Eating to Neutralize your Body pH

Yesterday I spent a few hours puttzing around planting my little summer garden.  I like to plant a variety of greens so I planted kale, spinach, collard greens and a little chard.  I also planted two rows each of beets and carrots.  Still haven’t planted the beans yet but the fence has been cleared and is ready to help those yummy green beans climb to new heights this summer! 

 

pH

Before I planted everything I tested the pH of my soil.  It was a very neutral 7.0.  You see, the pH (how acidic or alkaline) the soil is affects how well the plants absorb the nutrients in the soil.  If the soil is too acidic (lower number) or too alkaline (higher number) the plants just don’t do so well no matter the weather or what nutrients are in the soil.  pH is a measured on a scale that runs from 1-14 and many plants need a neutral (pH 7) or just slightly alkaline pH to grow properly.  The Eau Claire area where I live tends to have acidic soil and if my soil had tested out to have a lower pH I would have needed to apply lime to help raise the pH and thus increase the alkalinity of the soil.  This process is effective but does take several weeks to make a noticeable change in the soil pH.

 

Our Human Bodies

Much like a plant our bodies absorb nutrients best if we are in the proper pH.  This typically means neutral to slightly alkaline.  The problem?  Most people in the US are ACIDIC.  The reason for this is basically what we put into our bodies (our soil if you will).  Everything we put in our bodies serves to either acidify or alkalize our body pH.  As a general rule of thumb plant foods are alkalizing and animal foods are acidifying.  Grains also usually acidy so for simplicities sake when I say plant foods I mean mostly fruits, veggies and raw nuts.  Some foods which are acidic in nature form alkaline by products.  Two perfect examples are lemons and raw apple cider vinegar.  When we can’t absorb nutrients properly how do you think this affects our health?  Right, it makes it worse.  This is part of the reason why exercise and other healthy lifestyle changes we make don’t always have the impact on our lives we had hoped for.  First we have to normalize our chemistry.  The way we do that is with our food choices.

 

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