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ISBN: 0-7570-0280-3
Length: 176 Pages
Size: 4 X
7-inch
Format: Quality Paperback
Category:
Price: $7.95
US
Availability:
In print
Click below for:
Synopsis • Contents
Introduction • Reviews |
Synopsis
Over the last five years, there has been an
explosion of bestselling acid/alkaline based diets. These have ranged
from weight loss to diabetes management. While hundreds of thousands
of people have gone on this diet that balances the pH level of your
body, they have had to put up with the limited food guides contained
in each book. Now, health experts Dr. Susan Brown and Larry Trivieri
have created a complete resource for people wanting to widen their
food choices. The Acid/Alkaline Food Guide offers dieters
an easy-to-follow guide to the most common foods that influence
your body’s pH levels.
The book begins by explaining what the acid/alkaline
of your body has to do with the acid/alkaline influence of foods.
It then explains how the pH of foods, once eaten, may change in
your body--as citric acid fruits, once digested, become alkaline.
As complicated as this process is, the authors provide the guidelines
for the analysis of the foods covered in the book. This section
is then followed by a listing of thousands of foods and their acid/alkaline
ranges. Included are insets and groups that can help the reader
better direct their food searches.
Susan
E. Brown , Ph.D., CCN is a medical anthropologist and New
York State Certified Nutritionist. Dr. Brown is a clinician, researcher
and author. She has over twenty years experience in clinical nutrition,
bone health research and lay and health professional education.
Susan E. Brown directs the Osteoporosis Education Project, non-profit
Corporation, and the Nutrition Education and Consulting Service.
Both organizations are located in East Syracuse, New York.
Larry
Trivieri, Jr. is a leading writer and editor in the field of
holistic and alternative medicine. He is the founder and publisher
of 1HealthyWorld, as well as its online weekly publication, The
Health Plus Letter. Trivieri served as editor and principal
writer of the landmark volume, Alternative Medicine. In addition,
he is also the author of Health on the Edge (Tarcher / Putnam,
Jan, 2004), The American Holistic Medical Association Guide to
Holistic Health (John Wiley & Sons, Spring, 2001), and co-author
of The Complete Self-Care Guide to Holistic Medicine (Tarcher
/ Putnam, Fall, 1999).
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One--Understanding Acid-Alkaline Balance
1. Acid-Alkaline Balance for Good Health
2. The Consequences of Acid-Alkaline Imbalance
3. Testing for pH Balance
4. Correcting Acid-Alkaline Balance
5. Understanding the Food Tables
Conclusion
Part Two--The Food Tables
A-to-Z Listing of Basic Foods
Fast Food Table
Glossary
References
Alkalizing Supplements
Ordering Information
About the Authors
Index
Introduction
The importance of diet has been a basic tenet of traditional healing systems around the world for many centuries. A wholesome diet not only helps to maintain health, but can also play a vital role in recovery from disease. On the other hand, it is safe to say that unhealthy dietary patterns are a major contributing factor in most disease conditions. Although for many years mainstream medicine ignored the role that diet can play in both health and disease, more recently it, too, began emphasizing the need to eat wisely and healthfully as a primary self-care approach for keeping illness at bay. For example, whereas only a few decades ago the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association made little mention of the link between cancer, heart disease, and diet, today both organizations recommend the daily consumption of at least five to seven servings of fresh fruits and vegetables. Moreover, the American Cancer Society now states that as many as a third of all cases of cancer in the United States could be avoided if we as a nation adopted healthier eating habits.
The wisdom behind such recommendations is well-known to pet owners. Whenever a beloved animal becomes sick, the veterinarian typically recommends a change in the pet’s diet. Often, this alone is enough to reverse the problem or, at the very least, improve the pet’s symptoms. Nutritionally oriented physicians have for many years reported similar positive results when their patients make positive changes in their own diet.
Our understanding of how and why certain foods can significantly help to improve health, while other foods can accelerate the disease process, continues to grow each year as scientists continue their quest to uncover Nature’s secrets. In recent years, one of the most exciting nutritional discoveries has concerned the effect that different foods have on the body’s pH levels once they are consumed. Simply put, some foods, once digested, create an acidic effect within the body, while others act as alkalizing agents that can neutralize harmful acids. To be healthy, it is necessary to be in a state of acid-alkaline balance. Humans have, in fact, a genetically encoded requirement for a dietary balance of acid-forming and alkaline-forming foods. Because of our early ancestors’ abundant intake of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, we evolved on diets high in organic mineral compounds--particularly potassium, magnesium, and calcium. We still need these compounds in order to maintain our internal acid-base balance. But as you will discover, contemporary eating patterns are at odds with our ancient biological machinery, much to the detriment of our health.
It has been rightly said that both health and disease begin in the cells, for it is at the cellular level that the vast majority of the body’s multitude of interactions occur. For example, in order for the body’s cells to function properly, they need to receive life-giving nutrients and oxygen from the bloodstream, and at the same time, they need to release cellular wastes. As it turns out, both of these interactions can optimally take place only when the body is in a slightly alkaline state, which allows for an easy flow of oxygen and nutrients into the cell walls and an equally easy disposal of cellular waste. When the body becomes chronically acidic, however, these and many other cellular processes start to become impaired. Eventually, if acidity continues unchecked, the combination of a diminished oxygen and nutrient supply to the cells and the buildup of wastes inside the cells sets into motion both fatigue and disease.
It’s precisely for this reason that both the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association--along with the American Medical Association and most other health organizations--recommend a minimum of five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Why are fruits and vegetables so important? Because, as suggested above, most fruits and vegetables are high in compounds that help to keep your body in the slightly alkaline state that medical research has shown is the ideal internal environment for achieving and maintaining optimal health.
As you will learn in the chapters ahead, the importance of maintaining proper acid-alkaline balance is not a new concept. In fact, it has been written about in medical textbooks for more than a century. Only in the last few years, however, has the concept of chronic, low-grade acidosis started to make its way to the public at large, primarily through infomercials and certain books. Unfortunately, such information is all too often tied into products for which dubious claims are made, or associated with dietary plans that are too restrictive for most people. But at this same time, a small number of brilliant scientists from around the world have recognized, and are studying, the phenomenon of chronic, low-grade metabolic acidosis. Scientists such as Dr. Lynda Frassetto at the University of California, San Francisco, and Dr. Russell Jaffe of ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies, Inc., have now documented that on the whole, the average Western diet is acid-producing, and that this diet actually produces a low-grade systemic acidosis in otherwise healthy people. Dozens of such studies further document the negative impact that low-grade acidosis has on health. Osteoporosis, age-related muscle loss, kidney stone formation, gout and other joint diseases, back pain, and fatigue are among the conditions associated with the move towards an even slightly acidic state. While not life threatening, this low-level acid condition quietly compromises our health.
Today in the United States and other highly Westernized countries, chronic low-grade acidosis is more the rule than the exception. This is largely due to poor eating and lifestyle habits. We are, in fact, forcing our bodies to labor within a less-than-optimal biochemical environment. The body’s adaptation to even mild metabolic acidosis involves stresses and strains that create a fertile breeding ground for the various forms of chronic illness that are now experienced by more than one out of every three Americans.
Since your diet dramatically affects acid-alkaline balance either positively or negatively, you might ask yourself how you can change any unhealthy eating habits in a safe and practical manner--without having to make drastic changes. The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide was written precisely to answer that question. In the pages that follow, you will find listings of literally hundreds of our most commonly eaten foods and be able to quickly determine how they will affect your body’s pH levels once they are consumed and digested. And once you know the effects of these foods on your body, you will be able to quickly and effectively create healthy meal plans using the foods you enjoy.
The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide is the first and only book of its kind to provide this information in such extensive detail. Moreover, the information that it contains is based on hard science--on research conducted specifically to determine the effects that various foods have on the body’s acid-alkaline balance. In this book, you will discover:
• What a pH and an acid-alkaline balance are, and why they are so important to your health.
• How an acid-alkaline imbalance encourages the development of disease.
• Which health disorders are associated with a state of acid-alkaline imbalance.
• How to measure your own acid-alkaline balance.
• How to quickly determine whether a food will produce an acidifying or alkalizing effect on your body.
• How to use the food tables presented in this book to create healthy meals throughout the day.
• How to use nutritional supplements and smart lifestyle choices to speed your journey to vibrant health.
More than 2,500 years ago, the Greek physician Hippocrates said that food should be our first and most important "medicine." Here in the twenty-first century, the truth of that adage has never been clearer. It is our hope that The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide will empower you to make wise food choices that result in good health and vitality for both you and your loved ones.
Reviews
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