by floodlightseo
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by floodlightseo
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Hello everyone, hopefully this crazy rainy weather will subside soon and we can enjoy summer weather. We’ve had a lot of patients in the last few weeks ask “how can you make your body pH more neutral”. Given the recent popularity we decided to discuss acidity in the body for this week’s article.
Risks of High pH
The body’s pH balance strongly influences the risk for osteoporosis, sarcopenia (muscle loss), fractures, and kidney stone formation. There are also links to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, thyroid problems, cancer and other insidious conditions. When the body’s fluids become too acidic, minerals are pulled out of bones and tissues to compensate. This, in the long term, leads to thinner bones and lower muscle mass.
Overly acidic tissues also make one susceptible to inflammation (a known risk for many chronic diseases), impair enzymatic reactions in cells and overload the lymphatic system, impeding the body’s natural detoxification process.
Balancing Out Your pH
It can be surprising to people when they say they eat healthy and we test them in the office for their pH balance and they find out that they are acidic. You always have to have a balance of what foods you eat. You should be eating both acidic and alkaline foods but most people eat more of an acidic diet.
We have a really good table of alkaline and acidic foods (see chart below) so that you can see what’s need to better balance your diet.
For you to be neutral, your body should have a pH of 7.0. When you start balancing out your diet you can take a pH test to see whether you need to eat more acidic food if your diet is too alkaline or visa versa.
The human body is an amazing thing but when you introduce it to too much of a certain thing, it will lack in another. The body will find other means to get the minerals or vitamins it requires (ie: taking it out of our bones or muscles). To prevent that from happening you need to start paying attention to your diet!
Not only should you look at your diet, but also to your spine. When you are too acidic, you become more prone to injury, your body is inflamed, and you can take longer to heal when injured. This, in turn, often causes issues longer down the road. Chiropractors focus on balancing out the body and making sure you maintain a perfect balance. Make sure you consult with a chiropractor, or leave comments below, if you have questions about you pH or your diet.
Alkaline Chart
…ALKALINE FOODS…
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…ACIDIC FOODS…
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ALKALIZING VEGETABLES Alfalfa Barley Grass Beet Greens Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrot Cauliflower Celery Chard Greens Chlorella Collard Greens Cucumber Dandelions Dulce Edible Flowers Eggplant Fermented Veggies Garlic Green Beans Green Peas Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Mushrooms Mustard Greens Nightshade Veggies Onions Parsnips (high glycemic) Peas Peppers Pumpkin Radishes Rutabaga Sea Veggies Spinach, green Spirulina Sprouts Sweet Potatoes Tomatoes Watercress Wheat Grass Wild GreensALKALIZING ORIENTAL VEGETABLES Daikon Dandelion Root Kombu Maitake Nori Reishi Shitake Umeboshi Wakame ALKALIZING FRUITS ALKALIZING PROTEIN ALKALIZING SWEETENERS ALKALIZING SPICES & SEASONINGS ALKALIZING OTHER ALKALIZING MINERALS Although it might seem that citrus fruits would have an acidifying effect on the body, the citric acid they contain actually has an alkalinizing effect in the system. Note that a food’s acid or alkaline forming tendency in the body has nothing to do with the actual pH of the food itself. For example, lemons are very acidic, however the end products they produce after digestion and assimilation are very alkaline so, lemons are alkaline forming in the body. Likewise, meat will test alkaline before digestion, but it leaves very acidic residue in the body so, like nearly all animal products, meat is very acid forming. |
ACIDIFYING VEGETABLES Corn Lentils Olives Winter SquashACIDIFYING FRUITS Blueberries Canned or Glazed Fruits Cranberries Currants Plums** Prunes** ACIDIFYING GRAINS, GRAIN PRODUCTS ACIDIFYING BEANS & LEGUMES ACIDIFYING DAIRY ACIDIFYING NUTS & BUTTERS ACIDIFYING ANIMAL PROTEIN ACIDIFYING FATS & OILS ACIDIFYING SWEETENERS ACIDIFYING ALCOHOL ACIDIFYING OTHER FOODS ACIDIFYING DRUGS & CHEMICALS ACIDIFYING JUNK FOOD ** These foods leave an alkaline ash but have an acidifying effect on the body. |
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