How the Alkaline Diet Works?

The Alkaline Diet works by adding in more alkaline foods into the diet instead of just focusing on the modern-day diet of acidic and processed foods.

The goal of the Alkaline Diet is to bring the body back to its normal alkaline pH level.  After all, if blood is supposed to be slightly alkaline, it’s going to be better to have a diet which supports this pH level, right?

The Alkaline Diet works by giving the user of the dieter a list of foods to avoid or to cut down significantly as well as a list of foods which should be the mainstay of the diet itself.

Just like any diet, there are good and bad foods, but the focus of the Alkaline Diet is more upon finding a good balance of the foods which are considered to be acidic and the foods which are more alkaline.

What Is The Alkaline Diet: How is pH maintained in the body?

Most of us haven’t given pH another thought since our high school chemistry class.

It seemed to be a complex idea which didn’t really have a lot of basis in our lives.

However, if you stop to think about how you live on a daily basis, you can actually see examples of pH and how it helps you (or hurts you) in your life.

For example, when you have too much acid in your stomach, this means the pH is very low.

To help make your stomach feel better, you need to add something that’s the opposite of acidic – also called something that is basic.

This base will then help to bring the pH number up to a more neutral measurement, which leaves you to feel better.

The pH system is a system in which one can measure the acidity or the basicity of a substance where we can substitute alkalinity in for basicity.

The more acidic an item is, the lower the pH value on a system of 0 to 14.

Those numbers which are closer to the 14 are going to be less acidic and have more alkaline properties.

Make sense so far?

When something is neutral in terms of acidity or alkalinity, it’s around 7 pH.  Of course, this is the ideal measurement for neutrality and it is difficult to attain.

 

What causes acidity in the body?

Source: https://seancare.com/nw/how-to-restore-your-body-ph/

Our diets today are far more acidic than they should be – for our health and for our weight.

For example, drinking soda means you are drinking in acids like phosphoric acid.

As a result, you are going to have troubles maintaining the proper pH value in your bloodstream, especially if you drink a lot of soda or other acidic drinks (even orange juice is acidic).

When your body has significant swings in the pH of its tissues and fluids, then even more dramatic things can happen – illness, disease, and even death.

Just as you wouldn’t put water into your gas tank, you can’t put a lot of acidic or basic foods into your body without expecting something to go wrong.

And the more often your body is exposed to too much of one pH, the more troubles you can have.

So, it’s easy to see that pH is an important factor to consider when creating a diet.

If you’re not balancing the acidic foods with alkaline foods, you might have troubles getting nutrition in your body and thus this can lead to weight gain.

It’s only natural to have cravings for foods when your body isn’t getting what it needs.  But when your pH is in balance, it can be easier to fight off these cravings and finally begin to gain control of your diet.

Maybe your chemistry class was more useful than it seemed to be at the time.

 

The Importance of ph levels in the body

Pure water will have a pH reading of about 7 pH.

And that’s what 75% of our bodies are made up of, so that’s something that’s quite important to the way our bodies function.

If our pH is off, that can actually begin to cause troubles in the body.

Water is in every part of our bodies, so when that is not at the proper pH level, it can start making basic functions in the body more complicated and difficult.

It might become more difficult for the body to turn food into energy and into nutrients for various organs to use.

And when this happens, you aren’t getting the nutrition you really need.

If your body doesn’t get the nutrition it needs, you might begin to crave foods which can help you to fill in the gaps in this nutrition – or you might just begin to grab any food available in order to help with your nutritional stores.

But what you might not realize is that the body isn’t quite so simple.

In truth, each of the different parts of the body requires a different pH level in order to be healthy.

And it’s no wonder that many of us have troubles getting to the pH level we need.

For example, blood has a pH of about 7.4.

This is slightly basic, which means that in order for our blood to be ‘happy’ and ready to transport nutrients to our organs, it needs to have less acid in it.

But the current modern diet doesn’t fall in sync with this measurement.

How to make your body alkaline?

The food and diet mentioned in this article are very simple in the way it works.

First of all, what you need to do is to assess the acidity of your current diet.

You want to begin by starting to look at the foods you eat and how much of each you eat.

You will probably notice that you are eating a lot more acidic foods than you realized and so those will need to go.

But just because you’re eating acidic foods doesn’t mean you necessarily have to get rid of all of them.

Instead, you will want to look into finding a better balance between alkaline and acidic foods, removing some acidic foods and adding in more alkaline foods to help create a better balance.

The point of this diet is to encourage you to add alkaline foods to your diet, as once was customary in the food supply of man.

In doing so, you can begin to restore the pH level of your blood and of other organs in your body.

This will result in your body getting more nutrition, which is going to have a variety of health benefits for you and for your figure.

It just makes sense that finding a way to rebalance your body is a logical way to diet and to change your lifestyle.

After all, even though we might not be prehistoric beings anymore, we can certainly learn from their habits and their decisions.

Pros and Cons of Alkaline Diet

Not many of us have a lot of time to spare anymore, do we?

We seem to keep looking up at the clock and finding that days have become hours, hours have become minutes, and minutes have become seconds.

As a result, if our diet isn’t going to fit into our schedule, it’s not going to be a good fit.

The alkaline diet has pros and cons when it comes to the time factor and plausibility.

The pros are:

• Can make simple recipes – Most of the recipes you will find in the Alkaline Diet book are simple and can be made in minutes, or at least in no more time than you would have spent on your regular diet plan.
• Can make recipes ahead of time – You can make larger recipe portions and save leftovers to help you save time during the week.
• Recipes already gathered in this article – Since you don’t have to search high and low for recipes, things are a bit easier with the Alkaline Diet plan.
• Can adjust recipes you already have – Instead of starting with all-new recipes, you can adjust the recipes you already use each week, helping to ease your transition into a lower acid lifestyle.

 

The cons, but as with any good thing, there are some time problems with it comes to the alkaline diet:

• More shopping – Since you want to be in control of the foods which go into your mouth with this diet plan, you will have to head out and do some shopping.  This can take up time as getting produce and ingredients for meals might not fit into a busy lifestyle.
• Requires cooking – If you’re not already a cook, learning how to cook on this plan is going to take up a lot of your time.  This is not going to work for those who just do not have the time to spare.
• Convenience foods are not a part of the plan – Those who have families who are accustomed to eating convenient foods which can be made in minutes will not enjoy the time it takes to make foods as opposed to heating foods up.

 

While none of these pros or cons should make up your mind completely about the Alkaline Diet, it’s always a good idea to know what you and your schedule may be getting into when you sign up for this plan.

 

Acidic Foods to Avoid

No Sugars

One of the most difficult steps for many people to tackle during the transition to the Alkaline Diet is removing sweets and sugars from their daily routine.

We are a culture which is hooked on sugar, eating many tons of sugar in our lifetimes.

Even when we try to avoid eating too many sweets, we can still find ourselves we no other options.

High fructose corn syrup seems to be a part of nearly all packaged foods and is nearly impossible to avoid completely.

But sugar is something our bodies can not necessarily process the way humankind used to.

In moderation, sugar does provide energy, but when fruits and vegetables have natural sugars present, it seems unnecessary to add sugar as an additional meal ingredient.

The main goal of this step of your transition should be to remove as many processed sugars as possible from your life.

Look at all of the ingredient levels you can and see just how much sugar is already in your life.

Start by taking away one sugared food at a time until you finally find that you are able to enjoy natural sugars that are already inherent in natural foods.

Now, the trick is that you don’t want to ever veer from your sugar-free lifestyle.

Once you are ‘off’ the sugar, you will find that those sorts of treats are much too sweet and almost intolerable.

This is a good thing.

When your body ingests sugar, it has to spend a lot of energy breaking this down into nutrients it can use – and there aren’t many.

Most of the time, the body doesn’t need these carbohydrates and so the excess gets stored as fat or the sugar build up in the bloodstream, changing the pH and causing the body to be more prone to diseases like diabetes.

The good news is that once your taste buds begin to adjust to the no sweets lifestyle, you will enjoy the sweetness of grapefruit or other fruit far more than you might ever enjoy a candy bar again.

No Meat

Meat is something most of us eat on a daily basis.

We have been conditioned to think that all meals should contain some sort of protein product and some diets are even reporting that we need to only eat meat and a few vegetables.

Think about this: when the prehistoric man couldn’t find or kill animals, he went without meat.

And we as a human species are still around to tell this story.

So, it’s more likely that we don’t need as much protein as we think we do.

And what’s even more surprising to those who love animal products is that we can get just as much protein from plant sources as we can from animals.

Tofu and nuts are just some of the high protein options you can have when you are looking into a vegetarian lifestyle.

These foods can be prepared in numerous healthy ways so you will not get bored or feel as though you’re missing out on the meaty pleasures of life.

But there are other foods which can provide protein that your body needs without the animal having to provide the ingredients – seeds, for example.

Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and other seeds can all provide nourishment when added to meals and to recipes.

If you are someone who is accustomed to eating meat as a part of their daily life, start small.

Start by not eating meat on some days, then taking out red meat, then take away pork, then chicken, and then finally fish.

Of course, some fish once in a while can be a nice treat, but if you can completely remove meat from your diet, that’s all the better.

One thing to note – while there are a number of meatless products on the market today, this does not necessarily mean they are healthy for you.

Many of these foods are going to include even more acids than their meat counterparts.

Always read the labels of foods you buy to ensure you are making the healthiest choices possible.

 

No Dairy Products

Even if you can make the change to a meat-free life, many people will admit they can not imagine what life would be like without the cheese.

And, like meat, it seems that cheese is a part of every meal, so the dread of this step is not uncommon.

Dairy products are not recommended on the Alkaline Diet because they can stimulate the production of acids in the body.

The body has to work very hard to break down the natural sugars in milk and cheeses, causing the body’s pH levels to fluctuate.

This is not a good thing for creating balance in the body.

In addition, the use of milk in the diet is unnecessary and often considered to be illogical.

We are the only species which drink milk from another species and we are also the only species to drink milk after we are breastfed.

It is thought that milk is simply just a source of nutrition for babies as they are growing.

Once they have grown, there is no need for this source of nutrition any longer.

And thus, perhaps we do not need it either.

Many people in the world are actually lactose intolerant and don’t even know it.

They are having allergic reactions to milk or are simply impeding their digestive process because of their unknown intolerance.

Dairy products have also been shown to reduce the effectiveness of the immune system, which might also be the result of acid wastes in the bloodstream from their intake.

To help remove dairy from your diet, you might want to choose rice milk and soy milk to see if any of these substitutes will be helpful.

Many times, they are just as delicious (make sure to choose the sugarless kinds) while still giving you the creaminess that you might be missing.

 

Top Alkaline Foods

As with any diet you might choose to follow, the first thing you will want to do is to figure out what you can and cannot eat.

While you might have already begun to weed out the foods that are going to produce acids in your body, you also need to make sure to introduce alkaline foods so that you can not only balance your pH, but also begin to restore health to your life.

Vegetables

One of the primary foods available to modern man was probably vegetables in the wild.

Thus, it’s no wonder why most vegetables are considered to be healthy additions to the Alkaline Diet.

You can eat vegetables to your heart’s content, helping to not only fill you up but also to regulate your pH naturally and easily.

Try eating things like:

• Lettuce
• Artichoke
• Cabbage
• Peas
• Carrots
• Green beans
• Cucumbers
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Spinach
• Garlic
• Kale
• Asparagus
• Etc.

You want to eat any and all vegetables you can, focusing on the dark green leafy ones, if possible.

These vegetables will provide you with plenty of vitamins and minerals, while also helping to add variety to your mealtimes.

Of course, raw vegetables are the best choice to ensure nutritional content, but if you want to cook them gently, that is better than not eating them at all.

You will want to avoid processed or packaged vegetables as they are generally filled with preservatives and artificial seasonings.

Fruits

When you’re craving a sweet, it’s good to know that nature can provide you with plenty of options in this department as well.

However, though you can generally eat any vegetables you want on the Alkaline Diet, this is not the case with all fruits.

Some fruits are quite acidic in nature and thus when eaten in large amounts, they might upset the pH levels you are trying to balance.

However, there are plenty of tasty fruits which can be a part of your diet:

• Avocados
• Limes
• Lemons
• Watermelons
• Grapefruits
• Tomatoes
• Rhubarb

While this seems like a limited list, these fruits are the best supporters for your body and for its pH balance.

These fruits will still add some sweetness to your life while also giving you some flavors which are complementary to the vegetables you might have on your plate as well.

It is advised that you avoid all other fruits as they can increase the acidity in your blood a bit too much.

In time, you will not even notice that you are missing any sugary tastes in your diet.

Your taste buds will adjust and you will find that what is on the menu makes you feel so healthy you don’t even miss your old ways.

Drinks

One thing which hasn’t been mentioned for the Alkaline Diet is what you can drink – and you might not be too happy when you hear that your favorite morning beverage is not welcome.

Coffee and other caffeinated beverages (tea too) will need to be removed from your diet.

When you take in caffeine, it can add to the acid waste that builds up in your bloodstream, causing you to continue to have troubles with the pH levels in your body.

So these drinks need to be removed.

This might be one of the last steps you take when transitioning to your new Alkaline Diet life, but it’s an important one.

Start slowly, decreasing your caffeine consumption over the course of a few weeks.  This will allow you to avoid withdrawal and you can then begin to incorporate new pH friendly drinks into your routine:

• Herbal teas
• Vegetable juices
• Water
• Almond milk
• Unsweetened soy milk
• Vegetable broths
• Lemon water
• Green drinks

There is still plenty to drink when you’re following the Alkaline Diet, but it will all help to support your pH levels as opposed to making you feel worse or depleted.

It’s always a good idea to have a few drinks readily available so that you don’t have to spend extra time preparing your beverages.

However, since these drinks should be as fresh as possible, make sure to drink all that you have prepared within 48 hours of its preparation.

Water is especially crucial when you are eating as much fiber as you will be eating with this new eating plan.

In order to prevent intestinal gas and pain, the body needs water to ease the digestion of fiber.

Try to drink at least eight glasses of water each and every day, if not more.

This will also help you to flush out any remaining sugars and chemicals from the body which are interrupting your ability to restore the pH balance you need for optimum health.

Oils and Fats

Many people think that eating healthy means you won’t be able to eat anything with flavor ever again.

Thankfully, this is far from the case.

Though you will be staying away from partially hydrogenated oils and other artificial oils, you can introduce healthy fats to not only fill you up but also to help keep your body healthy.

Your body needs fat to survive.

You can’t live on a diet without any fat – contrary to what some other diet books will have you believe.

The fats and oils you can enjoy on the Alkaline Diet include:

• Hemp
• Coconut oil
• Borage oil
• Olive oil
• Avocados
• Flax

By adding these oils and fats to each meal, you will be filling up on healthy fats which can help to decrease your cholesterol and increase your energy and well-being.

Nuts, Grains, and Seeds

Protein and carbohydrates are not verboten when you are on the Alkaline Diet.

However, you will just want to look for plant-based sources to help maintain your pH levels.

Some of the best nuts, grains, and seeds to eat include:

• Almonds
• Sesame
• Flax
• Sunflower
• Pumpkin
• Buckwheat
• Lentils
• Spelt
• Any sprouted seeds

You can add in some of these foods to continue to have variety in your diet, while also helping you expand your cooking repertoire.

However, any seeds and nuts outside of this list (i.e. peanuts, cashews, etc.) should not be eaten.

They simply don’t help the body’s health and balance.

Acidic Food List

With all of the foods you can eat when you are following the Alkaline Diet, it seems that there are few foods you can not eat, outside of the basic rules of no meat, no dairy, no sweets, and no artificial foods.

But just to be safe, here are some of the foods you need to avoid completely, or at least as much as possible:

• Chocolate
• Fast food
• Instant meals
• Powdered soups
• Vinegar
• Honey
• Soy sauce
• Condiments
• Coffee
• Tea
• Alcohol
• Corn oil
• Sunflower oil
• Vegetable oil
• Pistachios
• White pasta
• White bread

Of course, when in doubt, it might be just better to avoid the food altogether.

 

Alkaline Foods Recipes

There are many pH friendly recipes you can use in your daily life, but here are a few you can make today to help keep you satisfied and healthy.

1.Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

Serves two

What Do You need?

• 10 medium-sized tomatoes
• 2 large sweet peppers
• 1 red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• A little vegetable stock

Instructions

Bring some stock to the boil in a small frying pan and steam fry the onion and garlic for a couple of minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients to a blender, puree, and then add to the stock.  Serve warm or cool and serve.

 

2.Cucumber and Watercress Soup

Serves two

What Do You need?

• 1 bunch of spring onions
• 2 bunches of watercress
• 1 large cucumber
• 1¾ pint yeast-free vegetable stock
• Salt and black pepper

Instructions

Chop all of the ingredients into smaller pieces and place into a blender. Add the chilled vegetable stock to the blender and blend. Serve chilled.

 

3.A Veggie Shake

Serves one

What Do You need?

• 4 tomatoes
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 red pepper
• 1 cucumber
• 1 avocado
• 2 broccoli heads and their stalks
• 3 basil leaves
• ¼ cup vegetable stock

Instructions

Chop the cucumber, celery, tomatoes, pepper, and avocado into large pieces. Pour the vegetable stock in a small bit of warm water.  Take the avocado and stock and put them in a blender until they become a paste. Add the remaining vegetables and blend until chunky.

4.Bean Casserole

Serves a family of six

What Do You need?

• 1 cup each baby lima beans, mung beans, and pinto beans
• 1 large onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 cups leeks
• 1 large pepper, red or green
• 3 tablespoons Bragg Liquid Aminos
• Pepper, as needed

Instructions

Chop all vegetables and place to the side.

Put all beans into a casserole dish and mix gently. Set aside.

Take the onion and garlic and steam fry them in a pan.  Add the black pepper, leeks, and Bragg Liquid Aminos and then simmer for ten to fifteen minutes.  Add the chopped pepper and continue to cook for a few minutes.  Pour this vegetable mixture over the beans and then bake at 350 degrees for ten to fifteen minutes.