Is eating a raw food diet actually healthy for you?
Whatever diet you choose to live by, the food you eat has to
provide your body with the nourishment to properly balance your
body's chemistry. If you have health challenges, are overweight
or obese, chances are you are not in balance at all. The typical
North American diet is woefully out of balance. Even what are
commonly considered as healthy diets, such as low fat,
vegetarien and vegan diets can be improperly balanced.
The good news is you can forget counting ... cholesterol,
calories, fat grams, carbohydrates, etc, if you eat a properly
balanced diet. But, just what does a properly balanced diet
consist of?
At this time, it is important to remember a quick lesson in
chemistry. Many people know about acids. We used to often hear
about acid rain and almost everyone knows that acids are
dangerous. The opposite of acids are bases, or alkaloids. These
alkaline substances will neutralize acids. In fact, if you mix
an acid and a base of equal strength, you will get a new liquid
that is close to being neutral. The way of measuring how acidic
or alkaline a substance is a scale called pH.
It turns out that the body has a set level of pH that it likes
to function in. Just as we all have a normal body temperature,
we also have a normal pH for our tissues. Different tissues have
different pH levels. One of the most important ones is the pH of
your blood. The pH of your blood is slightly alkaline. The body
will go to great lengths to keep that pH level fixed. It will do
this at the expense of other tissues or systems.
The goal of any healthy eating regimen is to provide the body
with the necessary building blocks in the proper pH such that
the pH balance can be maintained easily. When this happens, the
body will detoxify itself naturally. In addition, weight loss is
a side effect of being properly balanced. When one is out of
balance, or overly acidic, weight gain, chronic illness,
allergies, cancer, heart disease and even diabetes can result.
This chronic overacidity of the blood corrodes the tissues of
the body. It can also be said that the main cause of all
sickness and disease is the disruption of the balance in the
body.
With that in mind, how does one get in balance?
In order to get in balance, one needs to consume about 80
percent of your diet as alkaline foods. Green leafy vegetables
are a great example of alkaline foods. So are sprouts, broccoli
and many other green vegetables. A great way to get started on
this new way of life is to pick up a copy of [The pH Miracle]
from your local or online bookstore. Inside you will learn how
to jumpstart your way into a lifestyle of balanced eating that
promotes long term health. In addition you will discover all the
foods you should avoid and the ones that you can eat as much as
you like. This book is written by Dr. Robert O. Young and his
wife Shelley provides recipes in the book too. All in all, an
alkaline way of life is both healthy and safe when done
properly.