Why Alkalize Your Body?

There is a lot of controversy about the concept of alkalizing our bodies. While a precise pH balance is required to work properly, this balance can vary between your different systems. For example, our stomach will require a much more acidic pH balance than other parts of the body, while the latter part of our small intestine needs to be a bit more alkaline. Our kidneys, our lungs, our blood, etc. each will require a particular balance.

But then, can we talk in general about alkalizing our bodies? And if it made any sense to talk about alkalizing ourselves, we ask ourselves, Why Alkalize Your Body?

Next, we will try to answer these questions. But first, let’s head back to school to review a high school chemistry concept…

What is the pH factor?

The pH factor means “potential of hydrogen”, which is the value or scale used to determine a substance’s acidity or alkalinity level. The measurement scale goes from 0 to 14, where 0 is the most acidic level, and 14 is the most alkaline level. Also, the pH scale is logarithmic, meaning, for example, that a pH of 4 is 10 times more acidic than a pH of 5, and a pH of 7 is ten times more alkaline than a pH of 6.

Pure water represents the neutral value of the pH factor and has a value on a scale of 7.

In the case of the human body, the pH factor refers to the measure of acidity or alkalinity of a particular part or substance of the body. In practical terms, it refers to the pH of any fluid, such as blood, urine, or saliva, of tissues such as skin, hair, or other parts that can be easily measured, or that need to be measured for diagnosis or specific control.

Therefore, it seems inappropriate to generalize the concept of alkalizing our body, to refer to a single state of our pH factor. However, when referring to a pH factor of our body without specifying a particular system, it generally refers to the pH factor of the blood, which is representative of most of our body.

Regardless of the system of our body to which we refer, an imbalance in its pH factor is a problem that can seriously affect its proper functioning.

Our body regulates itself

The human body has been designed to self-regulate, so it can carefully maintain the required pH balance for each of its systems.

For example, the blood balance is around 7.35 to 7.4, which is slightly alkaline. This is also the pH of the cells in all of our organs that depend on the blood supply for nutrition.

If the pH falls below 7 or exceeds 7.7, our body will be very dangerous.  Fortunately, the variation in pH in our blood is immediately compensated through different mechanisms. For example, if there is an increase in the acid level of the bloodstream, we immediately begin to exhale more carbon dioxide, which reduces acidity. Conversely, if the alkaline level increases, the lungs retain more carbon dioxide, which dissolves to form carbonic acid, reducing alkalinity.

Obviously, for this balance system to work properly, all the systems involved must work well. If your kidneys fail and cannot remove enough acid from the body your blood can become acidic. The same would happen if your lungs fail and cannot remove enough carbon dioxide. This particular situation in which the pH factor of the blood remains acidic is known as acidosis.

What happens when we force the pH balance system?

Acidosis has been a controversial topic in conventional medicine. Acidosis presents some challenges to fully understand its complexity, to assess serum acidity accurately as the pH balance is in continuous fluctuation, and to test it in controlled research. However, acidosis has been clinically shown to have a significant effect on health.

Although, as previously mentioned, a failure in the functioning of the kidneys or lungs can induce an imbalance in the pH of the blood (and therefore in the rest of the body), our daily diet also has a significant influence on this balance.

For example, the Standard American Diet (known as SAD) is a very acid-producing diet due to high levels of sodium chloride (salt) and low intake of base-producing, alkalizing, plant-based foods. The SAD diet is a diet high in processed carbohydrates, refined sugar, saturated fat, and excess salt, high in calories, and poor in nutrients, which can lead to a wide variety of chronic diseases.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has pointed out that poor diets, made up of excess calories, saturated fats, trans fats, added sugars, and sodium, are responsible for high rates of obesity, overweight, and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). ), hypertension, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and certain types of cancer.

Although our body’s pH factor can momentarily fluctuate between slightly acidic and alkaline as it balances, a diet consistently high in acidifying foods can force the pH toward chronically acid.

When the pH balance continually turns toward acidity, the function of the kidneys and lungs may be insufficient to handle the acidity. As a result, the body can take alkalizing minerals from existing reserves in different tissues, for example, from bones or muscles, and can cause inflammation and other ailments, which can lead to disease.

In this way, chronic acidity has been related to diets rich in acidifying foods with bone degradation and osteoporosis. It also favors the formation of kidney stones. As the bones release calcium at excessive levels into the bloodstream, the mineral is more likely to be deposited in our kidneys.

On the other hand, there are some indications that the loss of muscle mass in older adults may be related to a diet high in acidifying foods, and that it can be avoided by improving alkalinity. One study showed that eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables was linked to better muscle mass in that age group.

So, Let’s Alkalize Your Body, or Let’s Reduce Your Body Acidity

Reducing the chronic acidity of our body and normalizing the pH balance is not complicated, but it can be a significant challenge for people. Being the diet the main cause of this situation, it is necessary to change to an alkalizing diet based on unprocessed fruits and vegetables, with less meat, fewer carbohydrates, less trans fats, and less sodium. Supplements like potassium and baking soda can also help neutralize acid excess.

Here are some recommended actions that you can immediately take into a daily routine that will give you great benefits:

• Start the day by drinking a glass of water with the juice of a freshly squeezed whole lemon. You can also add a small amount of baking soda. Lemons, despite being acidic, have an alkalizing effect when metabolized by the body.
• Add a green salad to your diet, with lemon juice and olive oil. Vegetables are extraordinary sources of alkaline minerals, such as calcium.
• Increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables in general. Sweet potatoes, asparagus, squash, bell peppers, and other vegetables are great choices. Prepare your dressing with natural components, and avoid using industrial products.
• Reduce your consumption of meats, including fish and poultry.
• Reduce the consumption of refined flour, including pasta, bread, and cookies.
• Reduce the consumption of dairy products and their derivatives such as cheese and butter.
• Use organic products. Industrially processed products contain harmful artificial additives and supplements with poor nutritional value.
• Avoid the consumption of sweet desserts and soft drinks, which are rich in refined sugar.
• Eat natural almonds, without additives. They contain a large number of alkaline minerals, such as magnesium and calcium.
• Exercise your body. Whether in the gym, at home, or walking around the neighborhood. Exercise helps the body in the process of eliminating toxins and helps neutralize acidity.

 

Conclusion

Whether the term “Alkalizing Your Body” is not correct or not widely accepted in the scientific field, the concept of reducing exposure to elements that chronically acidify our body is highly recommended.

Modifying our daily diet to replace highly acidifying foods with alkalizing foods seems like a simple proposal, which requires a very strong change in gastronomic behavior, and constitutes a great challenge if we intend to do it as a definitive change in our lives.

The benefits that a change like this can bring to our health are so great that it is well worth considering it as a short-term goal. Neither your body nor your pocket will regret it.