IN THIS ARTICLE
Balance your acid-base balance with an alkaline diet.
For more than 20 years, Ogaenic’s co-founder Suse Leifer has been working intensively on acid-base balance and has become an expert.
And for good reason: a balanced acid-base balance can minimize the risk of osteoporosis, fractures and kidney stone formation – and possibly influence diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
Sugar, alcohol, red meat, dairy products and coffee are to blame for hyperacidity, coupled with environmental toxins and stress. This is because our bodies are designed to function best in an alkaline state.
Learn more about acid-alkaline balance and how you can implement a healthier, alkaline-forming diet into your life . Of course, we will also tell you which nutritional supplements can support you in this.
To do this, we first provide insight into what makes us acidic and the basic systems and mechanisms the body uses to maintain its acid-base balance.
The pH value and its significance
Everything we eat or drink leaves acids or bases in our bodies. This is measured via the pH value. If the value is below 7, a liquid is considered acidic. At a value of 7, it is considered pH neutral (this is the case with water, for example); above 7, the pH is called basic or alkaline.
When we speak of acid-base balance, we mean the optimal state, which can be very individual in different areas of our body:
Human skin – if healthy – has an approximate pH of 5.5, making it slightly acidic to ward off bacteria and fungi that do not like an acidic environment.
The digestive tract ranks from 1.5 to 8.3 depending on which stage of digestion is in progress.
Human blood has a very narrow pH window of about 7.35 to 7.45, making it slightly basic. Even the slightest deviation in its pH value can have life-threatening consequences.
Because an optimal pH level at these points in the body is so important, the body has various systems in place to ensure that the acid-base balance is always maintained. Excess acids are eliminated, for example, through respiration, kidneys, intestines and sweat. Minerals are needed in part for this.
What makes us mad?
The following factors contribute to an imbalance in the acid-base balance:
- Too much acid-forming foods such as highly processed and refined foods.
- Insufficient nutrient levels in conventionally grown foods
- Too much meat
- Artificial sweeteners
- Too little fiber
- Poor chewing
- Alcohol and drug use
- Medications such as antibiotics
- Stress
- Lack of exercise
- Shallow breathing
- Too much sport
- Contact with chemicals from household cleaners, building materials
- Pollution and radiation (computers, cell phones, microwaves)
- Food coloring and preservatives
- Pesticides and herbicides
- Poorly functioning kidneys and adrenal glands
Symptoms of hyperacidity
If your joints hurt, you’re gaining weight, and you’re constantly craving carbs and sugar, you probably don’t have a balanced acid-base balance and are probably over-acidified.
However, the effects of too much acid on health are very diverse. You can see for yourself which of these may already apply to you. It is only a small selection, because to list everything would go beyond the scope:
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- Allergies and asthma
- Fatigue
- Frequent colds
- Headache
- Inflammations
- Joint and muscle pain
- Skin problems
- Ulcers
- Weight gain
- Cellulite
Acid-base nutrition
There are acid-forming or base-forming foods. But it is always about the property of the food when it is metabolized.
Indeed, there are some foods that surprise us. Fruits such as lemons and tangerines are among them, because they taste sour but donate large amounts of alkaline mineral salt compounds such as citrates and ascorbates to the body.
Likewise, there are foods that we would normally classify as alkaline, but which behave in an acid-forming way in the body. Cereals and milk are two examples. It is therefore not the pH value of the food that is decisive for the acid-base balance, but the pH value as soon as the food is decomposed in the body.
To ensure that your acid-base balance is always balanced, at least 80% of your diet should be alkaline. Our list will make it easier for you:
Since almost everyone finds it hard to give up sugar, an acidifier, you’ll find ideas in our article“Sugar alternatives compared, which sweetness is best?” Ideas for a healthier sweetness.
Minerals for the acid-base balance
Minerals play an important role in the regulation of the acid-base balance. They bind and neutralize acids in the form of electrolytes. They are key minerals that are electrically charged and provide our body with energy.
They are so important for our health that we could not live without these minerals for 5 seconds. This is because they are used in every single biochemical process, in every cell and every organ.
These minerals help regulate hormones, enzymes, amino acids and the immune system. They transport nutrients into the cells and waste out of the cells. They also keep the cells of our body healthy and functioning. And they neutralize acids and ensure the maintenance of acid-base balance.
The most important minerals that affect the acid-base balance are
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Hydrogen carbonate
- Potassium
- Sodium (but not sodium chloride, the table salt)
- Phosphorus
- Zinc (e.g. in Body Guard Immunity Complex or Beauty Base Skin Hair Nails Complex)
Every time your body neutralizes an acid through its buffering systems, a mineral electrolyte is depleted and thus lost to the body. Your body therefore not only needs a constant supply of these alkaline minerals from food, but also sufficient reserves of them in the body to keep its buffer systems working optimally.
This is the only way to constantly maintain the sensitive acid-base balance in the body.
Acidic foods and stress deplete many electrolytes and do not replenish the body with new electrolytes. This causes a mineral deficit in the body. If this means that there are no longer enough electrolyte reserves available for sports, thinking, illnesses and healing processes, the acid-base balance is disturbed.
The consequence of a mineral deficiency is a deterioration of your health. Because your cells then lack the vital minerals to do the disposal of waste. The cells oxidize and eventually die. The immune system is weakened and toxins and pathogens can spread throughout the body.
The body therefore absolutely needs the alkaline-acting minerals in order to survive. And any electrolyte or mineral deficiency means for him a disturbance of the acid-base balance, cellular dysfunction, weakening of the state of health and disturbed healing processes.
The Ogaenics Set Alkaline Minerals
It is essential for your acid-alkaline balance to maintain your health by eating a predominantly alkaline diet. In addition to proper nutrition, stress reduction and supplementation with essential electrolytes = minerals are the way to maintain acid-base balance.
In our set we have put together the optimal support for you: Organic magnesium and organic calcium.
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Organic calcium complex from organic red algae plus natural magnesium and vitamin D3ab 29,90 € -
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Calm A Lama
Organic magnesium from premium green algae extract for effective regeneration of muscles and nerves44,90 €1.076,74 € / kg
- Perfect mineral supply for your electrolyte balance
- 100% organic and natural
- vegan and animal-free (PETA certified)
- Made in Germany
- Every Ogaenics product purchased donates to environmental organizations to help solve some of the world’s most pressing environmental problems
If you want to do more for your acid-alkaline balance apart from nutrition to relieve your body, you might be interested in this article here: Detox: What you can do in everyday life to detoxify.
T. Colin Campbell: China Study – The Scientific Rationale for a Vegan Diet, Verlag Systemische Medizin, July 2011, ISBN 978-3-86401-001-9 (New edition of The China Study – and its startling consequences for lifestyle).
Richard Anderson,: Cleanse & Purify thyself, Christobe Publishing, 2000, ISBN 0-9664973-1-7.
Professor C. Louis Kevran, Biological Transmutations, (Magalia, CA: Happiness Press 1988) pg 20.
www.greenopedia.com/alkaline-acid-food-chart/