Balanced Body
Chemistry
Understanding
pH
Have you ever
wondered if many of the diseases raging through our society have a common
source? Many herbalists and nutritionists now believe the explanation may come
down to two small words:
Acid and
Alkaline.
A Hidden Danger
High acidity can become a dangerous condition that weakens
all major body systems. It gives rise to an internal environment conducive to
disease, as opposed to a pH-balanced environment wherein proper metabolic
function allows the body to resist disease. A healthy body maintains alkaline
reserves that are used to meet emergency demands. Life energy is pH controlled.
The only two times when our pH is perfect (6.4/6.4), is when we are born and
when we die. Our body's pH shifts throughout our lives, but for optimal health,
we must strive to be as close to the center of pH balance as possible. It is
dangerous to be either extreme-acid or alkaline.
The Importance
of Acid and Alkaline Balance for Health
Virtually all degenerative diseases including cancer, heart
disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, kidney and gallstones, and tooth decay are
associated with excess acidity in the body. While the body has a homeostatic
mechanism that maintains a constant pH 7.4 in the blood, this mechanism works by
depositing and withdrawing acid and alkaline minerals from other locations
including the bones, soft tissues, body fluids and saliva. Therefore, the pH of
these other tissues can fluctuate greatly. The pH of saliva offers a window
through which you can see the overall pH balance in your body. Cancer cannot
exist in an alkaline environment. All forms of arthritis are associated with
excess acidity. Acid in the body dissolves both teeth and bones. Whatever health
situation you are faced with, you can monitor your progress toward a proper
acid/alkaline balance by testing your pH.
Understanding pH
pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution.
The lower the pH number, the more acidic the solution is. The higher a pH
number, the more alkaline the solution is. The pH scale goes from 0 to 14 and is
logarithmic, which means that each step is ten times the previous. In other
words, a pH of 4.5 is 10 times more acid than 5.5,100 times more acid than 6.5
and 1,000 times more acid than 7.5.
Your Body's
Chemistry
The body has an acid-alkaline ratio called pH (potential of
Hydrogen), which is a balance between positively charged ions (acid forming) and
negatively charged ions (alkaline forming). The body continually strives to
balance pH. When this balance is threatened, however, many unpleasant sicknesses
can arise. Because our bodies naturally use hydrochloric acid to break down
foods and nutrients, the optimal saliva and urine pH for our bodies is slightly
acidic, around 6.4-6.5. Most Americans are acidic, primarily because of the
standard American diet. All animal products, with the exception of butter, burn
to acid ash as a result of the digestive process. Most cooked and otherwise
processed foods do the same. While various parts of the body need to be more
acidic than others, the health of the overall system depends on it뭩 being
slightly alkaline. Cancer thrives in an acid environment.
Keeping the
Balance Right for Excellent Health
Your body is able to assimilate minerals and nutrients only
when its pH is properly balanced. It is possible for you to be taking in healthy
nutrients and yet be unable to absorb them. This is true because, while some
minerals can be utilized through a wider range of pH than others, all provide
their greatest benefits when the body's pH level of urine fluctuates between
6.0-6.4 in the morning and 6.4-7.0 in the evening, and the saliva stays between
6.4-6.8. For example, though the body can utilize iron while at a pH anywhere
between 6.0 and 7.0, it can only fully utilize iodine when body pH lies between
6.3 and 6.6. Thus, it is in your body's interest for you to maintain the best pH
balance possible.
The whole point of pH testing is to see if your body has
enough mineral reserves to continue to function properly. When those reserves
wane, various sorts of disease processes can, and will, set in. Your body works
continually to keep your blood pH at a consistent 7.4. If it drops to 7.2, you
will die-it is that specific. The natural metabolic processes that body cells go
through to generate energy result in acid waste by-products. This acid load the
body must deal with is compounded when we feed ourselves a constant supply of
acid. The body must draw heavily on mineral reserves to help keep the blood
alkalinized, thus depleting its supply. As reserves dwindle, the body will begin
to take calcium (an alkalinizing mineral) from bones. Osteoporosis, a weakening
of bone structure, develops. Arthritis and kidney problems are not far behind,
because of free-floating calcium the body must get rid of. The list of potential
health problems could go on and on.
Good health is built upon a diet of alkalizing foods-raw
fruits and vegetables. If you have trouble digesting them, try lightly steaming
them along with taking enzyme supplements and hydrochloric acid. Gradually move
toward more and more raw produce.
What You Don뭪
Know about Your pH Could Hurt You
From, Natures Sunshine, Stock no, 2836-1
High Acidity
in the Body
Most people who suffer from unbalanced pH are acidic. This
condition forces the body to borrow minerals-including calcium, sodium,
potassium and magnesium-from vital organs and bones to buffer the acid and
safely remove it from the body. Because of this strain, the body can suffer
severe and prolonged damage due to high acidity-a condition that may go
undetected for years.
Acidosis is a seedbed of conditions such as:
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Cardiovascular damage, including the constriction of blood
vessels and the reduction of oxygen.
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Weight gain, obesity and diabetes.
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Bladder and kidney conditions, including kidney stones.
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Immune deficiency. Acceleration of free radical damage,
possibly contributing to cancerous mutations.
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Weak, brittle bones, hip fractures and bone spurs.
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Joint pain, aching muscles and lactic acid buildup.
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Low energy.
High Alkalinity
in the Body
Though relatively uncommon, high alkalinity in the body
causes many of the same kinds of mineral problems as acidity. This condition can
cause the body to digest foods too slowly, giving rise to a toxic bowel and
urinary tract problems. A high-alkaline condition is considered to be dangerous
and generally takes longer for the body to correct than acidosis. It is often a
result of alkaline drugs.
An alkaline system can give rise to:
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Skin and liver problems.
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Parasites, body odor and bad breath.
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Allergies (food and environmental).
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Chronic infections and weak conditions.
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Constipation, slow bowels.
pH Imbalance:
The Hidden Cause of Disease
From an Interview with Senior National Manager Joan
Vandergriff, By Joan Robinson, Nature뭩 Field, Mar/Apr 2001:
According to Dr. Enderlein, a German scientist in the early
1900s, 밄asically there is not a multitude of diseases, but one constitutional
disease, namely the constant over acidification of the blood, which disturbs the
central regulation of the body disorienting it, all of which is only the result
of an inverted way of living and eating.?Hidden Killers, 1990
When the red blood cells can't give off oxygen, Joan states,
that is a major cause of disease, the real silent killer." When a person is
acidic, cells become poisoned in their own toxic waste and die. An acidic
condition also interferes with the mineral assimilation in the body. We need to
be at least at 6.0 for iron assimilation, and iodine will only assimilate at
exactly 6.4. Other minerals affected by the body being either too acid or too
alkaline are iron, chromium, copper, and zinc. According Joan, acid pH is the
REAL SILENT KILLER. It causes:
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Cardio-Vascular disease. Acids in the body damage the blood
vessels and arteries.
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Diabetes, blood sugar imbalances and insulin sensitivity.
When there is weight gain, the body is too acid. This can also cause kidney
diseases. (Joan maintains that the Atkins diet causes acid conditions to
increase in some blood types.)
-
Acid pH causes free radical damage and rapid aging. This
damage in the body causes build up of plaque (arteriosclerosis), which causes
heart disease.
-
An acid pH causes friendly microorganisms in the blood to
mutate and become unfriendly pathogens. It also causes low immunity. If the pH
is 6.5, optimal, you won't catch colds and flu.
-
An acid pH causes candida, cardiovascular disease, and
decreased oxygen in the system and blood.
-
An acid system depletes calcium and magnesium, which causes
cholesterol to stick to the arterial walls. It also weakens bones and muscles
and causes irritation to the nervous system.
밫he most important part of healthcare is pH. Whether or not
you understand it, just do it!!! What you need to understand is that harmful
microorganisms grow in overly acid tissues. In overly alkaline blood, harmful
microorganisms also grow. In pH balanced tissues, harmful microorganisms can't
grow! It뭩 as simple as that.
밃lso, it's not what foods or supplements you take that's
important. It's what you absorb! And in an overly acid or alkaline state, your
body can't absorb nutrients properly. Beyond 'you are what you eat?is 'you are
what you digest??/p>
Another important factor in pH is digestion. Inadequate
amounts of enzymes in the digestive system imbalances the body's pH. After 35-40
years of age, the digestion slows down and a person's body will gradually become
more acid, which speeds the degenerative process. So the older you are, the more
important taking digestive enzymes are to help regulate pH in the body.
A clean, clear river that is flowing along nicely doesn't
stagnate. It's impossible for it to. Only when the river is stopped up does it
become like a swamp, filled with noxious smells and decomposing matter. "The
body is like a river. Digestion begins in the mouth and should take 24 hours
from start to finish in a good-flowing, clear, clean environment. When the
system gets stopped up, like the stopped up river, the body also becomes like a
swamp. When the digestive system gets congested, it has swampy, noxious
conditions. That is why it is vitally important to keep the digestive system in
good order. When the digestive system is working correctly, then everything in
the body can flow correctly.", says Joan.
I particularly liked an analogy that Joan uses in regard to
our personal healthcare and pH adjustment:
Joan V: We tend to go along in life with holes in our tires.
FIX the hole in the tire! Don't just fill the tire with air and have it keep
going flat on you! That's what adjusting the pH balance of the body does. It
fixes the flat.
밠y brother-in-law nearly died. I suggested the pH program
and in 5 days on these products, his readings went from 5.0/5.0 urine/saliva to
6.5/6.5, which is a good balance. I took him off of all acid-forming foods and
used vegetable juices, and his hemoglobin count, which had been 8.7-a crisis
state-rose to 10.7, then 14, which is normal.
밠y son, at 28, had severe asthma and allergies, to the point
where he was hospitalized for four days at one time. After just 5 days on the
program, his symptoms cleared up. Now he knows what he needs to do to keep
himself well."
Joan says that in her health consultation work (because she
now fixes the flat instead of just filling the leaky tire with air), it now
takes only one week for her clients' health to improve in the amount that used
to take three months to do. Certainly, this is something to sit up and take
notice of!
pH Buffering
The body keeps the blood at slightly alkaline (about 7.4) and
dumps the excess acid or alkaline residue into the urine and saliva. It does
this for survival. If there is even a slight change in either direction, the
person will die. So the readings we take from the urine or saliva show what is
being consumed in excess. The body must maintain this level of 7.4 in the blood
by dumping excess acidifying minerals. Alkalizing minerals include calcium,
magnesium, sodium, and potassium. Acidifying minerals are chlorine, phosphorus,
and sulfur. Acids build up through normal metabolism. When acid is stored in the
tissues, potassium and magnesium are overwhelmed. Joan V: 밒f you are sick, you
need magnesium. Take magnesium until bowel tolerance is reached. (That means
developing slight diarrhea.) It's important to take magnesium!?nbsp;
What to Do
Joan V: 뱎H is the speedometer of the digestive system. (An
acid unbalanced digestive system is overactive, an alkaline unbalanced digestive
system is underactive.) You don't want digestion to go too fast or too slow.
Eating the wrong foods and having digestive problems are major causes of pH
imbalance. Eat the right foods! The foremost important thing is to eat right for
your blood type. Joan explains that it is important to understand that the
result of the action of a food in the body is what matters. The ash is what is
being read. This may seem a bit confusing. Lemon may be acid, but it leaves an
alkaline ash in the body. Meat is alkaline from the phosphate in it, but the ash
is acid, so meat is acidifying. Fresh orange juice has an alkaline ash.
Phosphorous has an acid residue and because carbonated drinks containing cola
have too much phosphorus, they are very acidifying. That's why carbonated drinks
are playing havoc with our society's health.
Test Your Acidity
or Alkalinity with pH Strips
It is important for you to test your pH level 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 6.0-6.4 in the morning and 6.4-7.0 in the evening, your body
is functioning within a healthy range. If your saliva stays between 6.4 and 6.8
all day, your body is functioning within a healthy range.
Urine pH
The results of urine testing indicate how well your body is
assimilating minerals, especially calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium.
These are called the "acid buffers" because they are used by the body to control
the acid level. If acid levels are too high, the body will not be able to
excrete acid. It must either store the acid in body tissues, or buffer it-that
is, borrow minerals from organs, bones, etc., in order to control and neutralize
acidity.
The first urine in the morning tells how your body handled
the food you ate last night. It is a barometer of what's going on in the body
and how drastically it may be adapting its various functions. Establish a
baseline by checking the urine in the morning following a typical evening meal.
If your urine pH is high after this test, it will begin to
fall if you add meals to your menu that are alkalinizing (raw fruits and
veggies). This may sound like the exact opposite of what you're hoping to
achieve, but hang in there. As you continue to eat a primarily raw foods diet of
fruits and veggies, your pH will eventually bottom out at about 5.5 and then
begin climbing again. That's the goal-alkaline urine from eating alkaline foods.
When you begin an 80/20 diet (80 percent raw fruits and veggies plus 20 percent
cooked grains and veggies) you will be getting better as your urine pH drops,
and getting healthy as it comes back up to toward 6.4 and 7.0.
Saliva pH
You'll also want to test the pH of your saliva. The results
of saliva testing indicate the activity of digestive enzymes in your body,
especially the activity of the liver and the stomach. This reveals the flow of
enzymes running through your body and shows their effect on all the body
systems. Some people will have acidic pH readings from both urine and
saliva-this is referred to as "double acid."
The pH of saliva is representative of pH levels of most of
your body fluids. The benchmark of 6.8 or above is ideal, whereas 6.2 is normal
in the United States because of our acid-producing diet based on animal products
and cooked or otherwise processed foods. Establish a baseline. Before eating,
spit into a spoon, then dip paper. Check every two or three weeks after changing
to 80/20 diet. Your pH should gradually go up toward increased alkalinity. It
changes slowly. If before a meal you're at 6.8, and afterward it jumps to 8.0 or
higher, that's ideal. If before you're at 6.2, and afterward it rises higher,
that's still good. It shows that you still have alkalinizing mineral reserves
available. If you're at 5.5, but it does go up after eating, that's acceptable
not ideal, not good, but acceptable. It's an indication that, although you're
low, you do still have some supply of alkalinizing minerals in your body. If
before the meal you're between 5.5 and 5.8 on the pH scale, and after eating
there is no change, that's a sign that you need to get to work immediately to
alkalinize your system. Your body is extremely acid, with inadequate mineral
reserves available.
Finally, no matter what your pH was before a meal, if it goes
down afterward that's an indication that your body chemistry, and thus pH
reading, is being skewed by the impact of emotions that affect physiology. Some
emotional detoxing would seem in order.
Saliva pH
and Cancer
"When healthy, the pH of blood is 7.4, the pH of spinal fluid
is 7.4, and the pH of saliva is 7.4. Thus the pH of saliva parallels the extra
cellular fluid...pH test of saliva represents the most consistent and most
definitive physical sign of the ionic calcium deficiency syndrome... The pH of
the non-deficient and healthy person is in the 7.5 (dark blue) to 7.1 (blue)
slightly alkaline range. The range from 6.5 (blue-green) which is weakly acidic
to 4.5 (light yellow) which is strongly acidic represents states from mildly
deficient to strongly deficient, respectively. Most children are dark blue, a pH
of 7.5. Over half of adults are green-yellow, a pH of 6.5 or lower, reflecting
the calcium deficiency of aging and lifestyle defects.
Cancer patients are usually a bright yellow, a pH of 4.5, especially when
terminal." The Calcium Factor: Scientific Secret of Health and Youth,
by Robert R. Barefoot and Carl J. Reich, M.D
Ways to Restore
Acid/Alkaline Balance in Your Body
If your saliva is too acid you may wish to increase the
alkalinity of your body. Ways to do this include:
1. Eat mostly
alkaline foods.
The general "rule of thumb" is to eat 20% acid foods and 80% alkaline foods.
Avoid the "strongly acid" foods.
Acidifying and Alkalizing Foods
Acid forming foods: Most nuts, eggs, wheat, meat, rice, corn,
shellfish, and junk foods.
Alkalizing foods: Most all vegetables and fruits, millet,
buckwheat and almonds.
We need to be eating 20% acid foods and 80% alkalizing foods
in our diets. Two alkalizing foods with one acidifying food will help to keep
the diet in balance. It's important that vegetables make up two-thirds of our
diet.
Drink 1/2 ounce of water per pound of body weight per day,
not to exceed 100 ounces, because of the need to flush toxins from the body. Not
consuming enough water while on this program may result in a healing crisis.
2. Supplement
your diet with calcium and vitamin D.
Many women take a calcium supplement daily in order to help prevent
osteoporosis. It is well known that calcium needs vitamin D in order to be
absorbed by the body so most calcium supplements contain vitamin D. What is not
generally known is bones are a complex matrix of many different minerals and if
all the required minerals are not present then strong bones cannot be built.
There are at least 18 key bone-building nutrients essential for optimum bone
health. The implication is that it is easier to destroy bone through improper
diet and lifestyle than it is to rebuild bone. Furthermore, as farm soils become
depleted of many trace minerals the foods grown on these soils contain less and
less of the required nutrients. At last count, the human body requires 90
different nutrients for optimum health, and the list is growing year by year. A
good nutritional supplement is no longer optional.
3. Supplement
your diet with freshly made fruit and vegetable juices.
As a treatment for cancer, some doctors recommend one 8 oz glass per hour
for every waking hour of the day. We could never eat the amount of nutrition we
drink with these juices. Drink lots of ionized alkaline water.
4. Alkalizing Bath Soak
Do the following bath 2-3 times a week to help pull toxic
chemicals out of the body.
Start by skin brushing, and then soak for 20 minutes in a
bath containing:
1 cup Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate).
1 small box baking soda (strongest alkalizing substance safe
for human consumption). May add up to ten capsules of ginger.
WHAT YOU CAN
DO ABOUT STRESS
From Alkalize or Die, by Dr. Theodore Baroody
Any stressor that the mind or body interprets and
internalizes as too much to deal with, leaves an acid residue. Even a mild
stressor can cause a partial or total acid-forming reaction. This can be formed
in several ways:
When the system is placed in a fighting posture with no
adversary present, excessive hormones are generated causing contraction of
muscles and a redirection of digestive forces.
Therefore, even alkaline-forming food becomes acidic.
Improper metabolism in the cell forms acid, which is not eliminated quickly
enough, lessening oxygen intake into the individual cell causing cellular
breakdown. Blood and lymph flows are altered. As a consequence oxygen and
nutrients are not carried to the cells nor taken away at the rate they should
be. Lymphatic system accumulation then becomes inevitable. These acids create
stresses we actually feel.
The question is, "How much stress causes what level of acid
formation?" To help determine this, use the following Social Readjustment Rating
Scale, devised by Drs. Holmes and Rahe.
The scale is based on a point value system termed Life Change
Units. If you score less than 150 points, there is a 30% chance of getting sick
in the near future. From 150-299 points, a 50% chance, and over 300 points there
is an 80% chance.
Rate yourself on the Alkaline/Acid Adjustment scale on the
last page to find your personal stress level and adjust your diet accordingly.
Quotes and Recommended Reading
"Low cancer areas were far more frequent in the sun belt.
What was the significance of sunlight with regard to cancer rates? Sunlight
reacts with cholesterol inside and on the surface of the skin to create
vitamin-D.
Vitamin-D helps the body absorb calcium and plays a major
role in the body's ability to use the calcium that is available," The Calcium
Connection, Dr. Cedric Garland and Dr. Frank Garland, 1989, Forside, Simon and
Shuster Inc.
"There are many research studies which allude to the fact
that high phosphorus and/or phosphoric acid (found in meat and soft drinks)
pulls calcium out of the bony structures (bones, teeth and nails) in the process
of digestion and assimilation. This has a disastrous effect on bone density,
leaving them porous and spongy. When calcium is pulled from the bones, it is
released through the kidneys, resulting in stone formation (kidney stones)
before it is excreted," The Greenleaves of Barley, Dr. Mary Ruth Swope.
밯hen you drink ionized alkaline water, you are drinking
water with excess oxygen, not in the form of 02, but in the form of OH- which is
very stable because it is mated with positively ionized alkaline minerals. Two
of these hydroxyl ions can form a water molecule (H20) and give out one oxygen
atom. The alkaline mineral is used to detoxify poisonous acid compounds and when
that happens the hydroxyl ion is freed to supply excess oxygen to the cells to
prevent the development of cancer," Reverse Aging, Sang Whang
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A
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B
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C
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D
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E
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F
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G
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1
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Most Alkaline |
Alkaline |
Lowest Alkaline |
Food Category |
Lowest Acid |
Acid |
Most Acid |
2
|
Stevia |
Maple syrup, Rice
Syrup |
Raw Honey, Raw Sugar |
SWEETNERS |
Processed Honey,
Molasses |
White Sugar, Brown
Sugar |
NutraSweet, Equal,
Sweet 'N Low |
3
|
Lemons, Watermelon,
Limes, Grapefruit, Mangoes, Papayas |
Dates/Figs, Melons,
Grapes, Papaya, Kiwi, Berries, Apples, Pears, Raisins |
Oranges, Bananas,
Cherries, Pineapple, Peaches, Avacados |
FRUITS |
Plums, Processed Fruit
Juices |
Sour Cherries, Rhubarb |
Blueberries,
Cranberries, Prunes |
4
|
Asparagus, Onions,
Vegetable Juices, Parsley, Raw Spinach, Broccoli, Garlic |
Okra, Squash, Green
Beans, Beets, Celery, Lettuce, Zucchini, Sweet Potato |
Carrots, Tomatoes,
Fresh Corn, Mushrooms, Cabbage, Peas, Potato Skins, Olives |
BEANS VEGETABLES
LEGUMES |
Spinach, Kidney Beans,
String Beans |
Potatoes, Pinto Beans,
Navy Beans, Lima Beans |
Soybean, Carob |
5
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Almonds |
Chestnuts |
NUTS/SEEDS |
Pumpkin Seeds,
Sunflower Seeds |
Pecans, Cashews |
Peanuts, Walnuts |
6
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Olive Oil |
Flax Oil |
Canola Oil |
OILS |
Corn Oil |
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7
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Amaranth, Miller, Wild
Rice, Quinoa |
GRAINS CEREALS |
Sprouted Wheat Bread,
Spelt, Brown Rice |
White Rice, Corn,
Buckwheat, Oats, Rye |
Wheat, White Flour,
Pastries, Pasta |
8
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MEATS |
Venison, Cold Water
Fish |
Turkey, Chicken, Lamb |
Pork, Beef, Shellfish |
9
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Breast Milk |
Goat Milk, Goat
Cheese, Whey |
EGGS DAIRY |
Eggs, Butter/Yogurt,
Buttermilk, Cottage Cheese |
Soy Cheese, Raw Milk,
Soy Milk |
Cheese, Homoginized
Milk, Ice Cream |
10
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Lemon Water, Herb Teas |
Green Tea |
Ginger Tea |
BEVERAGES |
Tea |
Coffee |
Beer, Soft Drinks |
11
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Eat 80% alkaline foods
and 20% acid foods for perfect pH balance. Drink 1/2 ounce of water
per pound of body weight per day, not to exceed 100 ounces, because of
the need to flush toxins from the body. Not consuming enough water
while on this program may result in a healing crisis. |
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