New to alkalising? Here is my single biggest #1 tip

Cut out sugar!

If you are ready to start alkalising then your first main aim should be to start cutting out the most acidifying foods, beverages and behaviours from your life. Alongside this you should also start to try and increase the amount of alkalising foods, beverages and activities. But, as I’ve always maintained - don’t necessarily try to do everything at once!

So where to start?

Personally, I think that cutting sugar from your life is the single most effective step you can take to revolutionising your health. To fully understand why, lets get back to some basics of alkalising.

The key to health is balance. Look around you now, wherever you are (if you’re on your own right now then think of five people you met today). The chances are at least 90% of these people are out of balance and are sufering the symptoms - overweight, underweight, prematurely aging, suffering from allergies, low energy & fatigue, stressed, depressed immune system with coughs, colds and splutters, unfit, sick and tired?

To be truly healthy and on top of our game we need balance. And guess what, sugar makes us wildly out of balance. If we remember back to the very basics of the alkaline balance approach to health, we know that the pH level of our internal fluids, particularly our blood, effects every cell in our bodies and to keep an optimal alkaline balance in our blood, it takes about 20 times as much alkaline to neutralise one part acid (hence most green drinks being concentrated at 20:1).

(I think it is important to point out at this stage that not everywhere in the body needs to be at pH 7.365. Blood and tissues, yes, but each area of the body has different acid/alkaline requirements. For instance the lower bowel should be slightly acidic, urine should be about neutral).

According to Dr. Young (alkaline diet pioneer and author of The pH Miracle):

‘Physiological disease is almost always the result of too much acid stressing the body’s pH balance, to the point where it provokes the body into producing symptoms of disease…All the body’s regulatory mechanisms (including breathing, circulation, digestion, and hormone production) work to balance the delicate internal acid/base balance. Our bodies cannot tolerate extended acid imbalances. In the early stages of the imbalance, the suptoms may not be very intense and include such things as skin eruptions, headaches, allergies, colds and flue and sinus problems. As things get further out of whack, more serious situations arise. Weakened organs and systems start to give way, resulting in dysfunctional thyriod glands, adrenals, liver and so on. If tissue pH deviates too far to the acid side, oxygen levels decrease and cellular metabolism will stop. In other words, cells die. You die.’

I know that was a long quote to pull from Dr Young, but it is a really powerful one to demonstrate the basic premise of this approach to health and vitality.

So how does the body deal with an onslaught of acid? It does whatever it can to maintain the alkaline balance where we need it. Just as our body does whatever it takes to maintain our body temperature at 37C/ 98.6F it will do whatever it takes to maintain our blood pH at 7.365. When we give our body too much acid to deal with, it will strip alkaline minerals from our tissues and bones to compensate. The most alkaline and called upon minerals in our body include sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium (so you can see how being over-acid can lead to calcium deficiency problems such as osteoporosis).

If we continue to bombard our body with more acids, then the next line of defence for the body is to neutralise what it can and then dump the rest into tissues for storage - putting the pressure on the lymphatic system to neutralise whatever it can. However, the lyphatic system has a very limited capability to neutralise acids and whatever is left over is then…….dumped back into the blood.

So a vicious cycle begins with more alkaline minerals being leached from our organs and tissues. This literally effects every single cell in our body and set the stage in which illness and disease thrives. In the beginning you will notice the symptoms of the body trying to get rid of as much acid as it can through whatever organ it can. For example, eliminating toxins through the skin results in acne, irritation, eczema, dry skin, rashes, headaches, cramps, soreness etc. Once all possibilities to remove acids have been exhausted chronic symptoms appear. If there is too much waste to handle then the acid wastes are dumped into our major organs such as the heart, lungs, liver etc. and in our fatty tissues such as the breasts, hips, thighs, stomach etc. (and I’m sure you know what the result of that is!). There is also another name given to the process of acid wastes breaking down and being deposited around the body…’the aging process’

And then it gets worse…yeast…candida…fungus!

An acidic environment is an environment in which candida absolutely thrives. Candida is actually the latin name for yeast, which is actually a type of fungus. And herein begins ANOTHER cycle of acidity as the more acidic - the more yeast - the more yeast the more acid. So while you might naturally only think of a couple of symptoms caused by yeast overgrowth, the truth of the matter is that with our typical Western diet, the majority of people have massive yeast overgrowth within our body and the result of this is disasterous. And it is not just candida, it is also mold, bacteria and viruses that are all thriving in an acid environment.
And worse still! ANOTHER CYCLE emerges, as the wastes produced by these microforms (mycotoxins and exotoxins) are even further damaging to our bodies. These toxins are produced by the fungus when it ferments on sugars (which we are getting to!), proteins and fats - the same three sources our body uses for energy.
By creating an acid environment within our body we are essentially giving these toxins and yeasts licence to run riot.

And the outcome of yeast/fungus overgrowth? Well you’ll probably be aware of a couple of common ones such as athletes foot, thrush - but what about:

• diabetes
• cancer
• atherosclerosis
• osteoporosis
• fatigue
• thyroid failure
• diarhea
• asthma
• PMS
• dizziness
• joint pain
• arthritis
• hay fever
• acne
• insomnia
• dry skin
• lack of sex drive
• depression
• bad breath
• lethargy
• headaches

The list could easily go on and on. Yeast overgrowth creates an environment in which these symptoms develop and thrive. It underpins a absolutely HUGE list of symptoms.

So you can see the problem here:

Overacidity and microform overgrowth are inextricably linked. Microforms are a major source of acid in the body. Acidification creates a comfy environment for microforms…This is what I call the cycle of imbalance

Which brings us on to…SUGAR!

So lets recap. To be truly healthy, we need to create an environment in which our body can thrive and easily maintain a pH balance in our blood, tissues and organs. By eating the typical Western diet we are actually putting an incredible amount of stress on our body by overconsuming sugar in the form of sweets, cakes, biscuits, cordials, fruit juices, alcohol, fizzy drinks, chocolate and putting sugar directly into our teas and coffees.

‘Sugar feeds microforms like petrol feeds a fire’

Microforms, yeasts and fungus adore sugar. Sugar is literally the perfect fuel for microform s, overgrowth of these utterly destructive acids that only serve to produce more acids and put more and more stress on your body. Sugar is literally the most destructive food you can consume.

And it is not just white sugar. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that there are ‘good’ sugars. All sugars are bad. And while it is true that the body obviously needs some sugar - we get more than enough from the sweeter vegetables such as carrots and beetroot.

Mainstream media is finally catching onto this fact. The number of times people have told me that sugar from fruit is good for you over the years is incredible. But look around now and you can see the evidence is more widespread now particularly here in Australia where nutritionists are now strongly recommending only having one glass of fruit juice per day (or not at all), insisting that you water down juice for kids, and instead of suggesting 5 pieces of vegetables OR fruit per day, they now recommend 5 serves of veg, and only 2 serves of fruit.

And some of you Tony Robbins fans might remember him teaching to eat only fruit til noon? He’s admitted that he was ‘dead wrong’ (I think the original suggestion was in Unlimited Power - he’s admitted he was wrong on Get the Edge and in his live shows.)

So all forms of sugar must be cut out, including - white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, honey, syrup, sucrose, fructose, refined sugar, sweets, soft drinks, chocolate etc.)

The more sugar we consume, the faster the microforms will develop. And the more they develop the more they reproduce. And the more they reproduce the more acid we become. And the more acid we become the more microforms will produce…

So how can we stop this? Quite simply - cut off the supply. Stop consuming sugar, foods containing sugar and foods that break down into sugar.

Top 5 Tips for Beating the Craving

Be aware though, this isn’t easy. Sugar is a drug. When you stop consuming sugars, the microforms in your body will demand more, you will get cravings. You have to ignore them. Again, this is not easy. But when you get these sugar cravings give your body something different. Give it healthy, cleansing water, greens, salads, almonds, vegetables. Teach your body to switch back to healthy fats for energy, consume omega oils from flax, hemp or oily fish.

So here are my top 5 tips:

1. Drink something instead! It really works! Have a glass of lukewarm water, and perhaps squeeze a bit of lemon in for variety.
2. Try a chromium supplement - this is a great solution, but a temporary one! Chromium is a mineral that helps the body maintain normal blood sugar levels - so you don’t experience the big peaks and troughs and the cravings that go with it.
3. Eat some raw carrots and other slightly sweeter vegetables. This will definitely help as it gives your body more physical fuel from the sugar in the vegetable, but also the fibre in the veg helps to balance out blood sugar peaks.
4. Eat more fibre! High fibre snacks are excellent at regulating blood sugar levels
5. Finally, take it one meal at a time - start with breakfast and eliminate sugar from there. This could be tricky if you are used to breakfast choices such as toast with jam, fruit juice, sugary cereals, tea or coffee with sugar etc. But if you can nail this meal then you will be 9/10 of the way there because starting the day with a big sugar hit sends you on a spiral that is really difficult to control. If you can get breakfast sorted then all of the other meals will be really easy to de-sugar from then onwards!

Best of luck! If you have any questions just let me know below!

PS And if that wasn’t enough - here are 146 other reasons why sugar is ruining your health!

PPS a note about sweeteners…