Too much acid?

Do you ever feel bloated, weak and lethargic or find it difficult to lose weight despite your best efforts to exercise and eat well?

It could be that your system is too acidic to function optimally.

Many of your metabolic reactions require a slightly alkaline environment to function efficiently. Blood needs to remain within a pH of 7.35-7.45 (pH7-14 is alkaline). Your body does a great job of maintaining homeostasis so it buffers excess acidity with minerals like potassium, magnesium, calcium and phosphate.

The problem is, if your diet is low in these minerals your body will draw them from storage reserves which results in demineralisation. You guessed it, bone loss.

Furthermore, the loss of calcium in urine results in high blood pressure. The depletion of mineral reserves decreases the permeability of cell membranes which in turn reduces oxygen transport, impairs ATP production (ie. energy) and reduces clearance of toxins. Fat cells are made to contain the toxic build-up. Caloric restriction in an acidic environment favours the break-down of muscle tissue over fat.

All your best intentions to exercise and restrict your food intake face an uphill battle when your system is struggling to counteract acidity.

So what contributes to acidity and how can you consume the right minerals to avoid demineralisation in the body? Unfortunately, the ”SAD” (Standard Australian Diet) has a predominantly acidic effect in the body. Tea and coffee, alcohol, refined cultivated grains like wheat and rice, meat, dairy products, processed foods, table sugar, honey, fruit juice and tobacco are all acid-forming in the body, requiring alkalising minerals to buffer them.

As a general rule, most fruit and vegetables are alkaline and contain an abundance of minerals, especially potassium and magnesium. Not surprisingly, the SAD is also low in fruits and vegetables.

You might think that citrus fruits are acidic because they contain citric acid however they have a highly alkaline effect in the body and are fantastic to squeeze into water first thing in the morning to alkalise your body, especially lemons and limes. Concentrated fruit juices contain too much sugar to have an alkaline effect.

It doesn’t stop there though.

Stress also produces metabolic acids. You can see where this all leads now!

Adding more vegetables to your diet is always a good practice but sometimes difficult when you’re pushed for time – sorry, but potato chips just don’t count.

The quickest and most efficient way to alkalise your system is with green vegetable drinks.

Barley grass, wheat grass, chlorella and spirulina are highly alkalising nutrient-rich super foods. You can add them to vegetable juices, smoothies, avocado and bean dips (great disguise for kids!), basically any foods that are eaten raw.

To assist formulated nutritional powders which aside from the alkalisers above includes organic parsley and coriander powder to bind heavy metals and toxins, helping their elimination (great if you’re concerned about mercury amalgams or environmental exposure to toxic compounds) plus broccoli powder to assist phase II liver detoxification.

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If you have any questions about anything in this article please contact Tess.

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