Your health ultimately depends on the health of the millions of cells in your body.
Whilst there are many factors, which influence the health of the cell, one of those, which is considered to be very important by Nutritional therapists, is the balance of Acid forming and Alkali forming foods you eat.
One of the effects of eating too many acid-forming foods is that our cells may end up retaining sodium in them whilst losing potassium. This is not good for the health of our bodies and can lead to many symptoms. It has, for example, been observed that de-mineralisation of your bones can occur when your body becomes too acidic.
To maintain an ideal acid to alkali ratio for your health it is best to take in about 4 times as much alkali forming foods as acid forming foods each day i.e. 80% of your diet needs to be alkali. The list below will help you choose foods to re-dress an acid/alkali imbalance in your body. Some foods are classed as ‘neutral’ so it would be fine to choose some foods from this list.
ACID FORMING FOODS
Refined sugar, Alcohol, Coffee/tea, White flour, Heated milk, Most cheeses, Wheat, Oats, White rice, Breads, Eggs, Cakes/biscuits, Plums, Prunes, Strawberries, Cranberries, Animal Products, Poultry/fish, Salt,pepper/hot spices
NEUTRAL FOODS
Brown rice, Corn, Honey, Soya beans/soya products, cream cheese, most dried beans and peas, Sunflower seeds, Pumpkin seeds, Sesame seeds, Coconut, Pure bottled water, Herbal teas, Avocado, Olives, Tofu, Brazil nuts, Almonds, Cashew/pecan/peanuts
ALKALI/ALKALINE FORMING FOODS
Unsweetened yoghurt, All vegetables, Most fruits, Sprouted seeds, Sprouted beans, Sultanas, Raisins, Currants, Unsweetened fruit juices, Miso, Soaked almonds, Buckwheat, Millet
As you can see from this, the general advice Nutritionists give of eating lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, reducing coffee, tea, alcohol, refined flour products and the intake of meat and avoiding all refined sugar ‘fits’ in with the message of this information handout. If you follow this advice you will begin to change the acidic conditions in the body. This is, of course, not all we can do to become healthier but it is a great start!