How to Eat Cleaner - Day 24 of 31 - Alkaline Diet. What the Heck is It?

How to Eat Cleaner - Day 24 of 31 - Alkaline Diet. What the Heck is It?

Hello everyone. I'm so excited that you decided to join me in our 31 days to cleaner or healthier eating. Each one of these videos will have 1 simple concept for you to chew on. It's your choice what you do with it. Try it for a day, a week, a month or implement for your entire life. My hope is it helps you open your mind to learning more about fueling your body more healthily.

Part of cleaning up what we eat is getting educated and alot of these videos focus on awareness.

Today we talk about an alkaline diet, this is another topic that could be pages and pages.  Here is just a brief overview, please research for yourself if you want to dig deeper.

The basic premise of the alkaline diet is that your body should be an alkaline environment and if you can keep your body alkaline you will be healthy and free from disease.

Those that argue for the alkaline diet claim that some foods promote an alkaline environment, while some promote an acidic environment. If the body gets acidic they say you create an environment where cancer, heart disease and other ailments are more likely. On the other side if you eat alkaline producing foods, then you will be healthy and could even cure diseases.

Those who disagree with the concept say there is no evidence that you can can change the pH of you blood and that parts of the diet, notably the reduction of protein and calcium, can be detrimental. Plus some parts of the diet can be confusing when trying to make healthy choices. Depending on what resource you are looking at there have been some differences on what folks have considered acidic and alkalizing foods and how much you can have of each.

Overall the alkaline diet is pretty healthy. You eat lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes. You don't eat meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, processed foods, white sugar, white flour, and caffeine. There is a very detailed list of alkaline and acidic foods that you would make your choices from and you may be surprised what is on each side of the list. For example although apple cider vinegar is acidic, it is an alkalizing food, meaning when metabolized it acts alkaline.

Although, I have not been able to find any evidence of the alkaline diet preventing cancer or any disease, there have been some benefits attributed to this eating style. Studies showed in older adults that the diet helped them keep lean muscle mass. Losing lean muscle mass as you age is a big concern. Also, the diet does raise urine pH which helps lowering the risk of kidney stones and UTI.

Although there has not been any correlation between the alkaline part of the diet and prevention of disease, the contents of the diet are correlated to prevention of disease. We are taking out processed, refined foods and eating more fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts. That has been shown to help prevent alot of conditions, like cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes and on. The debate is whether it's the alkalinity or just the nature of the better nutrition we are getting.

What do you think about the alkaline diet? Have you ever chosen your nutrition based on this concept?

Thanks for your time. This is Coach Lana and I would love for you to join me at http://facebook.com/coachlana so we can connect.