Alkaline Food Chart

Everything we eat affects the health and well-being of our body. Improving our diet can actually improve our health. The foods we eat can have an alkalizing or acidifying effect on the body after digestion. When nutritionists talk about acid- or alkaline-forming foods, they are referring to the condition of the food after ingestion, and not to the pH level of the food itself. The net acid-forming load a food exerts on the body can be measured using a scientific formula called PRAL (potential renal acid load).

Vegetables and fruits are the most alkalizing foods, and should be at the core of any healthy diet change. The standard American diet based around meat, dairy, and grains is full of acid-forming foods. Eating alkaline-forming foods can balance out the intake of excess acids and help flush them from the body. Any excess of acids in the body create unnecessary work your body's buffering systems and the overload can affect your health.

The body has three major mechanisms (buffering systems) that prevent dietary and metabolic acids from shifting the pH of the cells and blood outside of the narrow range needed for optimum function. A pH balancing act is continuously going on to maintain homeostasis. Too much acid in the body leads to acidosis, whereas high alkalinity in the body is referred to as alkalosis. Since many of the enzymes necessary for facilitating metabolic reactions only operate within very specific pH ranges, any acid-base homeostasis imbalances can lead to a range of malfunctions and degenerative diseases.

High pH therapy focuses on using a combined nutrition and supplement approach to balance body pH by reducing the load on the overworked buffering system. The alkaline diet focus of pH therapy is of particular importance for those needing intense nutritional support when dealing with major health challenges.