Your body will do everything within its power to maintain balance to keep you alive.

Whether you help or hinder that process is entirely your choice. This choice is largely made by the foods you eat on a daily basis. Your body maintains balance through pH (potential hydrogen), a scale of 0 to 14 used to represent the relative acidity or alkalinity with 7 being the neutral point. When it comes to offsetting the acidic foods in your body, there are many simple solutions. However, what treatments work? This is similiar to a swimming pool that requires a balanced pH to maintain a healthy environment.

It is important to eat alkaline foods to combat the effects of all the acidic foods regularly consumed as part of the Standard American Diet. Acid-forming foods are sugar, white flour, sodas, artificial sweeteners, alcohol, coffee, fried foods, MSG, meat, dairy, vegetable oils and junk foods. Prescription drugs also create a more acidic environment in your body. Alkaline foods help offset the negative effects of acidic foods, like low energy, weight gain, depletion of necessary vitamins and minerals, and an environment ripe for disease in your body.

Acidic foods pull from your body's alkaline reserve, mainly calcium which weakens your bones, tissues and teeth. Lack of calcium causes hundreds of degenerative diseases and conditions, including arthritis, heart disease, high cholesterol, cancer, gout, acid reflux, high blood pressure and obesity. Your body protects itself by utilizing fat cells to store acid and this causes weight gain. Your body's fat is actually protecting you and helping to balance your pH level. High acidity in your body for a prolonged time can lead to acidosis which causes brain fog, free radical damage, cancer, diabetes, headaches, high blood pressure, hormone imbalance, joint pain, sleep problems, digestive issues, and yeast and fungal overgrowth. An additional problem is that acidic foods lead to more food cravings since your body is not getting the essential vitamins and minerals needed. These cravings lead to eating more acidic foods and the devastating cycle continues. Part of this cycle includes weight gain. You can break this cycle by consuming more alkaline foods.

Some of the most alkaline foods are alfalfa sprouts, broccoli, carrots, celery, chlorela, cucumber, dates, figs, garlic, greens, green juice, kelp, lemon, lettuce, lime, miso, parsley, radish, raisins, sea vegetables, seeds, spinach, spirulina, sprouts, swiss chard, green tea, vinegar and wheat grass. Eating more alkaline foods will provide you with increased energy, better digestion, less inflammation and pain, improved mental focus and better mood. Alkaline foods help fight inflammation and disease.

Evaluate your diet by listing the foods you eat at each meal for a few days, then determine if you eat more acidic or alkaline foods. If you discover that your diet is largly acidic or you have any of the symptoms described above then it's time to make some changes. Consider adding more alkaline foods to your meals and remember that it's all about balance. We are all unique, and you need to find the diet that what works best for you.