When faced with the many different approaches towards dietary advice, which we are faced with daily, many of us end up feeling like we have more questions than answers. A philosophy that I commonly hear in the alternative health community involves the concept of our body’s PH being a cause of our illnesses. Foods, drinks, and environment can all affect our body’s acid/base balance and this in turn can lead to a life of disease. While it is true that blood or urine tests which reveal a body whose internal environment is either too acid or too alkaline can be indicative of serious lung or kidney disease, it is also true that our belief in our ability to manipulate our PH may not be as extensive as we think. Our body has a beautiful and complex system in place to control the PH in different parts of our bodies through our respiratory functions balance of oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output. Simply by putting in the proper ingredients this system should be competent in maintaining our health. Any time our body has an effective system in place we should not try and tamper or overload that system by pumping in excess amounts of alkaline foods or fluids, thinking that as amateur chemist we can do it better. As I have said in many of my posts, Chinese Medicine is about the concept of balance, which when held through the duration of our lives will allow the body to achieve proper health on its own.

One of the emerging theories revolving the alkaline diet trends focuses on water over food. It is said that food alone cannot provide a diet rich enough in alkalizing vegetables but that our water much also be alkaline in order to further protect us from the ever present menace of those ambiguous toxins. I encourage everyone to read the in depth article in the link below from author Jane Lear, in a recent post for Takepart.com. It covers the issues, potential, and concerns of these high cost water regimens in a well cited article that sheds a lot of light on the subject. It was the inspiration for this blog post.

http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/09/25/alkaline-water-not-fountain-youth?cmpid=foodinc-fb