We all try our best to eat healthy, lose weight and stay active. The main premise behind most of our healthy living actions is to prevent chronic diseases from occurring and one new trend is to eat a more alkaline diet. Most of us don’t even think our regular diets can be acidic or alkaline but there is evidence to suggest that eating foods that are too high in acid forming ingredients can put us at risk for chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Tumors and cancer cells survive better in an acidic environment, and they even produce acid in addition. This means that even people who have conditions such as fibroids may be consuming a diet high in acid forming foods
Acid forming foods have a pH of 4.6 or lower and these include sugar, red meat, corned beef and processed meats, dairy products, certain grains such as white rice and wheat, some high protein foods and of course processed foods, alcohol, soft drinks and sweetened beverages. Soft drinks and sweetened beverages in particular are very acidic coupled with the fact that they are not healthy for you. The acid found in soft drinks has a pH of about 2.5, while battery acid’s pH is 1.0. This means you can rust a nail inside a bottle of soft drink or use the liquid to remove rust and tough stains from your toilet bowl! In comparison, the pH of pure water is 7.0.
A possible solution to this can be the alkaline diet. This diet is based on the concept that you can improve your body’s overall health based on eating foods that are slightly alkaline. The idea is that acid forming foods puts your body under more stress in an attempt to balance its pH when it is metabolizing the food. This in turn puts you at higher risk for diseases such as brittle bones and cancer.
