Speaking of acid/base balance (were we?), you can purchase pH strips in drug stores and health food stores to test your body’s pH level in the privacy of your own home. But why would you? Well, let’s first go through a list of symptoms that might imply your body is sitting a little on the acidic side:
You might be acidic if:
1. You’re still tired in the morning.
2. Your sleep is disrupted between 1:00am and 3:00am.
3. You get frequent, severe headaches.
4. Your skin is oily, especially on the face.
5. You have morning breath.
6. Your hands frequently feel cold and damp.
7. You’re more sensitive than normal to cold.
8. You suffer from muscle pains.
9. The rear part of your tongue often feels pasty, and
10. You have a set of salad bowls that say “Cool Whip” on the side (oops, sorry…nope, that’s not acidic, that’s a redneck ;o)
The list goes on, but these are a few of the more common symptoms you might experience if your body has slipped to the acidic side.
Your body maintains a precarious pH balance every minute of every day, with one pH level in the tissues and another in the blood. The tissues in your body can flucuate between a pH of 7.0 to 7.5, whereas your blood has a much narrower range; between 7.36 and 7.42. Given our monumentous swings in eating habits, it’s pretty remarkable that our blood pH seldom slips below 7.36, and a good thing too, because if it does, we could slip into a coma and our heart could stop. Yee-ikes!
Acid-producing foods play a big part in altering the chemistry in our body along with an individual’s level of physical activity, living environment, and personal metabolic capacities. Stronger acids in our diet come from consuming foods such as animal proteins, while weaker acids come from foods such as milk and milk by-products, peanuts and peanut oil.
So, what’s a girl to do if she loves a well-done steak and cauliflower smoothered in cheese sauce followed up with a strawberry milkshake?
You can start by adding more sea salt to your foods to help your kidneys expel acids from your body. You can also consume more of the alkaline-producing foods such as fruits, vegetable roots, wheatgerm, millet and by-products, whole rye bread, fermented milks (kefir), whole grains, vegetable juices (which naturally contain sodium) and aromatic herbs such as parsley, chives, thyme, oregano, and rosemary.
Adding any exercise to your day that accelerates your breathing increases the elimination of weak tissue acids (i.e., from muscles) and contributes to de-acidifying your body through your urine. So drink that water and take that walk!
Have you ever had your pH checked? What was the end result for you? Did you change any lifestyle habits because of the result?