Skip to content
Today is April 15 – Tax Day, so I want to use this opportunity as a reminder about just how taxing acid is on your body.
It’s easy to get lost in all of the noise out there about health and nutrition. One so-called expert tells you this, one diet guru tells you that, and then a new book comes out and contradicts everything. It gets confusing and you don’t know who or what to believe.
But there is one thing I can tell you is true without a shadow of doubt: acid causes inflammation, and inflammation KILLS!
What separates the alkaline diet from every other fad diet out there is that it is based on a fundamental truth and science of the body, which is this: The pH of your blood, which is tightly regulated by your body’s elaborate buffering system at 7.4, is king…and your body will do everything and anything in its power to keep it there.
It is the most important number in your body…bar none!
Yet how many doctors do you hear talking about it? In fact, have you EVER had a conversation with YOUR doctor about the importance of pH?
Today we are going to talk about how acidity (read: TOXICITY), and all of the massive deficiencies it causes, is most responsible for the inflammation in your body, and why your health may be at risk.
So let’s break down why acid is so bad, rooted in science of course, so that you can have the back story on why the alkaline lifestyle works when so many other diets and plans do not.
Acid Is Corrosive
Let’s start with the basics. The pH scale measures how acidic or alkaline a substance is and it ranges from 0 to 14. A pH of 7 is neutral.
A pH greater than 7 is alkaline. Healthy pH for your blood is slightly alkaline at 7.4. For your saliva, pH should be 7.2-7.4, and urine, pH between 6 and 7, dependent upon how acidic or alkaline you ate, and the amount of stress in your day (the healthier you are, the less acid your body needs to eliminate, so urine pH will test higher accordingly).
A pH less than 7 is acidic all the way to 0, which will burn a hole through metal.So think about that for a minute…acid is so corrosive, it can burn a hole through metal, so imagine what that is doing inside your body, to your digestive system, your cardiovascular system, your muscles, and joints?
If you put a can of soda in a bowl with some raw chicken bones, in a few days, guess what you will find? Nothing! The bones will be gone because acid corrodes.
If the acid in a can of soda can do that to raw chicken bones, do you really think you should be ingesting lots of foods that metabolize to acid in your body?
Acid Wreaks Havoc
Everything in nature depends on a proper pH balance. Oceans should have a pH of 8.2 but increasing levels of acidic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have lowered it in many parts of the ocean to 8.1. As a result, coral reefs like the Great Barrier Reef are dying at unprecedented rates. There are lots of spots where all life is dying off in the ocean. And that’s from a change of just 0.1 on the pH scale!
The same goes for our soil, as any gardener will tell you. Your soil needs a proper pH and when a soil’s pH range is outside 6 to 7, your plants will die. Much of our food comes from soil that is increasingly under stress and acidification from things like GMOs and acid rain, which is in part why soil today doesn’t have the same minerals that it did 50 years ago.
You see, just like the ocean and the soil, your body reacts similarly to acid from stress and nutrient-poor foods and beverages.
pH Is Another Important Health Indicator
In your body, there are certain numbers that are key to your health – your temperature, your blood pressure level, your cholesterol, and your pH.
The pH of your blood is just as important as or even more important than numbers like your blood pressure. If the pH of your blood deviates by more than half of a point from 7.4, you will die. We all know that if our body temperature reaches 106 degrees, we’re in grave danger, but most people don’t pay as close attention to pH, even though it’s just as vital.
Now the good thing is that this number is always regulating itself, much like your temperature does to 98.6. So the purpose of eating alkaline rich foods like dark green leafy vegetables and healthy fats is NOT to make you more alkaline.
The purpose is to take stress off of your body’s buffering system so your body doesn’t have to work so hard doing all the regulating on its own.
Your Body Will Make Sacrifices to Fight Acid
If you were to stand on an iceberg wearing nothing but shorts, what would happen? Well, if you were there long enough, you would die. It goes back to that important number I was just talking about, your body temperature, right?
But before that happened, your body would start to shiver and would expend massive amounts of energy to generate enough heat to maintain that temperature. Next, your body would start to move all the blood from the arms and legs to the vital organs to keep you alive. Your body would sacrifice its big toe to keep you alive… But you’d better get off the iceberg!
It’s no different with the pH of your blood. If you’re eating highly acidic foods like sugar, processed foods, meat, dairy, artificial sweeteners, or coffee, they are robbing your body of alkaline minerals needed to regulate its pH.
For example, if I eat a steak, it contains three potent acids, one being sulfuric acid. This acid is so potent, it would burn a hole in your kidneys with direct contact. So your body will bind it to an alkaline salt (calcium, magnesium, potassium, or sodium bicarbonate) to make it a weaker acid salt that can be safely eliminated.
Acid-forming foods drain your body’s mineral resources and require energy to eliminate safely from your body, as opposed to having a salad or some veggies that are high in minerals and enzymes and low in acid. Make sense?
Your body will begin to deplete its own resources and pull minerals, which is your alkaline buffer system, from other parts of your body to neutralize all that acid in the food, just like that big toe on the iceberg.
What We Can Learn About Acid From Toothpaste
You might be wondering how your body could deplete its own resources to keep you alkaline. Well think about it this way…
Have you ever wondered why many toothpastes contain baking soda? Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, otherwise known as an alkaline mineral. It buffers acids from decaying your teeth.
It works the same way with the rest of your body. The problem with the way most Americans eat is that we pump up our bodies with all of these damaging acids every single day, and over time, this has an effect on our blood pH.
Without alkaline mineral buffers regulating its pH, the body slows down, and starts to look for minerals in your body to neutralize all that acid. It starts with the mouth, because there is a small reserve of minerals there.
Once these run out, your body will move to the big boys where you have more minerals reserves – calcium in your bones and magnesium in your muscles. This is why people often have symptoms like arthritis and muscle cramps from acidic lifestyles.
Toxins in Our World Make It Worse
Now it’s important we address another factor that’s making all of the acid we’re consuming an even harder pill to swallow. We live in a toxic world. And again, toxicity is acidity.
We are literally surrounded by toxicity everywhere we go today. In our environment, in our homes, in the products we use, and in the food we eat.All of that toxicity adds up in a bad way for our health, today and for the rest of our lives. Not only are our bodies desperately trying to fight all of these environmental toxins, but they also have to fight acid at the same time.
This is why your diet can either hurt your body and cause disease and pain, or it can help your body thrive. The more you eat a diet filled with alkaline foods, the easier your body will be able to handle the toxic load.
Acid Leads to Inflammation, Disease & Even Cancer
Without getting into a whole science lesson within a science lesson (you can read more about how acid causes cancer here), healthy cells need oxygen and unhealthy cells – especially cancer cells – thrive on sugar, which of course is an acid.
There is more and more scientific evidence coming forward every day that proves that acidic lifestyles lead to inflammation throughout the body, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
That’s why you can’t take any of this lightly. You’ve got to take care of yourself and get off your acid if you want to live a long, healthy life. Period.
One of the best ways you can start doing that quickly and easily is taking a scoop of Acid-Kicking Daily Greens every morning.
It’s an easy way to get your daily dose of wheatgrass, combined with 20 other organic super foods to give you a dose of the most powerful, alkaline foods on the planet in less than 30 seconds!
How else could you get 5 whole servings of organic greens to start off your day the acid-kicking way?
GET OFF YOUR ACID!
Dr. Daryl
