The most common causes of high acidity are drinking large amounts of coffee or soda or smoking. In the Green Girl's case, genetics are most likely to blame.
Acidity or alkalinity is expressed in degrees of potential of Hydrogen or pH. pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution - the ratio between positively charged ions (acid-forming) and negatively charged ions (alkaline-forming.) The lower the pH, the more acidic the substance; the higher the pH, the more alkaline the substance. A pH of 7 is neutral.
The human body is able to most effectively assimilate minerals and nutrients when the pH is balanced. The Green Girl's doctor feels her high acidity is affecting her body's ability to fight off illnesses when she gets sick.
When I tried to identify acidic and alkaline foods online, I realized there was a lot of conflicting information out there. One also has to consider the fact that some acidic foods may actually become alkalizing when digested.
I purchased some Essentia water this week to give it a try. Essentia water has a pH of 9.5±.
I'm using the different charts and tables as a general dietary guideline. I've started drinking green tea on a daily basis with raw honey because both green tea and raw honey are alkaline foods. I'm a strong believer that most things are okay in moderation so I'm not eliminating any foods but I am taking the nutritional and acidic versus alkaline values into consideration going forward.
I'm also hopeful that lowering my acidity will help with my lactic acid build-up so I won't be as sore after long runs.
Interesting. I can see where the acidity could be a limiting factor. Lactic acid *does* affect blood acidity (that's how it's measured) and could severely limit performance.....
ReplyDeleteGlenn, yes, when I found out about my high acidity, my struggle with really sore, tight muscles made more sense. I always wondered why I seem to have so much high lactic acid build-up no matter how much I trained.
ReplyDeleteI hope I am able to alkalize myself - at least to a certain extent - and I'm interested to see if that helps my marathon training.
Im so glad you are more then 1/2 way to the road to recovery, I hope you love Esentia as much as we do :) It seems to be the cheapest at mothers and sometimes Henrys :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rad Runner! I'll let you know how I like the Essentia water. The liter bottles were 2 for $3 at your favorite store, Whole Foods.
ReplyDeleteMy mom sells this water system that creates alkaline water! Not sure if you're interested, but let me know if you are. It looks like a coffee maker that sits on your kitchen counter, and you just put water in it and it creates alkaline water. My husband got the opposite results from our doctor. She said he had too much alkaline! :P
ReplyDeleteNever Ending Battle, that's really interesting. I saw one at the farmer's market last weekend but the representative was missing in action and they didn't have any pricing posted so I wasn't sure how much it cost.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a link to the website for the product she sells?
Here's my mom's website and the product is called G2O. http://www.happydiamondstar.diamondtreeonline.com/
ReplyDeleteI hope this helps!
Never Ending Battle, thank you so much for the link. I'm very curious to check this product out!
ReplyDelete