I work in the health food industry for my gainful employment. In my efforts to help people with their diet and lifestyles, I run across a lot of wonky and extreme notions out there. One of the most prevalent is the PH/Alkaline diet FAD. Being a meat eater it is one of the warnings I get tossed in my direction most often it seems these days. The fact that I eat animal protein on a daily basis my body MUST be off the charts acidic to the point of bone disintegration. I see my dear sweet vegan comrades looking at me with sympathy waiting for my legs to crumble beneath me, while gobbling down lemon water and green smoothies by the gallons and avoiding anything that at one point had a heart beat like the plague of all plagues.
Now while I KNOW from my research this diet craze is all lemon infused air but I still did wonder what my battery acid body must be testing PH wise so I dug out a PH strip sample I had and decided to see where I was at. Now having NEVER done this before I have to admit I was a bit nervous. I spit.. because I did not feel like peeing on my own hand at 6:00am to light up this tiny strip of paper. At first glance I was shocked because not having looked at which color was GOOD, the dark color (because darkness is the opposite of the LIGHT right? Was my very soul in jeopardy??!!) the strip became was worrisome. I took a long calming breath.. happy not to have pee on my hands I reached for the brochure the strip came with. Turns out the lovely Teal color was bang on good at 7.2. Lovely lemon yellow while such a happy, unassuming color and the color of the lemons I should be ingesting by the bushel to keep me alkaline was in fact the bad end of the acidic spectrum. WHEW!
I them promptly made myself a french press full of my favorite dark coffee and threw on some pasture bacon and free range eggs.. the breakfast of choice for this PH balanced champion!
The thing is.. is balance. Our bodies need balance as does our PH Levels. We cannot be overly alkaline as the FAD lemonludicrousy diet suggest, nor can we be in a state of greenveggiephobe acidity. As always balance, common sense and discernment wins the day.
Here are some great articles on the subject, please give them a read, more importantly a share so we can bring some much needed light to a dark misconception about where and how to balance our bodies.
The Acid-Alkaline Myth by Chris Kresser Part 1 and Part 2
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The Alkaline Diet Myth: An Evidence Based Review
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3 Comments
Thanks Lana. This was very informative (and humorous)
My pleasure Lizzie.. loves me sum myth busting!
Thanks Lana. Very informative