(February, 2018) Here’s an easy way to fix your diet and improve your health. Select more foods from the high-alkaline forming list and less from the high-acid forming list (see below). Print out the list and take the to the market when you shop for food. Continue the practice until you achieve balance. You’ll find that it’s more a lifestyle than a diet.
This is an opportunity to improve your health in many ways. Bone health first comes to mind. An alkaline diet is basically a mineral-rich diet, and those minerals play a big role in bone building. Cancer prevention also applies, since cancer thrives in an acidic environment. So does infection. For example, it’s important to keep the urine pH high to avoid urinary tract infections (https://thescienceofnutrition.me/2015/07/17/beat-urinary-tract-infections-with-nutrition/). Fatigue is another condition relieved by an alkaline diet. Your heart and cardiovascular system will thank you as well, because the minerals and nutrients in an alkaline diet keep the blood flowing and the heart pumping. Avoiding carbs can also keep your cholesterol working properly. You can also expect to lose weight, since high-carb foods make you fat. Carbs also promote diabetes by stressing your metabolism. You might also relieve pain and lift depression with this regimen, since carbs tend to fuel such ailments, and nutrients promote healing. Acid-forming foods and sugar tend to compromise the gut and brain barriers, allowing toxins to enter the blood stream and brain, respectively. The list goes on and on.
There are enormous benefits from eating an alkaline-forming diet and reducing acid-forming foods. Consider that these are not the only healthy and non-healthy foods you’ll encounter. They’re just the most impactful when it comes to affecting your health. So take advantage of them.
High-Alkaline Forming
Apollinaris water
Asparagus
Blackberries
Burdock root
Cantaloupe
Celery
Chestnuts
Collard greens
Endive
Ginger
Horseradish
Kale
Kiwi
Kohlrabi
Lemon juice
Limes
Lotus root
Mangos
Mandarin oranges
Miso, tamari (fermented soy)
Mustard greens
Onion
Papaya
Paprika
Parsley
Parsnip
Persimmon
Pineapple
Pumpkin seeds
Radish (also Daikon)
Raspberries
Rutabaga
Sanfaustino water
San Pelligrino water
Sea salt (unrefined, grey)
Seaweed
Strawberries
Sweet potato, Yams
Tangerines
Tarot root
Apple Cider vinegar (also Umeboshi)
Vegetable juice (non-tomato)
Watermelon
Winter squash
High Acid Forming
Beef, Bacon
Bread, Bagels, Biscuits, Crackers, Croutons
Burritos
Cakes, Cupcakes, Brownies
Cheese (hard, mozzarella, American, Camembert)
Chocolate
Coffee (espresso only)
Cookies
Corn flakes (frosted)
Corn syrup
Cottonseed oil
Cranberry sauce (sweetened)
Croissants
Donuts
French fries
Fried foods in general
Hazelnuts (filberts)
Hops
Ice cream
Jams, jellies
Liquors
Lobster
Milk shakes
Mussels
Pale ale
Pancakes
Pasta, Farina, Noodles (white flour)
Pastries
Phosphoric acid
Pies
Pizza
Potato chips, Tortilla chips
Pudding
Quiche
Red wine vinegar
Salt, iodized table
Shrimp
Soft drinks, diet included
Soy (milk, nuts, grits, powder, flour)
Sugar, brown sugar (but not organic Sucanat)
Swordfish
Tofu
Veal
Waffles
Walnuts
White vinegar
-List adapted from Brown & Trivieri 2006 The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide
