Here’s Your Quick Start Guide to the Alkaline Diet

January 10, 2019 Dr Daryl Gioffre 2 comments

Have you thought about going alkaline but you’re intimidated or overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information you need to get started?

If it feels like you need to be a doctor or have a PhD in science, I’m here to tell you that you can lose weight and gain energy with just a few minutes’ worth of reading and a trip to the grocery store (heck, you may not even have to do the latter with all the delivery services available these days!).

If you’re looking for a complete body RESET after the holidays, or you want to make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, get fit, crush your cravings, balance your hormones, or just feel better, THIS is the place to start.

This is not a crash diet, you don’t need to count calories, and yet, you will lose weight if you start eating alkaline. My approach and motto towards health has always been this and will never change - MODERATION, not deprivation.

It’s about fitting this way of eating into YOUR life, not fitting your life into a diet.

How are we going to make sure you don’t feel deprived? We’re going to add, not subtract. By filling up on the good foods your body craves, you’ll naturally stop craving the junk you’re eating now.

Believe it or not, soon enough, eating garbage will make you feel like garbage.

Let’s not waste any time. Here are the 5 steps to GET OFF YOUR ACID, accelerate weight loss, and feel better than you have in a long time (dare I say…maybe ever).

Step 1: Out with the Bad – Acidic Foods

What makes a food acidic? How acidic or alkaline a food is depends on 3 factors:

Mineral content
Sugar content
Fiber content

Take 4 citrus fruits, for example—lemons, limes, grapefruit, and oranges. You may think all of these are acidic because they contain citric acid, but this is not the case.

Three of these are ALKALINE-FORMING, and one is ACID-FORMING. Which one out of the 4 would you say creates an acid state inside your body?

Lemons, limes (2% sugar), and grapefruit (5% sugar) are very high in minerals and fiber, but low in sugar, so their effect is alkaline forming. Oranges (12% sugar) are high in minerals and fiber but also high in sugar, so they’re acid forming.

Top food sources of acid include:

Sugar – including high fructose corn syrup, agave, and natural sugars that you find in a lot of fruit. Sugar metabolizes to lactic acid.
Artificial sweeteners – the #1 most acidic, poisonous ingredient on the planet
Gluten – found in bread, pasta, anything with flour, and most processed foods
Dairy – all cow’s milk, yogurt, cheese, etc. Think milk is making your kids bones strong? THINK AGAIN! Check out this shocking article…
Meat – animal proteins including beef, poultry, pork, and some seafood
Bad fats – like the ones found in vegetable oils, canola oil, margarine, and processed foods
Coffee
Mushrooms
Peanuts and peanut butter – contain 21 forms of AFLATOXIN which is a cancer-causing fungus
Corn – You thought peanuts were bad! Corn contains 26 forms of AFLATOXIN. Avoid this and any products made with corn or corn oil, which is a lot of processed foods
Carbonated water – carbonic acid lowers the pH of drinking water, as it is carbonic acid, with a pH of 6.0, 10X more acidic than tap water.
Alcohol (find out which types of alcohol are better than others)

You want to gradually reduce these foods in your diet, in favor of alkaline foods. Keep reading for more on those.

Step 2: Become a Fat-Burning Machine

If you’ve struggled to lose weight or experience the diet yo-yo effect, this information has the potential to change your life. There are many ways to lose weight, but with most methods, it’s just a matter of time before the body returns to where it was previously.

If you want to burn more body fat, you need to eat more HEALTHY fats. The more fat you want to burn, the more fat and fewer carbs you need to eat.

Don’t be afraid—as you follow this diet, 50 to 75% of your calories may come from these healthy fats. Yes, we’ve been taught (by the sugar industry) to think that all fat is our enemy, and it’s true that some types of fats should be avoided, but the body needs healthy fats.

Wait, you say, Dr. Daryl wants me to eat more fat? But isn’t fat what I am trying to lose? And don’t I need to cut DOWN on my calories to lose weight? And won’t eating more fat make me fatter? No!!!!

Fat, as fuel to give you energy, is like a slow-burning coal. In the absence of carbohydrates, your body needs energy, so it begins to breaks down fat (dietary fat and/or stored body fat) to generate ketone bodies, or ketones, for energy. Ketones are a very clean source of energy and the ideal and preferred source of fuel for your body and your brain.

Most people, including you up until now, get their energy from burning sugar. So guess what happens when you reduce the carb load and feed your body healthy fats instead?

Weight loss! And the side benefit is eating more fat will keep you satisfied so you won’t feel the need to snack between meals. This is how you beat your cravings once and for all!

The healthy fats to eat more of:

Avocados (God’s Butter!)
Seeds – Chia/Flax (but NOT their oils which become easily oxidized)
Healthy Oils - Extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, MCT oil, black cumin seed oil, macadamia nut oil
Wild-Caught Omega-3 Fish - Pacific or Spanish wild Salmon / Trout / Anchovies/ Sardines / Mackerel
Raw Nuts – Almonds (soaked and moderation because high in protein) / Macadamia/Brazil (moderation) / Hazelnuts / Walnuts (soaked) / Pecans (soaked)
Raw Nut butters (not peanut) – Almond / Cacao / Coconut / Macadamia Nut/ Coconut
Coconut Meat, Shredded Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
Nut Milks (sans carrageenan and cane sugar) – Almond / Coconut / Hazelnut / Zucchini

Step 3: In with the Good – Alkaline Foods

In order to ensure the body is balanced at a slightly alkaline pH of 7.4, you have to eat about 4 times more alkalizing foods than acidifying ones. I recommend making sure that your diet is 80% alkaline and no more than 20% acidic.

If you make only one change, add more greens to your daily regimen. Greens are packed densely with essential nutrients like MINERALS and are highly alkalizing. In fact, if you look at many popular diets, as conflicting as they may all seem, the one constant is they all advocate eating more greens.

The good news about this way of eating is everything is on a spectrum; you don’t have to be 100% strict to improve your health. If you can’t quite get to an 80/20 split between recommended and not recommended foods at first, that’s okay.

When I first heard about the alkaline diet, my diet was the opposite: 20/80 in favor of foods loaded with sugar and acid.

Set goals to steadily increase alkaline food consumption: get to 50/50 alkaline/acidic, then 60/40, and then 70/30, and finally, 80/20. If you’re an overachiever, totally cool to go with 90/10.

Alkaline foods to eat more of:

Dark, leafy greens like arugula, collard greens, leaf lettuce, kale, mustard greens, romaine, spinach, chard, and watercress
Sprouts
Healthy fats (see above)
Lemons, limes, and grapefruit
Avocado
Tomatoes
Asparagus
Beets
Bell peppers

Carrots
Celery
Cucumbers
Eggplants
Onion family: fennel, garlic, green onions, shallots, leek, and of course onions,
Herbs
Squash
Cabbage family: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, radishes, rutabaga, and turnips
Nut milks (see above)
Herbs and spices
Seeds
Sea vegetables like kelp and seaweed
Beans
Quinoa

If you would like

Step 4: Top 7 Ways to Get Off Your Acid

So now that you know what to eat and what to avoid eating, it’s time to incorporate lifestyle tips in as well. These 7 alkaline activities will boost your weight loss, give you more energy, and stave off illness:

Oxygenate – not just breathing, but powerful, deep breathing is the #1 way to alkalize and detoxify your body anytime, anywhere.
Alkaline Hydration with Molecular Hydrogen – every day, drink half your body weight in ounces of filtered alkaline water, so if you weigh 120 pounds, drink 60 ounces. Add some hydrogen from my good friend Paul Barattiero and Synergy Science.
Chlorophyll – eat and drink more of the dark, leafy greens listed above, plus all-powerful wheatgrass, and/or supplement with a greens powder like Alkamind Daily Greens.
Mineral Salts and Supplements – Eat plenty of healthy salts like Celtic Grey, Himalayan, or Redmond Real Salt and supplement with a good mineral mix like Alkamind Daily Minerals.
Lymphatic Drainage – This means moving around the lymph, or liquid of the body’s vital lymphatic system by exercising or dry brushing.
Daily Detox – there are lots of ways to detoxify regularly: detox teas, safe cleanses, detox baths, infrared sauna, and more. If you ever join my 7-Day Alkaline Cleanse (we have our BIGGEST group yet starting this Saturday with my LIVE pre-cleanse kickoff call at noon – and cleanse starts Monday!). For more info, check out HERE!
Alkaline Exercise – low intensity workouts like rebounding, brisk walking, yoga, swimming, or tai chi are the most acid-reducing.

Step 5: Stress – The #1 Cause of Acid

Often when people think about an alkaline lifestyle, they are focused only on food and exercise. I am here to tell you that stress outweighs all of that a million to one.

Any time you experience stress, your adrenal glands produce stress hormones, which put your body into a state of “fight or flight,” and you become more acidic.

Find a stress reliever that works for you, whether it’s meditation, yoga, or walking, and make sure you get enough sleep, because lack of sleep is a top cause of stress.

So there you have it – those are 5 powerful ways to GET OFF YOUR ACID, reduce inflammation, lose weight, and feel better than you have in years.

If you follow those 5 steps, you’ll be well on your way to slimming down, being more energetic day to day, getting stronger joints, muscles and bones, and improving any and all digestive complaints.

With that said, if you want more information about how to make the alkaline lifestyle a success in the new year, my book is the perfect place to start. Get Off Your Acid: 7 Steps in 7 Days to Lose Weight, Fight Inflammation, and Reclaim Your Health and Energy is full of recipes, tips, and ideas to take you from sluggish and in pain to healthy, energetic, and slim.