by Scotland Willis
Balance is something we strive for in our life. We see it in how we try to manage work and our
personal life; balance between consumption and preserving the environment; balancing disruptions and getting tasks done; and in our personal health versus stress. The list is extensive. By and large balance is a very difficult goal to achieve; this assertion could be made anywhere in the world.
So here is something to consider about balance you may not have thought of; 1) the most important balance in our body is pH balance; while that may sound simple, achieving it is like trying to balance yourself on a tightrope (ok perhaps not that difficult but it might seem that way) but certainly as challenging to achieve balance in other areas of our life; 2) alkaline and acids make up these two very important chemical that represent this balance, which also influence many other activities that occur in our body.
A bit more understanding migh make you more conscious about your eating decisions and thereby resulting in a happier healthier you.
So why is this make up so important? Let's not focus on things like kidney, liver and blood disease, to avoid talking about thsi from a medical perspective- though they are legitimately related to the matter at hand. Rather I would like to share important factors to understand which will make the importance of acids and alkaline a little easier to digest.
Most foods (especially processed foods) have high levels of sugar or high fructose. The result is that most of our diet is made up of sugary acids that means that we have a alkaline deficit much more often than not in our body, across the majority of our U.S. population. Alkaline foods mean more green foods and raw veggies (which don't appeal to most peoples taste buds the way sugary sweets do). It's time to change that.
Keep this in mind increasing your alkaline intake will result in more energy, healthier bone structure and a wide range of health benefits including lower blood sugar levels, less chances of heart disease and the other major threats to human health. For children it can mean improved neurological performance.
Understanding the Scale
The pH scale reflect whether the pH in your body is acidic or alkaline. The scale ranges from 1 to 14. A pH of 7 is considered neutral; above 7 is considered alkaline below 7 is considered acidic. Seven then is the ideal balance for humans. Because we have a diet that is so heavily influenced by sugars, achieving the balance (i.e., consuming more raw or alkaline foods) is a real challenge.
Less important to understand but good to know is this: a pH of 4 is ten times more acidic than a pH of 5 and 100 times (10 times 10) more acidic than a pH of 6. The same holds true for pH values above 7, each of which is ten times more alkaline—another way to say basic—than the next lower whole value. For example, a pH of 10 is ten times more alkaline than a pH of 9 (epa). Sounds impressive but the simlicity if each level of increase refelcts an acidic increase of ten times that. The same would be true for alkaline, except most people don't have alkaline saturated diets.
People and Plant Benefits
And here is something else you probably did not know; your plants require a similar pH balance to that of humans. Depending on what region of the world your food is from will also influence whether that food requires more alkaline or acid in its uptake. Beets for example do best in a alkaline environment(pH) around 7-8; while grass are slightly acidic or close to neutral between 6.5 to 7. Basically plant life also thrives in close to this balance of 7.
All of this makes sense if you consider a couple of different points: 1) we consume a lot of plant life (or we should) so we should attempt to maintain a similar balance 2) we are evolved from single cellular organism that thrived on plant life (if you subscribe to the scientific theory) as such, our biological system should have similar requirements.
Maintaining a better pH balance means a better quality of life. Eating more alkaline and raw vegetables, fewer sugary and processed foods (which includes milk) will reduce the negative affects of an acidic body.
If you are a gardner, seek to balance your soil as well (there are devices to monitor this). I use to have a 100 gallon ( 378 liters) salt water aquarium at one point; maintaining the pH balance was critical to the fish survival, so it is no surprise the level of importance pH has on the body for me.
From healthy bones to healthy blood, pH affects everything about you and your bodily function.
Please work harder to stay healthy by balancing what you eat and likely adding more alkaline type food to your diet, while consuming less sugary and processed foods.
Alkaline foods: flax seed or oil, brown rice, millet, soaked almonds, tomato slices, fresh avocado, natural vegetable soups or pressed vegetable juices (not canned likely to have sugar) and beets. For a comprehensive list email me
Alkaline foods: flax seed or oil, brown rice, millet, soaked almonds, tomato slices, fresh avocado, natural vegetable soups or pressed vegetable juices (not canned likely to have sugar) and beets. For a comprehensive list email me
