A Balanced pH Level - Why Alkaline Food Is So Important

The body's entire metabolic process depends on an alkaline environment. When we ingest too many acidic or acid-producing foods, excess acid corrodes tissues and organs, which leads to illness, sickness and disease. In addition, acid also provides a favorable environment for harmful bacteria and other micro organism that can damage organs, glands and body cells. nnThe body's pH Level / pH Scale The pH level is a measure of acidity or alkalinity, which takes numerical values from 0 (maximum acidity) through 7 (neutral) to 14 (maximum alkalinity). The saliva, blood, urine, digestive juices, mucus and the fluids inside and outside the body's cells each have an optimum pH level; blood pH is the most telling of all. The ideal blood pH is slightly alkaline, with a normal range of 7.35 to 7.45. If the pH moves below 6.8 or above 7.8, the cells of the body stop functioning and the human will die. Consequently, the body continually struggles to maintain its ideal pH.nnAcidosis Will Interrupt Cellular Activities In other words, over-acidified body cells (which leads to acidosis) will interrupt cellular activities and functions. It is the root of all sickness and disease. And it is also what causes overweight: to protect itself from potentially serious damage, the body creates new fat cells to store the extra acid. The key to restoring our body to its ideal pH is to create the proper balance of alkaline and acid forming foods. Since our body's pH level is slightly alkaline, our diet should also reflect this. Therefore, we should ingest at least 75% of alkalizing foods, like green vegetables, and never more than 20-25% of neutral and acidifying foods. Eating foods that are alkalizing transforms our body's balance from dangerously acidic to slightly above neutral. Here are some simple strategies that can help to remove the acid wastes in the body (by adopting these habits the body's pH level will gradually be balanced).nnBetter Eating Habits to Remove Acid Wastes X Eliminate red meat and reduce the portion size of any fish, chicken or turkey X Eliminate dairy products and replace milk with Soy or almond milk X Use bread with no or very little yeast X Try to not consume processed food or if you do, limit it X Take extra virgin olive oil along with flax seed oil, as often as you ca X Eat big salads as a whole meal: put in tomatoes, avocados, cucumbers, zucchini, other vegetables, almonds, salmon or soba noodles, and add sunflower, pumpkin or sesame seeds X Try to eliminate soda, coffee, tea, etc. and add alkalizing green drinks (e.g. SuperGreens by InnerLight) to your diet X Consider using wraps to wrap your veggies and salads, sprouted tortilla wraps or organic flour tortillas are great to use (not corn)nnNo More Fat Cells in an Alkaline Environment Besides, there is another nice side effect should the focus be put on an alkaline diet: as the acidic environment is eliminated, there will be no need for new fat cells to form. That means the fat in our body is no longer needed, and literally melts away. When we achieve pH balance, our body naturally drops to its healthy weight, our food cravings will diminish and our energy levels will increase immensely.