Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Alkaline Diet: Improving Your Overall Wellness

It’s a fact that the American diet is acid-heavy and remains generally unbalanced by alkaline foods. Just take a look at any restaurant or fast-food menu, then note how much of it includes meat, processed wheat flour, and dairy products. This has resulted in a variety of health problems for many people, but once you know how to balance your diet with 60% alkaline foods and only 40% acidic ones, you’ll experience significant and widespread benefits. For example, if you suffer from muscle aches, fatigue, insomnia, depression, poor concentration, heart palpitations, or other related problems, the alkaline diet may decrease or even erase your symptoms. The first step toward pH-balanced wellness is to realize which foods and food groups generally fall into acidic and alkaline categories:
Acid-Forming Foods

Red meat – avoid eating steaks and hamburgers

Fish – seafood is also a protein that can form acid when eaten and processed by your body

Poultry – turkey, chicken, and duck should be consumed in moderation

Eggs and Dairy – keep your omelet, milk, and cheese quotas limited

Grains and Legumes – wheat is an especially prevalent culprit, and peanuts should be avoided as well

Alkaline-Forming Foods

Fruits and Vegetables (most) – some fruits and vegetables are more alkaline-forming than others, so try these to get started in the right direction: sweet potatoes, yams, olives, asparagus, kale, broccoli, nectarines, limes, raspberries, watermelon, tangerines, and pineapple

Seeds and Nuts – almonds, cashews, and sunflower seeds are especially good alkaline-forming foods

Herbs, Seasonings, and Spices – drinking herbal tea is a simple and highly effective way to balance out your acid-forming foods

Lentils – chickpeas, garbanzo beans, black-eyed peas, and lentils taste great in soups and are part of a healthy, pH-balanced diet

Planning Your Alkaline Diet

You may think that your meal options are severely limited by the alkaline diet, but even if you avoid acid-forming foods altogether, you can still eat well. Breakfast foods include hot cereal made from oats (preferably no wheat flour), fresh fruit, cold cereals made from oats and/or rice with almond milk, and fruit juices or smoothies (made with non-dairy products). For lunch and dinner, try soup made with lentils and rice with alkaline vegetables, vegetable stir-fry with sweet potatoes, or baked squash and steamed or sautéed greens. Remember, you can always add a small portion (2-4 ounces) of meat while still keeping your pH correctly balanced, but fish and poultry are preferable to red meat if you do this. Cashew butter on rice crackers makes a tasty snack, as does any combination of fresh fruits and vegetables. You can also enjoy fruit juice popsicles, fruit cobbler with oatmeal topping, and whole grain cookies. As long as you keep the proportion of alkaline-forming to acid-forming foods at 3:2, you’ll enjoy increased health benefits and learn to love freshly prepared meals with natural ingredients.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education, researching various online programs and degree programs. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

2 comments:

Alkaline Foods said...

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National Relief Network said...

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