Alkalize Your Way to Amazing Health:
The human internal ecosystem is stabilized by several different buffering systems that keep the body functioning at a high level for as long as possible. One of these buffering systems is pH. Our blood stream should be slightly alkaline at 7.365 at all times.
If it rises or falls one or two tenths of a pH unit it is catastrophic and potentially fatal to the body. Maintaining pH balance through proper diet and lifestyle that helps to alkalize your system is one of the most critical tools to optimizing your health.
Alkalize Buffering Systems:
The body has both short-term and long-term methods for buffering blood pH. In the short-term the kidneys will flush out more acidic wastes and the speed of breathing will increase to pump more alkalizing oxygen into the system and acidic forming carbon dioxide out of the system. If the blood pH becomes too acidic for a chronic period of time it turns to the various tissues to help stabilize the pH.
The body will naturally excrete alkaline minerals such as calcium from our bones & teeth. Magnesium is taken from blood vessels, potassium from our neuromuscular system, and sodium from our joints. If these minerals are not replaced, the tissues become weak and degenerate quickly.
Primary Alkalizing Elements:
The primary alkalizing elements in our body include calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, vitamin C, selenium, oxygen, zinc, and the various B vitamins. The best sources of these essential nutrients are in fresh organically grown fruits and vegetables, apple cider vinegar, certain nuts & seeds, & natural pink salts.
The most acidic forming foods include sugars, grains, grain-fed meat & dairy products, coffee, and processed foods of any kind. Perhaps the worst culprit of all is soda. Soda is loaded with sugar, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and phosphoric acid. These are all extremely acidic forming substances. Soda measures out at a pH around 3. This powerfully dehydrates the body as water is needed to help detoxify all the acidic waste (1).
Acid Forming Foods Create Major Problems:
When a person eats too much acid forming foods for a long period of time the body becomes deficient in alkaline forming elements and the digestive system becomes impaired. Food is then inadequately digested and mucous is secreted into the bowel to protect itself.
Chronic conditions can cause the mucous to become hardened creating a mucoid plaque that impairs food absorption. This plaque build-up lodges into the walls of the colon and becomes a breeding ground for parasites and other unfriendly organisms. This also sets the tone for the development of leaky gut syndrome and auto-immunity.
Healthy Microbiome and Your pH:
Parasites such as worms, fungal yeast, and antagonistic bacteria will steal valuable nutrients and secrete toxins and acidic particles back into the bloodstream. This multiplies the relative acidity of the system and profoundly lowers our energy and immunity.
This also causes excessive strain on major organs depleting them of life-staining enzymes and nutrients in the battle to maintain blood pH. This onslaught of stress on the body eventually leads to disease and death.
Fortunately, God created our bodies with an incredible ability to heal and restore themselves. If we begin taking action steps to move back into balance our body will respond and we will dramatically improve our health.
Improve Your pH With These 10 Strategies:
The following strategies will help you to reduce stress on your system, excrete acidic wastes, maintain key minerals and alkalize your blood stream and key tissues that need an alkaline environment.
- Super Hydrate: Drink ½ – 1 gallon of clean, purified water daily
- Lemons and Limes: Squeeze fresh lemon/lime in water
- Apple Cider Vinegar: Use Apple cider vinegar instead of salad dressing or other vinegars
- Pink Salts: Use pink salts (Himalayan & Redmond’s Real Salt) instead of other salts.
- Herbs & Bitters: Use oregano, dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, & fennel
- Green Drinks: Make a Green Drink everyday
- Eat Lots of Veggies: Try to eat 75% raw alkaline forming foods
- Take Time to Breath Deeply: Deep breathing improves oxygenation and alkalinity
- Move Your Body: Regular movement – such as walking, improves oxygenation and alkalinity
- Reduce Stress: Chronic mental/emotional stress puts us into fight or flight and creates more acid in our system.
How much Apple Cider Vinegar should I consume in a day?
There is no set amount of ACV you should consume in a day. You can use it on and off during the day. 1-2 tsp in water in the morning and throughout the day. Use it as a salad dressing and put it on meat or grains.
Thank you for this detailed information and the excellent way that you have presented it.
Hi! On the canned tomatoes (NEVER eat) – is that due to the can leaching? Would home canned (& home grown) in glass be ok? Or are tomatoes just bad in and of themselves?
Hey Becky,
Yes, canning tomatoes leaches out pthalates and BPA (if it is in the can) as well as aluminum. Very toxic. Organic fresh tomatoes or tomatoes in a glass jar are much better!
Dr. Jockers, do you approve of stevia and / trivia as substitute sweeteners? Lois
Hey Lois,
I approve of stevia but not truvia as that is a combination sweetener with stevia and erythritol. If erythritol is not labeled as organic, it is most likely made from GMO corn. I would stay far away from Truvia.
As always an excellent presentation. Thank you very much!
This seems contradicting to me but maybe I’m not understanding. It states add lemon to make purified water more alkaline, but the chart above shows lemons as a 2 on the acidic side. Then you have nuts in low alkaline foods but in the last chart show it in alkaline forming foods. I’m lost….
Susan, there is a difference between an acidic or alkaline substance and what that substance does to the body’s pH balance when it is metabolized. Although lemon is acidic, it causes an alkaline response in the body through the digestive process.
Good feedback Tim!
Great Dr. Kickers. It’s article this why I’m happy to have subscribed to your news letter for the last couple of years.
Sorry for the error, it is Dr. Jockers not Kickers.
Fredrick Browder
Hi Dr Jockers, after reading your article I better understand how the acid alkaline mechanics in our body works. So it’s important to eat alkalizing minerals from food sources to replace the minerals used up due to compensating for an acidic body from eating acidic food, right? Do you think alkaline waters are good to get enough alkali in our body?
Hey Peter, that is correct! Alkalized water can be useful but be sure to consume it away from meals by 30 minutes to an hour depending on your meal size as it can disrupt healthy digestion.