The Tricky Acidic Foods You Thought Were Good for You

 


One reason it’s so hard to stay healthy and fit these days is that there are so many foods that trick you into thinking they are good for you.

They hide yucky ingredients, add in extra sugar and table salt, and fill you up with acidic glue, all while making big claims about helping you lose weight, being organic, or otherwise healthy.

If you look past the fancy packaging, what you find is dressed-up junk food!

And the number one offender that makes otherwise okay foods bad for you is SUGAR.

The SAD diet, or Standard American Diet, is so loaded with sugar, even in foods we don’t think of as sugary like whole grain breads, bagels, pasta sauce, and fruit.

But it doesn’t matter. To your body, sugar is sugar!

It doesn’t matter if we think of it as “natural sugar” or “processed sugar.” Once we eat it, it all gets treated the same.

Do you struggle with sugar cravings?

Well take that craving and multiply it by 1,000 and that was me growing up and well into my 20s. I could eat bags of candy and boxes of cereal at a time.

Looking back, I see an undeniable link between my massive intake of sugar over the years and my chronic ear infections as a kid, migraine headaches, IBS, and many physical injuries I suffered as a soccer player. This is what life was like for as long as I can remember, but it never stopped me from doing the things I was so passionate about like my soccer career.

But over time it began to take its toll, and I tried every fad diet you can think of to try to beat this powerful addiction and all of the health consequences it caused…

Nothing worked. Whenever I tried to quit sugar, my will power only got me so far and it never sustained itself. Why?

I always associated stopping sugar with pain.

Sugar is more addictive than cocaine, and is one of the most acidic substances you can put in your body.

Unless you hit rock bottom, associating pain with a behavior change, especially overcoming sugar, doesn’t work. Finally, I realized there had to be a better way.


When I first heard about the alkaline diet, my diet consisted of 70/30 in favor of foods loaded with sugar and acid. But something about what I heard CLICKED…

Has that ever happened in your life, when you hear something and you know it’s just right? The health and energy changes I experienced weren’t overnight and it took a lot of trial and error.

Rather than depriving myself of sugar, I started to alkalize my body, starting with a green drink. Continuing with the green drinks, I added wheat grass and mineral salts.

One by one, by adding and not taking away, eventually the good outweighed the bad, and in 6 month’s time, I lost 40 pounds, had more energy than I had in my early 20s, and my cravings went away, SMASHING my addiction to sugar!

Since then, I have been able to transform my mindset about food. And I’ve seen so many other people experience the same transformation.

Food is fuel, rather than a craving or addiction.

I tell you this before we run through this list of acidic foods to impress upon you that the moment you commit to alkalizing and adding rather than detracting – your life will never be the same.

Take a minute to read through these top 10 acid-forming foods that might fool you into thinking they’re good for you. As you do, think about how they might be sneaking into your diet in ways you even consider healthy.

  1. Lean Animal Proteins

For decades, chicken has been marketed and sold to us as a healthy alternative to red meat. Now with a proliferation of meat-heavy diets like keto, paleo, and low-carb, lean animal proteins are one food few people question being healthy.

But the problem with chicken and other poultry products is that they are so high in ARA omega-6 fatty acids, which are long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids called Arachidonic acid.

Research shows the average American has 19 times more pro-inflammatory omega-6 fats than anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats in their system at any given time. Chicken is one of the big culprits behind the disastrous 19:1 average ratio we commonly have today.

That ratio should not be anywhere near 19:1! A 1:1 ratio is ideal, less than 4:1 is acceptable, but 19:1 is way out of whack.

Opt for plant-based protein sources instead like tree nuts, nut butters, and seeds instead of poultry and other acidic animal proteins. 

  1. Peanuts and Peanut Butter

I just recommended nuts and nut butters, but there’s one nut I NEVER recommend you eat, and that’s the peanut. Of course, the peanut isn’t a nut at all, but a legume.

Peanuts contain 21 forms of aflatoxin, a cancer-causing fungus. Because peanuts grow underground in soft, permeable shells, they commonly become contaminated with aflatoxin. Even if they didn’t get exposed underground, mold can grow during the shipping and storage process that brings peanuts to your table.

The World Health Organization stated that “aflatoxins pose a serious health risk to humans,” and that “most human exposure comes from nuts and grains.”

Stick with almond and cashew butter and raw tree nuts instead.  

  1. Yogurt

In the US, most of us have bought into the highly funded marketing campaigns claiming that dairy is healthy – hook, line, and sinker. But the US dairy industry has invested millions into spreading these unfounded claims.

If cow’s milk products were a good source of calcium like we’re told, why would dairy consumers have such high rates of osteoporosis and bone fractures? People believe milk makes bones strong. The fact is, it leaches calcium from bones.

If you’re going to eat yogurt, an unsweetened organic Greek yogurt with no artificial ingredients or sweeteners is probably the way to go. But that doesn’t mean you should go there. Even Greek yogurt is made from cow’s milk, so even if it’s less acidic than the sugary kind, it’s still HIGHLY acid-forming.

Opt for So Delicious brand’s unsweetened coconut yogurt instead if you’re craving yogurt.

  1. Fruit

It’s not that fruit is BAD for you. After all, it is high in vitamins and minerals. It’s that sugar is bad for you. And most fruits are high in sugar.

So you really want to minimize sugary fruits you eat, and when you do, balance them out with healthy, plant-based fats and greens so that your body digests the sugar over a long period of time, preventing sugar overload. The goal is to work your way toward only needing a green apple, a pear, a few berries, or no sweet fruit at all.

  1. Carbonated Water

The one thing carbonated water does have going for it is that it sugar free and does not contain artificial sweeteners, so I’ve got to give it credit for that.

But that’s part of the problem. People think they’re making a good choice when they drink sparkling water instead of soda or diet soda. However, all carbonated drinks are acidic. It takes around 20 glasses of water to neutralize the acid in ONE sparkling water!

If you are going to drink the occasional Perrier or La Croix, make it a special treat as part of the 80/20 lifestyle, not a regular thing, and follow it up with a glass of water with Alkamind Daily Minerals.  And instead of needing 20 glasses of water, 1 scoop of Daily Minerals will neutralize all of that acid, plus leave you with some mineral reserves.

  1. Vinegar

What could be wrong with vinegar? It’s low in calories, doesn’t contain sugar, and tastes great on salads, right? 

What many people don’t realize about vinegar is that it is fermented. Just like other fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi, vinegar contains a high amount of yeast, an opportunistic parasite that makes vinegar highly acidic to your body.

I recommend you avoid using vinegar in favor of lemon or lime juice in your salad dressings. It’s a great tasting, highly alkaline alternative. 

  1. Brown Rice

Here’s all you need to know about rice… It contains dangerous levels of arsenic! In fact, Consumer Reports revealed that people who ate a diet that included rice were 44% more likely to have arsenic levels in their blood, and it disproportionally affected certain ethnic groups including Latino and Asian people.  

Both brown and white rice contain arsenic, but it might shock you to know that of the two, brown rice has 80 times more arsenic than white rice! So avoid this seemingly healthy food altogether.

Opt for quinoa, which is a seed and not a grain at all, instead.

  1. Wheat Bread

Did you know that your typical grocery store bread contains sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup, artificial ingredients, and preservatives.

Not only that, but the modern way of processing wheat leads to something called antinutrients, which means they prevent the body from absorbing any of the so-called nutrients in the wheat product (there aren’t any to speak of, even though some will claim otherwise). Your body can’t actually get them because antinutrients prevent absorption.  And even worse, they can lead to food intolerances even for those of us with healthy guts. 

It gets worse. All grains, including wheat, have the ability to become contaminated with fungal mycotoxins (a cancer causing fungus just like the peanuts above). This is why you need to avoid all grains!

Then there’s gluten, which is GLUE to your microbiome! Gluten causes leaky gut, creating craters in your small intestine, allowing toxins, yeast, mold, and fungus to leak into your blood, causing massive amounts of inflammation, acidity, and auto-immune issues.

Fortunately, there’s an easy alternative. Ezekiel bread is available in the freezer section at just about every grocery store these days. Unlike most gluten products, Ezekiel bread is a gluten food that’s actually BETTER for you.

It utilizes sprouted grains and traditional processing methods to decrease the anti-nutrients and the amount of gluten (very minimal). It also contains no sweeteners, preservatives (hence it being frozen), or artificial anything.

If you haven’t tried it, Ezekiel bread tastes just like regular bread after a few minutes in the toaster. I’ve got more info and a few ways to enjoy it here.

  1. Red wine

Red wine is high in minerals and antioxidants but also high in sugar and yeast!

If you think yeast is not a problem for you, you need to think again. In the last 200 live blood samples I’ve collected from patients, I found yeast in 100% of them. And yeast should NEVER be in your blood.

Back to wine… When you compare red wine to white wine, they’re by and large the same when it comes to how acid-forming they are. They both are high in sugar and minerals so they’re both mildly acidic. The difference is that while red wine has far more antioxidants than white, white wine has fewer sulfites, additives that preserve the shelf life of the wine. Many people have a bad reaction to sulfites due to intolerance.

If you’re going to drink wine, you want to choose organic, sulfite-free, and dry and crisp rather than sweet or dessert wines. Better yet, drink clear liquor such as gin, tequila, or vodka made from grapes.

  1. Coffee

While there are a lot of good health benefits to coffee, it comes with one HUGE downside – it’s loaded with ACIDS that DRAIN you of the minerals you need to perform, mentally and physically.

The acid in coffee is inflammatory, and is damaging to nearly every body part it comes into contact with from your teeth, which it strips of natural enamel, to your digestive tract, which leads to heartburn and IBS symptoms, to your brain, causing migraines.

In fact, a recent research study revealed that 1 cup of coffee increases the inflammation in your body by 54%, and that’s in healthy individuals!

What’s worse, coffee actually DRAINS your energy, and leaves you wanting more, which is a vicious cycle that ensures you’re tired all the time.

If you suffer from acid reflux or heartburn, you already know what most people don’t about how coffee affects digestion. It exacerbates reflux symptoms, and yet, for so many reflux sufferers, they just can’t stop drinking their morning joe!

I get it. I’m not a coffee drinker but I do know that deprivation NEVER works when it comes to changing something in your life, no matter what that change may be. 84% of you reading this LOVE YOUR morning ritual, so I set out to find a way to help you GET OFF YOUR ACID!

In fact, I was inspired by Kelly Ripa to create this product. In 2015, she did my 7-Day Alkaline Cleanse, and she said it “CHANGED MY LIFE.”  Bu then she told her audience, “But I’m not giving up my coffee!”

I learned so much from Kelly that day, and ever since she said that, I know we needed a solution to this HUGE problem, especially if you have reflux. We launched the product last year, and being a green juice guy, I didn’t know much about the coffee industry.  Some loved it, some hated it…it wasn’t good enough!

So I went back to the drawing board to make it taste better, dissolve faster, and get rid of the ALL THE ACID!  I had people like Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest test it for a few months, and they even had it in their coffee on the show!  Check out what Kelly had to say…

That’s why we created (this is a RELAUNCH, and a NEW version of this product!) ACID-KICKING COFFEE ALKALIZER, a powder alkalizing supplement that turns your cup of ACIDIC coffee into a cup of ACID-KICKING COFFEE!

Here’s what one DELICIOUS and FAST-ABSORBING scoop gives your cup of coffee… 

  • Acid-Fighting Minerals to help you GET OFF YOUR ACID!
  • Plant-based, keto fats (MCT Oil, Coconut Oil) to suppress hunger, and help you burn fat for fuel
  • Himalayan pink mineral salts to crush your cravings
  • Fat-burning enzymes to optimize brain-boosting energy, suppress hunger, and burn body fat as it energizes.

It neutralizes acid so coffee won’t cause acid reflux, headaches, or energy rollercoasters. 

If you love coffee, you’ve got to try our newest product! Plus it tastes delicious! Try it today in the following flavors:

  • Salted Caramel
  • Mocha
  • Vanilla
  • Plain

GET OFF YOUR ACID!

Dr. Daryl

 

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