A chronically acidic body is the prelude to illness and disease – your pH level is your gauge!
You want to be healthy. You want to function at your peak performance. So what do you do? You exercise vigorously. You watch your diet. You get adequate rest. You try not to let stress get out of hand. But have you ever even considered checking in on your pH level? Do you even know what it is? If not, you should.
The pH level is one of the most important balance systems of the human body. pH stands for power of hydrogen, which is a measurement of the hydrogen ion concentration in the body. Our ideal pH is slightly alkaline – 7.30 to 7.45 Think of gardening – people work hard to make sure that the soil is not too acidic, or else plants cannot absorb nutrients properly at all. Well, your body is no different! The pH level can drastically affect the body’s entire metabolic process. In fact, next to breathing and sustaining a heartbeat, one of the most critical metabolic functions our body performs is maintaining a functional pH level.
pH level is a measure of acidity or alkalinity, and it slides on a scale of zero to fourteen, with zero representing the highest acidity, 14 depicting the most alkaline, and 7 is mid-range. Battery acid has a pH of zero, bleach is almost 14. Acidic foods like grapefruit and tomato juice have very low pH levels, while baking soda has high levels. Water is usually somewhere in the middle, with a pH of 7.
For ideal functioning of the body, it is important that blood pH stays within the range of 7.35 and 7.45, which is slightly on the alkaline side of things. When blood pH levels become acidic, an environment is created that’s perfect for bacteria or viruses to thrive, leading to illness, aches, and an overall lack of energy. How do you know what your pH is? The easiest way is to use a piece of litmus paper in your saliva or urine first thing in the morning before eating or drinking anything.
If you’re looking to up your peak performance but want to take the guess work out, consider a nutritional consultation – create a personalized nutrition plan or cleanse to get your pH to its optimal state.
As a general guideline, here are some acidic-producing foods and drinks:
- Alcohol
- Coffee
- Soft drinks
- Meats (especially red meat)
- Cheese
- All white flour products
- Sweeteners (except raw unpasteurized honey)
On the flip side, here are some alkaline-producing items to consume more of:
- Leafy Greens
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Wild rice
- Almonds
- Yogurt
- Soybeans
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Alkaline water
- Lemon water. Lemons are acidic, but once metabolized in your body, it’s actually alkalizing.
Food for thought:
An in-depth book on the subject of pH is “The pH Miracle” by Dr. Robert O. Young.
This site goes into more detail about where particular foods fall on the pH scale.