Why Are Alkaline Foods Important?

The alkaline forming or acid forming properties of foods come into play when your body uses them for fuel.  After they pass through your digestive system, you end up with an alkaline or acid ash in your blood, depending on what you ate or drank or smoked.  Anything that goes into your bloodstream affects your alkaline/acid balance, commonly referred to as your pH balance.  There are several different ways to measure your pH, but we are talking about your blood pH when we refer to the benefits of alkaline foods.

In order to maintain proper pH balance, nutritionists suggest a balance of 80% alkaline foods and 20% acid foods. Most people have this 80/20 alkaline/acid ratio upside down.  This can be a huge factor in fitness and should be thoroughly considered when seeking proper nutrition for athletes.

When you consume too many acid-forming foods and not enough alkaline foods, you leave yourself susceptible to numerous challenges, including, but not limited to:

• Stiff joints
• Brittle bones
  
• Plaque buildup in arteries
  
• Plaque buildup on teeth
  
• Unhealthy gums
  
• Bad breath
  
• Lack of energy
  
• Poor digestion
  
• More, colds, allergies, and illnesses
  

Your body is so efficient that it will not allow your blood pH to stray far from 7.4.  It will do whatever is necessary to alkalize the acid in your bloodstream, even if that means pulling calcium from your bones.  The last thing anyone needs in nutrition for athletes is something that causes a loss of calcium.  Instead, the exact opposite is required, and is obtainable with the consumption of more alkaline foods.

When there is a lack of alkaline food in someone’s diet to help manage that delicate blood pH balance, then the body has to pull calcium from bones in order to neutralize excess acid in the bloodstream.  You can easily see how that could cause bone weakness, and again, that’s the last thing you want in high quality nutrition for athletes.

We offer free nutrition coaching to some of our online health food store customers that are searching for the best nutrition for athletes, and here’s a response to someone seeking natural remedies for arthritis symptoms:
"Thank you for your question about a healthy diet to get some relief for arthritis symptoms.  Having had personal experience eliminating arthritic problems in my life let me share with you what has worked for me.  Please understand I am not a medical professional and would never pretend to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any diseases with my advice. In fact, I don’t believe that natural remedies cure anything. I feel that if you give your body the right nutrients, it will take care of you beautifully for a long time."

Having said that, I will tell you what gave me some relief, but first, a little background:

• Most of the cartilage in my right knee was removed 28 years ago, so my right knee is basically bone on bone.  Before I made dietary changes in my life a Doctor told me I had the knee of a 72 year-old man, and shockingly, I was only 39 at the time.  He said I would need a knee replacement in a few years.  Well, it’s been seven years and I just got back from a 3 hour, 20-mile mountain bike ride over grueling terrain in the Arizona desert, and my right knee feels as strong as my other knee, without any surgery or drugs. Other men my age can’t understand how this is possible.  I can only say the difference is that I understand the need for alkaline foods as part of a diet that provides the highest quality nutrition for athletes.

This is what I did: As well as eliminating many acid foods from my diet, I began integrating more alkaline foods.  Once I became aware of the need for more of these natural elements in my diet, I started to find more ways to get them.  It’s like what happens if you buy a blue car, suddenly you start to see blue cars everywhere. 

So, now that you are aware of this need for alkaline foods when searching for the highest quality nutrition for athletes, you'll begin to notice them as well.

Author Profile - Cliff Smith designed the Alkaline Food Test for visitors to his online health food store so that they may learn more about the benefits of alkalizing the body.  To find out if you are eating enough alkaline foods in your diet, take the test. You'll receive a free report that will help you figure out what to eat and what not to eat.  You'll also gain more understanding about the most powerful nutrition for athletes and the role that alkaline foods play.

***Feel free to reprint any of our original articles authored by Cliff Smith, but please include a link to our online health food store in return. Thank you!