Acid Alkaline Diet Balancing

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What are Free Radicals?

 Antioxidants are chemicals that reduce oxidative damage to cells and biochemicals. Oxidative damage is akin to rusting.

A simple way to understand oxidation is to observe the change in color of a freshly cut apple that is exposed to the air. The flesh turns a brown color resulting from this oxidation. The culprit is a free radical.

Free radicals cannot be avoided as they are part of normal body metabolism. However, these can be kept in balance by antioxidants.

Researchers have found a high correlation between oxidative damage and the occurrence of disease. It is suggested that the consumption of antioxidant-rich foods reduces damage to cells and biochemicals caused by free radicals. This may in turn slow down, prevent, or even reverse certain diseases that result from cellular damage, and perhaps even slow down the natural aging process.

Molecules are composed of atoms bonded together. This bonding process is accomplished by the sharing of electrons. When two atoms come together and their electrons pair up, a bond is created.

It is a general principle of quantum chemistry that only two electrons can exist in one bond. Specifically, each electron must have opposite “spin” from the other. Like male and female animals, “up” electrons pair up with “down” electrons, and bonds are created. Paired electrons are quite stable; nearly 100% of all electrons in the human body exist in a paired state.

When a bond is broken (by radiation, for example), the electrons can stay together (i.e., both go to one of the atoms and the other atom gets none) or they can split up (one electron goes to each atom). If they stay together, the molecular fragments are called ions, and they are electrically charged (the atom with the electrons is negatively charged and the one without the electrons is positively charged). A good example of this is sodium chloride (salt) which splits up into a chloride anion (Cl–) and a sodium cation (Na+).

If the electrons split up, the atoms are free radicals (molecules with an unpaired electron). The unpaired electrons are highly energetic and seek out other electrons with which to pair and stealing them in the process. This electron “rip off“ is what makes free radicals both useful and dangerous.

Since most electrons exist in a paired state, free radicals often end up reacting with paired electrons. When they do so, one of the electrons pairs with the (former) free radical and the “odd electron out“ becomes another free radical (odd plus even equals odd). Only when a free radical pairs up with another free radical is the free radical terminated (odd plus odd equals even).

Antioxidants (also known as free radical scavengers) function by offering easy electron targets for free radicals. In absorbing a free radical, antioxidants “trap“ (de-energize or stabilize) the lone free-radical electron and make it stable enough to be transported to an enzyme which combines two stabilized free radicals together to neutralize both.

High Glycemic Foods Promotes Accelerated Aging

Over two thirds of Americans are overweight, and half of them are considered obese. Most of the remaining third of Americans are concerned about becoming overweight! While we are obsessed with avoiding food that is high in fat, America has the dubious distinction of its population having the highest percentage of overweight people of any nation in the world! England is number two!

One of the most common and harmful misunderstandings is the misinformation (lie) that we are fat because we eat too much fat. Though eating excess fat can contribute, the primary culprit for excess body fat and many degenerative diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes is NOT eating foods high in fat, but eating too much carbohydrates and sugar, and especially in combination with fat, such as French Fries and corn or potato chips. People on a high carbohydrate and low fat diet tend to be more unhealthy, carry more excess body fat and don’t live as long.

Putting the Brakes to Your Metabolism!

What creates excess body fat, more than anything else, is a high RATIO of the carbohydrates to protein and fat, and especially certain types of carbohydrates that have a high conversion rate to fat. When the percentage of a meal (not just for the day) is higher in sugar or carbohydrates (a long chain of sugar molecules), much more of that food will be converted to fat instead of being burned as energy (calories). The effect of this is putting the brakes on your metabolism, which results in lower energy and greater storage of fat. Obviously, this is NOT what you want!

Plus this sets up a vicious cycle of over eating. Once the carbohydrates are converted to fat, you get a blood sugar drop, which makes you hungry for more carbohydrates. So you eat more to raise your blood sugar, and the whole vicious cycle repeats! Soon, you’ve gained weight, and feel even more like a failure.

According to the Glycemic Research Institute, many of the “fat-free” foods are much more fattening than they were before the fat was removed, because sugar has been added (and often disguised) to compensate for the low fat!

This is because carbohydrates and sugar, and especially certain carbohydrates, stimulate insulin production. Insulin directs your body to convert the food to fat and store it as fat instead of just burning it as energy. To measure this fat conversion and storage effect, foods are rated by what is called the glycemic index. The higher the index, the higher percentage of that food and the other foods eaten with it, will be converted to fat, regardless of the fat content of the food.

So for an example, eating high glycemic foods like baked potato, rice cakes, corn flakes or cooked oatmeal which are low in fat, is more fattening than eating a juicy beef steak or a bowl of ice cream!

 

High Fat Conversion Foods

These are some common foods with their glycemic index numbers that are especially high on this index, and thus stimulate fat storage:

Common sugar (sucrose)—92

Macaroni and cheese—92

Potatoes (mashed—100; French fries—107; baked—121; potato chips—high)

Corn—78; pop corn—79; corn chips—105; corn flakes—119

Pizza—86

White rice—83; brown rice—79

White and wheat bread—101

Cold cereals (most). E.g. Life—94; Grapenuts—96; Cheerios—106; Total—109

Cooked cereals (e.g. Cream of Wheat—100, oatmeal—87 (steel cut is less)

Bananas—77

Most juices and all drink mixes and soft drinks (97)

Desserts (ice cream—87); donuts—108

Fat-free bottled “lite” dressings (due to added corn syrup and maltodextrins).

High fructose corn syrup—89

Maltodextrins—150 (added to many foods, but deceptively not counted as sugar!)

Did you notice that some of these foods are worse than pure sugar? It is wise to eat these foods sparingly. And when you do eat these foods, balance the glycemic index for the whole meal by eating low index foods with them.

Fat Burning Foods

Here are some of the foods that are rated as having a low glycemic index:

Fructose—32

Trutina Dulcem (a fruit sugar fifteen times sweeter than regular sugar)

“Super sugars” (glyconutrients)

Stevia—though not “approved” by the FDA as a sweetener, it is often used as such

High protein foods (e.g. fish, meat and eggs)

Most vegetables including sweet potatoes and yams

Beans—40

Salads—low

Avocado—low

Stone ground bread and sprouted grain—low

Barley—36

Rye—48

Most pastas—varies; spaghetti—59 (but very low nutritional value)

Berries—low

Cherries—32

Apples—54

Oranges—63

Peaches—60

Pears—53

Dairy products; whole milk—39 (there are other concerns mentioned previously)

Soy milk—43

Seeds and nuts—as low as 21 (peanuts)

Butter (in moderation—far superior to margarine)

Olive oil

Soy beans—25

Celery—very very low

 

Common Acid Producing Foods

(eat a maximum of 20% in your diet per day)

bacon barley grain beef blueberries bran, oat bran, wheat bread, white bread, whole wheat butter carob cheese chicken cod crackers, soda

coffee corn corn syrup corned beef cranberries currants eggs flour, white flour, whole wheat haddock honey lamb lentils lobster

macaroni milk, cows oatmeal olive oil oysters peanut butter peanuts peas, dried pike plums prunes refined sugar rice, brown rice, white

salmon sardines sausage scallops shrimp spaghetti squash, winter sunflower seeds turkey veal walnuts wheat germ yogurt

 

 

Common Alkaline Producing Foods

(eat a minimum of 80% in your diet per day)

Almonds Apples Apricots Avocados Bananas Beans, dried Beets Blackberries Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Chard leaves Cherries, sour Cucumbers

Dates, dried Grapefruit Grapes Green beans Green peas Lettuce Lima beans, dried Lima beans, green Limes Milk, raw goats Millet Molasses Mushrooms Muskmelons Onions Oranges Parsnips

Peaches Pears Pineapple Potatoes, sweet Potatoes, white Raisins Raspberries Rhubarb Rutabagas Sauerkraut Spinach, raw Strawberries Tangerines Tomatoes Watercress Watermelon

 

Foods and other things to avoid:

• Meat: organ meats, offal, meat extracts, veal, bacon, sweetbreads, meat gravies and broths, consumme/bullion • Poultry:  turkey, goose • Seafood:  salmon, mackerel, trout, cod, herring, sardines, anchovies, mussels, crab, shrimp • Yeast products:  baked goods, beer • Alcohol:  increases the production of uric acid by accelerating purine metabolism and inhibits its excretion by the kidneys.	• Coffee:  accelerates the breakdown of protein into uric acid • All fried foods:  causes a depletion of vitamin E, which can cause uric acid to rise • Cream and ice cream • Rich desserts • Spices • Pastries • Simple sugars, simple carbohydrates and saturated fats - they increase your body's production of uric acid and impair your kidneys' ability to get rid of it. Eliminate fructose (found in food and drinks, like sodas)	• White flour • Aspirin can raise uric acid levels. If you need to use pain killers, only use ones with ibuprofen. • Oatmeal • Whole grains • Caffeine impairs kidney function, which is needed to get uric acid out of the body.
Foods highest in purines   anchovies brains kidney, beef game meats (venison, etc) gravies herring (including roe) liver (calf or beef) mackerel meat extracts mussels sardines scallops yeast	Foods moderately high in purines   asparagus bacon breads & cereals, whole grain cauliflower eel fish (fresh & saltwater) legumes (kidney beans, navy & lima beans, lentils, peas) meat (beef, lamb, pork, veal) meat soups & broths mushrooms oatmeal peas, green pork (including ham) poultry (chicken, duck, turkey) shellfish (crab, lobster, oysters) spinach tongue tripe wheat germ & bran	Foods lowest in purines   beverages (coffee, tea, sodas, cocoa) butter bread & cereal (except whole grain) cheese eggs fats fish roe (including caviar) fruits & fruit juices gelatin milk (including butter, condensed, malted) nuts (including peanut butter) pasta (evaluate sauce ingredients separately) sugars, syrups, sweets vegetables (except those listed in previous catagories) vegetable & cream soups (made with acceptable vegetables, but not with beef stock)

There's a reason why the produce section is the largest isle in the store. We are supposed to fill our cart with 80%
from this isle alone, and just 20% from the entire rest of the store! (This does not include non-food items).

  

Testing your body's pH 

The color of the litmus paper indicates the pH level. Most litmus paper comes with an indicator chart showing colors corresponding to various pH levels. Alkaline states will generally produce a dark green, blue or purple color (most basic). Acidic states will range from yellow (most acidic) to light green. 

Salivary pH and urinary pH are significantly affected by recent food consumption and other factors, so it it best to test pH hours after meals or in the morning when you awake. We prefer to measure urinary pH since results are more consistent. Measuring urinary pH is a simple as placing a few drops of urine on the paper or dipping the paper into a sample cup of fresh urine.

It is best to test your pH in the morning before consuming foods or drinks. Salivary and urinary pH are affected by recent food consumption, so re-test several hours after eating, and additionally throughout the day.

A consistent pH measurement of less than 7.0 indicates that you are too acidic (values less than 6.2 show extreme acidity). This indicates that you should consume more alkaline forming foods.

If you find it hard to do that consistently, and your pH test strips lean towards the acidic side, you may well benefit from supplementing with pure Pearlcium® pearl powder.