Do you eat a highly alkaline diet?

[jld]

What do you eat? Do you test your saliva with ph strips regularly? This is all rather new to me, and I'm not quite sure how to procede. Some of the foods are alkaline on one list, and acidic on another. I would like some simple guidelines to follow. Thanks for any help you may be able to offer.:)

[jld]

:bigear:

[Peela]

I think for a general rule for beginners, you could consider all fruit and vegetables alkaline, and all meat, dairy (especially cheese), and most grains to be acid forming.

 

Technically speaking, many fruits are slightly acidic.

We are talking the effect on the body, not the actual pH of the fruit. Lemons are extremely alkalising.

 

Almonds are the only alkaline nut.

 

However...there are many varying opinions out there and I dont like to get bogged down in details.

 

I use green juices to alkalise. I try to eat fresh and a fair amount raw.

 

Yes I did pH strips for a while. I was surprised- when I tried the strips a couple of years ago, I was pretty acidic, even though I would have called my diet reasonably healthy. Then after being on a high raw diet for a while (with lots of greens) I remembered I had the strips and tried them and was surprised I was right in the healthy alkaline range- and I really was feeling better, too. I haven't tested myself for a while (a bit scared to- the cold weather here is making me binge eat on anything and everything!).

 

I can really recommend The Sunfood Diet Success System by David Wolfe if you are really interested in such things (although it could be more than you ever wanted to know). However there are many other good books on the topic.

[Ester Maria]

We do take care of that (I married a chemist :D), but it's not really our primary focus.

We do use lemonades though for instant alkalizing after very acidic meals and stuff like that.

 

If you avoid processed meat and food where they added fructose (which rules out junk, salty as well as sweet), and consume meat and dairy in moderation, you will by default have quite an alkaline diet.

Purines play a big role in the whole process too. Try to find low-purine foods so that you have the stable mechanism of purines / uric acid in blood.

[Melissa in Australia]

I have never tested my acid level, but the dentist told me that I have a very alkaline body. I get a huge build up of tater, but no holes.

The dentist told me that he has seen small few people who have this, and they have a body so alkaline that it doesn't dissolve the tarter, allowing it to build up, and because of how alkaline their saliva is, they rarely get holes.

[jld]

Thank you so much for the replies!

 

Peela, I think I'm just going to try to stick to whole plant foods and call it a day. I am getting confused reading about which foods are alkaline or acid, as the lists can vary, and I just don't think I can do this 100%. Basically I'm eating baked potatoes and veg, raw or steamed, for meals, with plenty of fresh fruit. I can't seem to find ph strips here in India, so I guess I'll just have to hope my system is alkalizing. I'm impressed with the results of your raw diet!:)

 

EM, thank you for the heads up on purines. I really didn't know what they were before. Thank you for mentioning them, and thanks for your advice. I'm sure it's a blessing to have a chemist for a husband.:)