The more acidic your body, the harder it becomes for your immune system to fight off illness, bacteria and even cancer.

How Does The Body Become Acidic?

It usually starts with unhealthy habits. Smoking, lack of sleep, stress and most importantly the foods you eat can all affect your body’s pH levels.Whenever you eat acid forming foods, such as dairy, grains, meats and sugar, your body has to use alkalizing minerals such as calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium to neutralize the acid produced from metabolizing these foods.

When you don’t eat enough alkaline foods to replenish these, your body has to use minerals from vital organs and bones to neutralize the acid in your body.

Because of this, your body’s mineral reserves can reach dangerously low levels and cause damage that can go undetected for years.

You Constantly Need Alkalizing Minerals

The body’s metabolism is constantly producing acidic waste products that needs to be neutralized or excreted in some way. In order to do that, you need to supply your body with foods rich in alkalizing minerals.

This is why eating more junk food than veggies can create an extremely acidic environment which is prime breeding ground for all sorts of negative health issues.

Health Problems Caused by Mild Acidosis

The Arizona Respiratory Center at the University of Arizona found strong evidence which shows acidosis induced by diet does indeed promote the growth of malignant cells and tumors. Here are few other negative health conditions associated with mild acidosis:

1. Inflamed and/or sensitive gums
2. Immunodeficiency disorders
3. Neck, back, and sciatica issues
4. Respiratory disorders
5. Excessive yeast and fungal growth
6. Chronic lethargy
7. Cardiovascular issues including vasoconstriction and arrhythmias
8. Excessive weight gain
9. Kidney and bladder infections
10. Increased oxidative stress
11. Premature aging
12. Dramatic bowel fluctuations, nausea, and vomiting
13. Bone spurs, increased bone fracture incidents, and osteoporosis
14. Mental fog, insomnia, chronic headaches, and/or migraines
15. Increased lactic acid, joint and muscle pain
16. Allergies, acne
17. Accelerated free radical damage

Balancing pH Levels

The body is an amazing machine and can autonomously balance its own pH level; however, it does so at a heavy cost.

For instance, when the body becomes too acidic, the blood will take alkaline-forming elements from the digestive enzyme systems of the small intestine. This now creates a less than optimal environment for proper digestion.

This is why dietary intake that is highly acidic can result in many disease and disorders. The body steals from one area to balance the pH which inhibits that systems proper function.

Test Your Body’s Acidity or Alkalinity with pH Strips:

It is recommended that you test your pH levels to determine if your body’s pH needs immediate attention. By using pH test strips, you can determine your pH factor quickly and easily in the privacy of your own home.

• If your urinary pH fluctuates between 6.0 to 6.5 in the morning and between 6.5 and 7.0 in the evening, your body is functioning within a healthy range.
• If your saliva stays between 6.5 and 7.5 all day, your body is functioning within a healthy range. The best time to test your pH is about one hour before a meal and two hours after a meal. Test your pH two days a week.

Note: The pH reading you get when you test your urine or saliva is NOT the pH of your internal environment, it is the pH of these fluids that your body is eliminating. Nevertheless the pH of the liquids which your body is eliminating is a useful indicator of what is going on within your internal environment including the status of your alkaline reserves. (source)

Which Foods Are Alkaline?

It is important to understand a few things about the difference between acidic and alkaline foods.

It can be a bit confusing at first. For instance, citric foods such as lemons and oranges are acidic in nature, but they are alkaline forming within the body.

Here’s a general list of foods to eat and avoid:

How To Improve Your Body’s pH Level

1. Check your pH regularly
2. Drink plenty of water
3. Remove acidic foods
4. Use lettuce leaves and collard greens as wraps
5. Avoid junk food or highly processed foods
6. Replace dairy milks with coconut or almond milk
7. Add green juices or smoothies to your diet
8. Exercise
9. Meditate to lower stress levels

Your Food Matters

There’s no doubt about it, what you eat has a direct impact on your overall health.

As Ann Wigmore, founder of the renowned Hippocrates Health Institute once said, “The food you eat can be either be the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”