Correct High Acid pH With High Alkali Foods
Revision as of 21:02, 12 February 2017 by Kipkis (Kipkis | contribs) (importing article from wikihow)
Maintaining the correct pH balance in your body is very important to overall health. If your body's pH is highly acidic most of the time, you can increase your risk for a variety of diseases. A pH balance of 0 to 6 is acid, a pH balance of 7 is neutral, and a pH balance of 8 to 14 is alkaline. If you have been eating a lot of acidic foods, you can adjust the balance by learning how to correct high acid pH with high alkali foods.
Steps
- Use a pH testing strip to test your pH balance. You can either test your urine or saliva. Test 60 minutes before eating a meal and 2 hours after eating. This will give you the best range of pH. Test twice a week.
- Testing the pH of your urine will show how well your body is able to remove acids and maintain optimal amounts of minerals that protect the body from becoming too acidic. The "buffer minerals" include sodium, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. If you are acidic, then your body is not doing a good job at using the minerals to protect against the acid, because there is too much acid in your body. For a healthy range, your urine pH should be between 6.0 and 6.5 when you test in the morning, and between 6.5 and 7.0 when you test in the evening.
- Testing the pH of your saliva will help show digestive enzyme activity in the body. For a healthy range, your saliva pH should remain between 6.5 and 7.5 all day.
- Change your diet. Eat more alkaline foods and less acidic foods.
- Alkaline foods include green juice, vegetable juice, fruit juice, garlic, berries, oranges, bananas, kale, pumpkins, squash, peas, green tea, and most other fruits and vegetables. However, Some fruits are quite acidic, e.g. cranberries, plums, rhubarb, blackberries and prunes. So are fruit juices that are processed, as opposed to simply squeezed from the original.
- Acidic foods may include meat (animal protein), dairy, white rice, wheat and white flour, including pasta. Amaranth, millet, and quinoa are good grains. All meats are acidic though beef, pork and shellfish are the worst.
- Almonds are a great alkaline protein source, but peanuts and walnuts are very acidic, pecans and cashews are also acidic.
- Soy milk is alkaline, green tea and tisanes are alkaline, but black tea and alcohol are acidic.
- Raw spinach is great, but cooked spinach not so much (though it’s not the worst).
- Check your medications, as certain medications can cause your pH balance to be acidic. If you are not sure, speak to your doctor. If the medication is necessary and you cannot avoid it, you may help combat the acidic pH by eating alkaline foods.
- Monitor your stress level, as stress can be a cause of acidic pH balance. If you made dietary changes and included less acidic foods in your diet and still notice a high acid pH balance, stress could be the culprit. Utilize stress reduction techniques to help reduce acidity.
Tips
- The amount of acid in a food does not reflect how it will impact the acidity of your blood. For example, highly acidic lemon actually helps the bloodstream become more alkaline.
- Most people benefit from eating a diet comprised of 75% alkaline foods and 25% acidic foods.
- Foods like lemons and ranges, those that are acidic behaving on our tongues, become alkaline in our bodies. Meanwhile foods we often think of as alkaline having, become acidic in or stomachs.
Warnings
- Keeping an acidic pH too long may cause the body to pull nutrients from the organs into the bloodstream to help neutralize it. This can cause a variety of conditions such as heart disease, premature aging, and osteoporosis.
Things You'll Need
- Variety of alkaline foods
- PH testing strips
