinoa, tomatoes, apples, watermelon, grapes, and pears. Lemons and limes seem like they would be acid-forming, but they are actually alkaline-forming. I drink lemon or lime water every morning.
Get balanced! Stay healthy!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Why I Am A Nutrition Nut
Three things happened in my life that fired me up to be a nutrition enthusiast. Number 1: I was told by a doctor to start taking a powerful cholesterol-lowering drug to bring my cholesterol down. Number 2: My niece was diagnosed with Lupus. Number 3: I was given an assignment to design a signing program for a grocery store produce department.
It was at my yearly physical in June 2003 that my doctor told me that I would have to start taking a statin. A statin is a prescription drug that stops an enzyme that controls the rate the body produces cholesterol. Problem with statins is once you’re on them, you’re on them for life.
I told the doctor I would rather see if I could lower it by diet and exercise first. I did not want to be on any kind of medication for the rest of my life. He said it was too late for that. He gave me the prescription. I took it but never had it filled. And I never saw that doctor again.
This was the kick in the butt I needed. I immediately started doing research to see if I could bring the cholesterol down without drugs. My total was 229 and from what I read the acceptable range was 180-199. I had some work to do.
I quit eating fried foods. I cut down on red meat. I started reading the nutrition labels on everything I bought at the grocery store. If the label said anything about hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils I considered it poison and put it back on the shelf.
I had already stopped drinking milk years ago. Now I had to cut down on eating cheese. I love cheese. And I cut down on eating eggs. I read that anything high in saturated fat should be eliminated from my diet.
I started exercising. And by December 2003 I also quit smoking. I had read that when you smoke you lower the amount of good cholesterol in your blood. I was one of those guys that always said it was easy to quit smoking, because I had quit 100 times already. This time I put the cigarettes down and never picked one up again. Cold turkey. I just stopped.
I had my cholesterol checked again. It had dropped from 229 to 215 in 6 months. I still had a lot of work to do. So it was back to the books to find out what else I could do to improve my cholesterol level.
In January 2004 we had moved closer to my wife’s family and started our own graphic design company. One of our nieces had recently been diagnosed with Lupus, a disease I had absolutely no knowledge about.
I started doing research to find out about Lupus. I found a book on the internet called “The Lupus Recovery Diet” by Jill Harrington. It was the book that energized me even further into my nutrition craze. The book had testimonials from people with Lupus who had put the disease into remission by changing their diet.
I found out that Lupus is an autoimmune disease. And because of that I learned a lot about the immune system. I also learned a lot about the foods you can eat to strengthen your immune system.
It was in February 2004 that I got a job to design a signing program for a grocery store produce department. The job required me to learn the nutrition facts of every vegetable and fruit on the planet. It seemed like everything about nutrition was falling into my lap.
In June 2004, I had my cholesterol checked again. It was at 216. One point higher than 6 months ago! I was upset and more determined than ever to eat better and exercise more. I felt more confident now that I was armed with more nutritional information than I ever had before.
I drove my wife crazy by stopping to read every label on every product when we went grocery shopping. She still thinks I am a little nuts.
I didn’t have my cholesterol checked again for another 4 years. I just knew that I was going in the right direction and did not need to worry anymore. I had it checked in March 2008 and my total cholesterol was 197, HDL at 51, LDL at 117 and my CHOL/HDL ratio at 3.9.
I was happy. Changing my eating habits did work. But now I just read “The Okinawan Program” and found that Okinawan elders average a total cholesterol level of 170 with a 3.3 ratio. Here I go again. Looks like I still have a lot of work to do!
It was at my yearly physical in June 2003 that my doctor told me that I would have to start taking a statin. A statin is a prescription drug that stops an enzyme that controls the rate the body produces cholesterol. Problem with statins is once you’re on them, you’re on them for life.
I told the doctor I would rather see if I could lower it by diet and exercise first. I did not want to be on any kind of medication for the rest of my life. He said it was too late for that. He gave me the prescription. I took it but never had it filled. And I never saw that doctor again.
This was the kick in the butt I needed. I immediately started doing research to see if I could bring the cholesterol down without drugs. My total was 229 and from what I read the acceptable range was 180-199. I had some work to do.
I quit eating fried foods. I cut down on red meat. I started reading the nutrition labels on everything I bought at the grocery store. If the label said anything about hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils I considered it poison and put it back on the shelf.
I had already stopped drinking milk years ago. Now I had to cut down on eating cheese. I love cheese. And I cut down on eating eggs. I read that anything high in saturated fat should be eliminated from my diet.
I started exercising. And by December 2003 I also quit smoking. I had read that when you smoke you lower the amount of good cholesterol in your blood. I was one of those guys that always said it was easy to quit smoking, because I had quit 100 times already. This time I put the cigarettes down and never picked one up again. Cold turkey. I just stopped.
I had my cholesterol checked again. It had dropped from 229 to 215 in 6 months. I still had a lot of work to do. So it was back to the books to find out what else I could do to improve my cholesterol level.
In January 2004 we had moved closer to my wife’s family and started our own graphic design company. One of our nieces had recently been diagnosed with Lupus, a disease I had absolutely no knowledge about.
I started doing research to find out about Lupus. I found a book on the internet called “The Lupus Recovery Diet” by Jill Harrington. It was the book that energized me even further into my nutrition craze. The book had testimonials from people with Lupus who had put the disease into remission by changing their diet.
I found out that Lupus is an autoimmune disease. And because of that I learned a lot about the immune system. I also learned a lot about the foods you can eat to strengthen your immune system.
It was in February 2004 that I got a job to design a signing program for a grocery store produce department. The job required me to learn the nutrition facts of every vegetable and fruit on the planet. It seemed like everything about nutrition was falling into my lap.
In June 2004, I had my cholesterol checked again. It was at 216. One point higher than 6 months ago! I was upset and more determined than ever to eat better and exercise more. I felt more confident now that I was armed with more nutritional information than I ever had before.
I drove my wife crazy by stopping to read every label on every product when we went grocery shopping. She still thinks I am a little nuts.
I didn’t have my cholesterol checked again for another 4 years. I just knew that I was going in the right direction and did not need to worry anymore. I had it checked in March 2008 and my total cholesterol was 197, HDL at 51, LDL at 117 and my CHOL/HDL ratio at 3.9.
I was happy. Changing my eating habits did work. But now I just read “The Okinawan Program” and found that Okinawan elders average a total cholesterol level of 170 with a 3.3 ratio. Here I go again. Looks like I still have a lot of work to do!
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