Digestive Wellness: Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion, Fourth Edition (73 page)

When our diet is high in protein and low in fruit and vegetables, as is often the case today, we have a greater need for buffering minerals. (Eating a high-protein diet temporarily causes an “alkaline tide,” but the net result is not alkalizing.) When we are under stress, we have a greater need for buffering minerals. And when we drink soft drinks, we
really
need more buffering minerals; see the accompanying box for an eye-opening example.

An acidic internal environment is also a microbe’s playground, in which bacteria, fungi, and parasites flourish and replicate with abandon; but when this overacidity is neutralized, these organisms cannot thrive. Many health-care practitioners recommend killing parasitic, fungal, and bacterial infections with medications and herbs. Nutritionists often find, however, that simply rebalancing internal pH can achieve the same antimicrobial effect without using any drugs.

Getting your pH properly balanced is an important accompaniment to other healthful dietary changes. It’s easy and inexpensive, and you can do it at home—even as a fun “experiment” for the whole family’s participation and benefit.

Purchase a packet of pH test paper with a testing range of 5.5 to 8.0 (available at most health-food stores; see also Resources at
http://www.digestivewellnessbook.com
). You can then perform the test by simply dipping a two- to three-inch strip of pH paper into your first morning urine stream and reading it by matching the color of the test strip with the color chart on the back of the package. Optimally, urinary pH will be between 6.5 and 7.5, which is fairly neutral. The pH of water, 7.0, is best. Any number below 7.0 indicates that your urine is on the acidic side. The lower the number, the more acidic, and the pH scale is logarithmic; that is, 6.0 is 10 times more acidic than 7.0, and 5.0 is 100 times more acidic than 7.0. You can use
Figure 17.1
to record your urinary pH.

If your readings fall consistently below 6.5, begin to make dietary changes to bring your urinary pH back into the optimal range (6.5–7.5). Be sure to include lots of fresh fruits and vegetables in your meals and snacks. Use
Table 17.1
to identify alkalizing
foods; the further to the left on the chart, the more alkalizing the foods are. Take a mineral supplement daily and use a fully buffered vitamin C-mineral ascorbate to promote alkalinity.

Figure 17.1
First-morning urine pH, after rest.
(Used with permission: Jaffe R., & Mani J.
The Joy of Food: The Alkaline Way Guide
, (2009) Elisa Act Biotechnologies, LLC.)

In addition to nutrition, incorporate stress-reducing habits in your routine to normalize your pH: meditating, spending time outdoors, gardening, playing catch with friends, and taking gentle walks around the block or in the woods. At bath time, dissolve ½ cup each of baking soda and Epsom salts in your bathwater to alkalize, gently detoxify, and relax the body as they cleanse the skin.

What should you do if your urinary pH is
above
7.5? An occasional reading of 7.5–8.0 is acceptable. Readings that are typically between 7.5 and 8.0, however, likely represent a “false alkalinity” that may indicate an active inflammation or other health issue; if this occurs, see your health-care practitioner.

Many people assume that if the pH of a specific food, say lemons, is acidic, the food will be acid-producing in the body—but this assumption is inaccurate. In the 1920s and 1930s, scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) began burning foods and measuring the pH of the ash residue. Later, realizing that this technique didn’t yield sufficient information about what occurred inside the body, the USDA performed tests to see what would happen if someone ate only a specific food for 14 days. (How would you like to eat only carrots for two weeks?)

Subsequently, Russell Jaffe, M.D., a former researcher for the National Institutes of Health, found a way to calculate the body’s net response to a food by using a formula based on that food’s mineral, sugar, fat, and amino acid composition. Dr.
Jaffe’s formula correlates with the results of the USDA’s few mono-diet studies. (It is the most accurate system I have seen for predicting the effect on pH of eating a particular food.)

APPLE-CIDER VINEGAR IS ALKALIZING!

Use apple-cider vinegar in salad dressings, mix it into sweet juices (such as apple juice), and drizzle it over vegetables, chicken, or fish. It helps promote healthy digestion, increase blood oxygen levels, prevent intestinal putrefaction of food, regulate calcium metabolism, reduce frequent urination, and regulate menstrual cycles. Along with many essential enzymes and minerals, it also contains malic acid, which helps neutralize toxins. Always buy organic apple-cider vinegar; it’s most beneficial raw, unfiltered, and unpasteurized.

If you are healthy and have a urinary pH of 6.5 to 7.5, eat 60 percent of your foods from the alkalizing side of
Table 17.1
and 40 percent from the acid-producing side of the chart. If you need to rebuild health, have a chronic ailment, or have a urinary pH consistently lower than 6.5, eat 80 percent alkalizing foods and 20 percent acid-producing foods. Eating fruits and vegetables in abundance helps maintain a healthful acid-alkaline balance. And avoid brown-colored soft drinks! Lemon or lime juice in water makes a refreshing and alkalizing drink, as does ginger tea with rice syrup and lemon. Fresh vegetable juices flood the body with alkalizing minerals.

Switch to quinoa, oats, and wild rice as your main grains.

Use sucanat, molasses, and rice syrup as your main sweeteners.

Eating daikon radish and steamed greens daily is strongly recommended.

Lentils, miso soup, and yams are extremely alkalizing.

Use lemon, lime, and vinegar to flavor your foods.

Drink fresh vegetable juices.

Table 17.1
Food and Chemical Effects on Acid-Alkaline Body-Chemical Balance