Alkaline Diet Questions with Gareth (#1)

Hey everyone!

As I announced a few weeks ago, we have officially brought Gareth Edwards (BSc. DipION. mBANT) into the Energise team as our in-house nutritionist, blood microscopist, alkaline diet expert and all round good guy!

For those of you who don’t know Gareth, he heads Food for Life, the UK’s leading live food nutrition and live blood microscopy clinic is perhaps the UK’s most qualified and experienced blood microscopist and we are extremely excited to have him on board! Operating out of the world-famous Hale Clinic in London and his beautiful practice in Clapham he is a highly qualified nutritional expert who is here to help you, answer your questions and provide another insight into how to live a full, healthy, vibrant and vital life.

To help make the alkaline diet real in your life we Gareth will be answering your most important questions on a fortnightly basis. And this is our first round of questions!

Question 1:I’m a 59 year old woman who has suffered with constant digestive problems. Because of this, I have always had difficulty digesting raw foods - any therapists I have seen have always advised against it, as it just bloats me up. Will this be a big problem on the alkaline diet? I know raw foods are good for me and I do want to be in a situation in the future where they don’t bloat me. Please help!

This may feel like a Catch 22 situation. It sounds like you feel better on a diet with a high level of raw foods, but are worried that you may struggle to digest them.

If you start with some green vegetable juices (see green drink recipe here) you should not experience bloating (especially if you dilute down 50/50 with water). You can also use Dr. Young’s pHour Salts to help give your body the resources to break down and digest your food. Dissolve ½ a scoop in a glass of water 10 minutes before eating.

Bloating can occur because food doesn’t get absorbed and starts to ferment in your intestines. Make sure that you chew any raw food you do eat really well.

Drinking powdered greens with alkalising ph drops should also help improve digestive function. If you experience diarrhoea then reduce your intake until symptoms subside.

Question 2: I really thought salt was bad in large quantities no matter which kind you use. I have used sea salt for a long time. I’ve been on different diets that say use no salt and then again to use a little salt on other diets. The only problem I have at times is irregular heart beats and sometimes they are really bad. Enjoyed your website and want to start this program. I can’t purchase the products suggested to start so what is in your opinion the best thing to do to start with as far as a product go? Is a good sea salt like Celtic a good salt to use or the salt Dr Young suggests?

OK let’s focus on the salt issue to start with. Public health messages in the United Kingdom (and many other countries) are anti-salt. My understanding of the reasoning behind this, is that by having increased levels of sodium chloride (salt) in your blood more fluid (water) will be drawn into veins and arteries through osmosis. This in turn, it is thought will lead to increased blood pressure (a known risk associated cardio vascular disease). This point of view might have some validity if the sodium remained as sodium chloride once it is in your blood stream. Our bodies are however an intelligent and complex chemical laboratory. Once in our blood stream the sodium can be put to many beneficial and even essential uses.

Two important functions are electrical conductivity, which gives us energy, and the buffering (neutralising) of metabolic and dietary acids. So in fact it should be fine to have plenty of salt.

It is however important to support your intake of salt with healthy alkalising dietary and hydration choices. If you eat a lot of acidifying food, crystals can be formed in your blood, as a by-product of the buffering (neutralising) reaction. This may lead to elevated blood pressure.

If you experience irregular heart beats adding more salt (combined with alkalising foods and fluids!) could help with regulating electrical “conductivity” of the heart muscles. Increased levels of magnesium have also been shown to be beneficial for cardio vascular health. You can get that from dark green leafy vegetables and from Dr. Young’s bicarbonate salts, “pHour salts” that you refer to.

Using the pHour salts is a short cut route to hyper-alkalinity. Normally your body will use salt and other minerals to make these alkaline bicarbonate salts to buffer acids and help “digest” food.

So, you can use Celtic sea salt on your food and experiment with drinking pHour Salts. You do however need to support this with plenty of fresh, raw, green living vegetable foods and juices anf healthy fats. If you can further support that with a powdered green vegetable supplement such as Doc Broc powerplants and the alkalising drops puripHy dissolved in water, you should start to move towards increased alkalinity, health and well being.

If your irregular heartbeats persist then I would recommend consulting with a nutritionally orientated physician who understands these principals.

For an enlightening(!) explanation of the importance of salt from Dr. Young:click here

Question 3: I would like to ask which supplements and in what amounts I should take for serious candida. I am balancing my diet and have been taking the supplements from your basic and advanced packs (pHruits & pHoliage, Udo’s Choice, Multivitamin, pHour Salts, pH Booster).

Candida overgrowths or yeast infections can develop for several reasons. These include diets high fruit, sugars, grains or other acidifying foods and drinks. Medication such as antibiotics, steroids or anti-retro-viral treatment can also disrupt the pH of body fluids and tissue. Prolonged periods of emotional stress may also contribute to the occurrence of the unpleasant symptoms of yeast overgrowth.

The most important consideration is to change the pH of your body fluids to alkaline. This can be challenging if you are still consuming medication. In this case you should consult with your physician to see if a reduction plan can be negotiated. Hydrating with alkaline fluids is then the next most important step to take. If you weigh 60 kilos you should aim for three litres of greens and pH drops a day. (You may need to build up to that level). For a seventy five kilo person you would aim for four to 4.5 litres of mixed greens and drops a day. Taking pHour Salts should also help. You can start with one scoop in a glass of water on rising (and before eating or drinking anything else). If you can tolerate that ok you can move towards taking it three times a day. Put Udo’s Choice on your salads.

Your dietary choices are however very important. Coffee, orange juice, fruit and cereal at breakfast time simply have to be limited to occasional (if at all) consumption. Green juices, salads (made with dark green leafy vegetables) or green smoothys are the best low sugar alkalising way to start your day.

Mushrooms, vinegar, peanuts, soya sauce and Quorn (a fungus) need to be avoided.

Question 4: You mention that you should avoid wheat. Does that mean no whole wheat breads or pastas?

I’m not totally in to the demonising of wheat. My understanding is that over the years active human cross breeding has lead to a sweeter grain emerging than the original spelt from which it came. So spelt may be better than wheat but I think developing a strategy around grains and cereals as a whole is more useful.

It really is a question of the degree to which you want or need to take things. Grains (wheat, oats, rye, barley etc.) will be slightly acidifying. Some grains like millet and buckwheat less so.

Grains generally, however are not as acidifying as say lamb, steak or cola drinks. It would, I think, therefore be a step in the right direction to have occasional slices of wholegrain bread or pasta with an otherwise alkalising meal rather than a slice of chicken breast.
If however you are faced with a serious pathology (illness) or you want to alkalise to the highest level, you might want to cut back on cooked grains that you would find in bread or pasta. Cooking of anything removes some of its vital energetic qualities. Additionally, bread is generally made by adding yeast, which increases the acidifying effect of the grains.

Pasta made with spelt, rather than wheat should be a step in the right direction and buckwheat pasta better still. In the States you can buy tortillas made from sprouted grains, which are preferable. In the UK you can buy bread made with sprouted grains. It’s made by Sunnyvale and is available in most health food shops. It is quite heavy and actually slightly sweet, which may not be to everyone’s taste. Sprouting your own grains (like buckwheat) is a more alkalising although slightly time consuming solution.

Using healthy fats from olive oil, hemp oil, Udo’s Choice, avocados and almonds (ideally soaked for 6-8 hours before consumption) is a good way to make your meals and drinks calorifically filling if you are reducing your intake of wheat or carbohydrates from cooked grains generally.

Question 5: If I am trying to gain muscle mass while living alkaline what should I replace my post-workout carbs drink with? It is important for me to get loads of carbs straight after my workout and then plenty of complex carbs during the day. I am a ‘hard gainer’ meaning its real tough for me to put muscle mass on and I’m worried that if I miss out on these extra carb calories I’ll never put muscle on. I have to eat more than 3000 calories a day and without the carbs I’m going to find it hard. Please Help!

I’d strongly recommend that you do push ahead with an alkalising regime and consider going to have live and dry blood analysis to help understand why you may be finding it hard to put on or keep muscle.

I’m not sure that I understand the logic behind a high carbohydrate intake in order to maintain muscle mass. Even in some more widely accepted circles of nutrition than pH based approaches, carbs are used to replenish depleted sugar stores rather than to build muscle.

It should be possible to sustain and build muscle bulk on an alkaline diet. You might go through some adjustment when you start and possibly temporarily lose some weight as your body sheds unnecessary and unwanted acids. In the long term you should be able to bulk up in a healthy way and not always be needing to eat.

After exercise you want to have powdered greens and pH drops mixed with water and then tuck into a big healthy fresh raw food salad with plenty of sprouted seeds, avocado, soaked almonds and dark green veg.

If you feel protein is important you could experiment with adding Dr. Young’s new hemp protein powder products to your green drink. Be sure to have some Redmond Real Salt and use Dr. Young’s pHour salts too. Get your calories from healthy fats (olive and hemp oil, avocados etc.) rather than concentrated carbohydrate drinks that will tend to be acidifying.

If you need inspiration from studying other alkaline, raw food and vegan athletes look up Stu Mittleman (world long distance running record holder), Dave Scott (five times winner of the Hawaii Iron Man triathlon), Ryan Marcotte and Paul Cheeke (raw food / vegan bodybuilders).
Have a look at these two videos:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdB2IGK-oI8&NR=1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1PlgKZOohw

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And there you have it! Great questions - great answers!

Remember - if you have a question for Gareth you can either leave it in the comments box below or if you would rather remain anonymous then you can email me here!

Tagged as: gareth edwards

Note: This blog is only my opinion. It is not medical advice or diagnosis. Only opinions based upon our own personal experiences or information detailed in medical/academic journals or other publications is cited. WE DO NOT OFFER MEDICAL ADVICE or prescribe any treatments. Please consult with a medical professional before making any diet or nutrition changes. Refer to our full disclaimer for more information.