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pH Balanced Diets
A Passing Fad or Dietary Common Sense?
By Jacqueline M. Duda
Mothers will notice that feeding their children real, wholesome foods makes them less likely to be grumpy couch potatoes. "They'll be full of real, kid energy and will sleep like logs after an active day," Hull says. Raising young children to learn the difference between healthy foods and processed foods will help them maintain an ideal weight and choose the right foods throughout high school and college, when Mom and Dad aren't around to make those decisions or prepare their meals. Furthermore, she adds, eating whole foods and pH-balanced foods, sans chemical food by-products, and drinking pure water is critically important during pregnancy.
The pH diet works by coaxing the scales of a highly acidic body into a more alkaline state, or vice versa. "The human body is like an oil or sugar refinery," Hull says. It does the processing. The byproducts of foods high in hydrogenated oils and refined sugars often found in processed foods, and chemicals from certain medications, cannot be easily eliminated. Instead, they accumulate and turn the body into a toxic landfill. When the pH scales are tipped, diseases like candida (an overgrowth of yeast that can cause infection), skin problems and cancer cells can proliferate.
The diet is easy to shop for, and to follow.
Lynn*, a pH diet devotee from Texas, says that following the diet becomes a natural "mindset." While suffering bloating, constipation, skin cancer and candida, Lynn had her pH tested. (A simple aquarium kit will do, or kits that test body pH are available on the Internet. Holistic nutritionists and practitioners can test pH too.) Lynn was too acidic, and started following the pH diet that Hull recommended and was able to conquer her diseases.
"I shop at Whole Foods," Lynn says. "The meats I buy are nitrate and antibiotic free." She uses soymilk and gets her protein fix from peanut-butter-laced celery. In general, she sticks to the pH diet. "I deviate occasionally, and go for the ice cream or something sugary, but it's easy to go right back into balance," she says. Eating out isn't a problem for her. If she craves a dessert, she shares one with her dining companion. She's aware of what she can and cannot eat because her body will let her know. Her general rule of thumb – avoid foods altered by processing.