So… what can I eat?

by Shelley and Robert Young PhD

You may have noticed that the list of acidic foods is largely a list of common everyday foods ingested by most people. Isn’t it interesting that disease is rising in people all over the world? Cancer is up, diabetes has reached epidemic proportions, and inflammatory conditions of all types are very prevalent in our fast-paced modern society. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), AIDS, lupus, and arthritis are plaguing more and more women. Even mental disorders are on the rise—depression, ADD, and anxiety disorders are common place in most families.

So the journey we must all take is to find alkalizing foods and drinks and replace our acidic choices with better ones. We don’t have to sacrifice taste, texture or even calories. All we have to give up is some known toxic substances that are causing us to rot from the inside out. Once the body reaches a state of balance, it will find its ideal weight effortlessly. Losing weight has never been so easy. Many women who take just this first step to drink and eat more alkalizing foods notice an initial drop in body weight that is considered water weight. This happens, once again, because the body no longer needs to dilute the acidity present in the blood and tissues.

Alkalizing foods or foods which create an alkaline ash residue are vegetables—especially greens of all kinds, such as spinach, cucumber, lettuce, grasses, celery, broccoli, soaked and sprouted seeds, nuts, grains and low-sugar fruits such as avocado, lemon, lime tomato, and bell peppers. Raw foods are more hydrating and alkalizing, while cooked foods are less hydrating are more acidifying. Could that mean we really need to cook less? How convenient.

To maintain a balanced and alkalized pH in blood and tissues, the diet should contain at least 70-80 percent alkalizing foods, and no more than 20-30 percent cooked or acidifying foods. Our bodies are like the earth, which is 70 percent water and 30 percent mass. Therefore it makes sense to keep our meals based on high-water content foods that are alkalizing to the blood and tissues.