The Foundation of Balanced Eating

(New Vegetarian and Natural Health, Spring 1999, p. 56)

 

The starting point – the absolute foundation of sound nutrition – is to maintain the correct acid/alkali balance in the body. If we get this right and keep it right, much of our nutritional health falls into place. While the bloodstream is strongly buffered (at a pH around 7.4) tissue fluids can vary in their acidity and if they depart far from the optimum, we are on deep trouble. A body that is very acidic – and therefore in a toxic state – is prone to inflammatory conditions like colds and eventually degenerative illnesses like arthritis.

 

The acid/alkali balance depends mainly on what we put in our mouths. Foods are either acid-forming or alkali-forming. Broadly speaking, those that leave an alkaline residue are the fresh, ripe fruits and green and yellow vegetables, while those that increase acidity are almost all the rest – meat, cheese, eggs, nuts, legumes, seeds, grain foods (such as bread, pasta, rice and cakes), refined sugar, coffee, tea and so on.

 

Because fruits and vegetables have a high water content, we need much more of them to balance the concentrated foods. They need to comprise 3/4 to 4/5 of total food intake (by weight), with the concentrated foods that supply protein, carbohydrate and fat comprising only 1/4 to 1/5.

 

Most Australians consume nowhere near the proportion of fruits and vegetables, paving the way for illnesses ranging from colds to arthritis or possibly cancer.

 

One of the greatest mistakes in nutrition is the assumption that acid fruits, including citrus, pineapples and tomatoes, are acid-forming. During metabolism (processing in the body), their weak organic acids are broken down to release energy and the acidic end-product, carbon dioxide, is breathed out, leaving a residue of alkaline minerals. We get rid of the acidic part and are left with the alkaline part, so acid fruits, like other fruits, are alkali-forming.