Active people who cycle, run, hike, play tennis, golf, build muscle up, or do anything physical and want to perform at peak levels of fitness, have a choice to make. It’s a choice many never consider, but one of the most important choices for overall health and fitness. It stares you right in the face every time you eat or drink anything. The choice to consider is whether or not a food or beverage is going to help you maintain proper Ph balance, or is it going to throw that delicate balance off and leave you vulnerable to health challenges.
In order to maintain suitable Ph balance, nutrition experts suggest 80% of dietary intake should be alkaline and 20% acidic. The alkalinity or acidic properties of a food or beverage come into play when your body burns them for fuel. Consuming too many acidic foods, drugs, tobacco, sodas, cocktails, and coffee cause the Ph level of the blood to become overly acidic, therefore, out of balance. Too much alkaline food can also throw the body out of balance, but not too many people have that problem.
Here is a short list of foods that are acidic when the body burns them for fuel: · White flour, refined sugars · Dairy products · Meat, fish · Peanut butter · Chocolate · Nuts (not all of them, but most). · Plums, prunes and cranberries (surprising, but true, even some healthy fruits and vegetables can form an acid ash, especially over- cooked vegetables).
Here are some good choices for alkaline food to help maintain proper ph balance: · Almonds, Apples, Avocados · Bananas, Beans, Brazil nuts · Broccoli, Cantaloupe, Carrots
Most people have this alkaline/acid ratio upside down, which means the body has to find something with enough alkalinity to correct the acid/alkaline imbalance. A human being’s blood Ph level is meant to stay at 7.4, so the body is constantly working to maintain that level, no matter what you consume. If you are forcing your body to work harder in order to preserve that Ph level, how hard can it work for you when you are in the middle of physical activities? If the body has to neutralize more acid than it is designed for, where do you think it always finds a readily available supply of something with enough alkalinity to do that? The answer is, your bones. When the consumption of alkaline food and drinks is insufficient to do the job, then the body has to pull calcium from bones in order to neutralize excess acid in the bloodstream.
It is a nutrition fact that over indulgence in acid forming foods and beverages such as meat, coffee, alcohol, sugar, dairy, and refined flour products can cause a body’s Ph balance to be overly acidic. This can lead to all sorts of health problems, not the least of which is bone weakness. A calcium supplement may help. However, if the calcium is not from a whole food source, the body does not absorb it as efficiently due to the lack of live enzymes, but more about that in a future article. The best whole food sources for calcium are broccoli, green leafy vegetables, and other alkaline foods.
Ph balance is just one of many considerations when choosing a healthy balanced diet. Search the Internet for more alkaline food options and other choices for improving and maintaining overall health and fitness.
