Our pH is literally affected by everything we do, every chemical and toxin we encounter, everything we put in and on our bodies and everything we eat. Just the act of breathing, the digesting of food and physical activity produces acids. Air and water pollution, medications, and some of the not so healthy things we do to ourselves will challenge our pH stability.

Perhaps the best place to start for maintaining a healthy pH is diet. Eating is something we do on a daily basis and it likely has the most significant affect day in and day out on our pH than anything else. The key here is balance and taking care to combine mostly alkaline foods with smaller amounts of acidic foods. For example: acidic animal and fish proteins are extremely healthy to the human diet, but it’s always wise to use moderation and combine with alkaline foods. No doubt we want these foods to be as natural as natural can be. Nothing artificial here. By doing this we are initiating healthy digestion which helps the body in a variety of ways including the absorption and assimilation of healthy vitamins, minerals, proteins and enzymes. This gives the body what it needs to buffer acids regardless of where they come from and maintain a healthy pH.

On the other hand a diet that is overburdened with excessively acidic foods such as those that are refined and processed, laden with antibiotics, hormones, chemicals, artificial ingredients, etc. will be burdened with an initial toxic acidic overload. Furthermore this scenario will be negatively compounded by the fact that this diet will provide nothing for the body to use to neutralize these acids.

pH and digestion can be somewhat counterintuitive. For example pH is negatively effected by acid, yet the digestive system is dependent on acids for digestion. In fact many times people suffering from indigestion can add acid from lemons or apple cider vinegar to improve digestion and alleviate indigestion. When the body fails to digest food properly, the digestive tract becomes toxic and this toxicity ads to acidity throughout the body. This sometimes occurs when the stomach does not produce enough stomach acid. And again, without proper digestion the body is lacking in nutrients to offset acidity.

Some of the most alkaline ash forming foods that can be put into the body are: lemons, garlic, onions, aronia, peppers (especially hot peppers), any kind of green vegetables, cucumbers, ginger and radishes. Raw is always best. It’s also interesting to point out that one of the most acidic offenders one can put in their body may not be what you think. It’s not nicotine and caffeine although coffee is acidic and neither is good for you, most medications are highly acidic, and alcohol is acidic, the biggest offender is none of these. It’s carbonation. The pH of carbonated beverages is approximately 3. When we consider that a pH of less than 6.8 is lethal to the human body, that’s alarming. The body will literally ravage its’ own calcium stores in the bones to buffer that level of acidity.

For anyone looking to use the measure of pH to maintain or restore health, the place to start is with litmus paper. Litmus paper when placed in saliva will give the current pH of the individual. For those with a balanced pH all that need be done is to maintain good health. For those that are outside the desired range, the process of restoring good health can begin and progress can be checked regularly using this method.

Written by DMK of Seven Grains.