I know something about this from working closely with a wise old Osteopath in the USA and formal study in science and natural therapies.
A diet rich in alkaline foods has been espoused at least since the late 1800s by the Natural Hygiene Society and its forebears. Indeed, the Essenes advocated eating 'live' food, that hadn't been cooked. Grains were sprouted and never exposed to heat greater than generated by the sun.
Alkaline diets are primarily if not all vegetarian, as it is fibrous carbohydrates and fruit carbohydrates that have an alkaline effect on the stomach, intestines, and blood. Yes fruit is alkaline in its effect, if eaten whole. Whereas fruit juice is acidic. There's some evidence sprouted grains are alkaline as well, whereas cooked grains are acidic.
As for alkaline water, DO NOT drink bleach. That is highly erosive to human tissue, and will burn a hole through your stomach in no time. Though I presume you guys were joking above.
However, one would be scientifically ignorant to pay big money for ionized alkaline water.
If you want an alkaline effect, just add a tspn of sodium bicarbonate to a glass of water, and drink. A lot cheaper than buying bottled water and better for the environment because you aren't adding more plastic to the trash.
The reasonably normal human body is very efficient at maintaining a near neutral pH in the body's tissue and blood. Sodium bicarbonate exists in the blood as a buffer against excessive acidity. One would die pretty quickly if the blood pH wasn't maintained within a tight range. Why? heart muscle wouldn't contract properly.
However, taking bicarb can help calm one when suffering from anxiety. One tends to become anxious if blood pH becomes temporarily slightly more acidic. This can happen when you have compromised respiratory function or are not buffering the carbon dioxide and lactic acid generated by the body's normal metabolic processes. This process is known as acidosis. There are two types: metabolic and respiratory acidosis.
It should be kept in mind that excessive alkalinity is just as dangerous as acidosis. Indeed, if you injected a solution with 4 tspns of sodium bicarbonate into a vein, you could be comatose within 20 minutes. Check here for a link of overdoing sodium bicarbonate
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC34892#Symptoms
Finally, the best things to maintain an alkaline state in the body are:
- to relax the mind and body regularly. Anxiety vasoconstricts vessels and impedes efficient clearance of metabolic waste from the body. relaxing vasodilates the vessels. relaxing the mind also slows the metabolic activity of the brain's neurons, thus reducing the production of acid metabolites.
- moderately vigorous activity conducted harmoniously also helps get blood to more distant tissue, and help flush it of metabolic waste, thus restoring a more neutral pH.
- eat lots of fruit and vege, and less animal product.
As Spock would say:
Live Long and Prosper.....Don't buy pseudoscience....
A diet rich in alkaline foods has been espoused at least since the late 1800s by the Natural Hygiene Society and its forebears. Indeed, the Essenes advocated eating 'live' food, that hadn't been cooked. Grains were sprouted and never exposed to heat greater than generated by the sun.
Alkaline diets are primarily if not all vegetarian, as it is fibrous carbohydrates and fruit carbohydrates that have an alkaline effect on the stomach, intestines, and blood. Yes fruit is alkaline in its effect, if eaten whole. Whereas fruit juice is acidic. There's some evidence sprouted grains are alkaline as well, whereas cooked grains are acidic.
As for alkaline water, DO NOT drink bleach. That is highly erosive to human tissue, and will burn a hole through your stomach in no time. Though I presume you guys were joking above.
However, one would be scientifically ignorant to pay big money for ionized alkaline water.
If you want an alkaline effect, just add a tspn of sodium bicarbonate to a glass of water, and drink. A lot cheaper than buying bottled water and better for the environment because you aren't adding more plastic to the trash.
The reasonably normal human body is very efficient at maintaining a near neutral pH in the body's tissue and blood. Sodium bicarbonate exists in the blood as a buffer against excessive acidity. One would die pretty quickly if the blood pH wasn't maintained within a tight range. Why? heart muscle wouldn't contract properly.
However, taking bicarb can help calm one when suffering from anxiety. One tends to become anxious if blood pH becomes temporarily slightly more acidic. This can happen when you have compromised respiratory function or are not buffering the carbon dioxide and lactic acid generated by the body's normal metabolic processes. This process is known as acidosis. There are two types: metabolic and respiratory acidosis.
It should be kept in mind that excessive alkalinity is just as dangerous as acidosis. Indeed, if you injected a solution with 4 tspns of sodium bicarbonate into a vein, you could be comatose within 20 minutes. Check here for a link of overdoing sodium bicarbonate
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC34892#Symptoms
Finally, the best things to maintain an alkaline state in the body are:
- to relax the mind and body regularly. Anxiety vasoconstricts vessels and impedes efficient clearance of metabolic waste from the body. relaxing vasodilates the vessels. relaxing the mind also slows the metabolic activity of the brain's neurons, thus reducing the production of acid metabolites.
- moderately vigorous activity conducted harmoniously also helps get blood to more distant tissue, and help flush it of metabolic waste, thus restoring a more neutral pH.
- eat lots of fruit and vege, and less animal product.
As Spock would say:
Live Long and Prosper.....Don't buy pseudoscience....