How to Lose Weight with the Alkaline Diet

This week Gareth Edwards, our Alkaline Diet Expert and highly qualified nutritionist, is giving some incredible advice on how to lose weight with the alkaline diet, alongside a very clear and easy to understand description of why acids make us fat – once you understand this, weight loss is a really simple equation.

The Alkaline Diet for Weight Loss

Article by Gareth Edwards

Last week I went to a business breakfast. This is unusual for me, but the subject of the debate “Should we tax foods that make people obese?”
grabbed my attention. To observe Dr. Ian Richardson (a government advisor on obesity) and Richard Powell (a spokesman for Coca-Cola) “debating” the issue was interesting and, to some extent enlightening.

There was however one statement that Dr. Ian Campbell kept repeating like a mantra, that I felt showed a slightly myopic (short-sighted) perspective. “Let’s not forget that this is a simple issue” he said. “Eating too much and not doing enough exercise is the reason why people become obese. It’s a simple (by implication: calorific) equation.”

My observations of patients and acquaintances does not however support this.

All too often I see people who are actually not eating huge amounts of food and are doing reasonable amounts (or even high levels) of exercise and still weight seems to stick to them like glue.

Weight gain. An acid problem.

The reality is that it’s all too often the type of food we eat, liquids we drink or crucially, remedies that we take that have the biggest influence of all. Time after time with patients, I’ve seen people actually shedding pounds while eating pretty large amounts of food every day.

When we start to understand that weight gain is actually a healthy defence by your body to protect it from liquid acids, we can start get a clearer understanding of how to lose weight.

How we work:

All the time that we are doing anything other than lying in a (naturally induced!) trance like state, on the floor, we are producing acids. Digestion and metabolism (our cells “working”) produce acid. Our bodies have clever mechanisms for shedding these. We pass urine, breath, perspire and defecate partly in order to maintain a neutral pH in our bodies.

Diet, lifestyle and ……. other factors:

There are, however, certain situations where the filters to our body’s swimming pool (we are after all about 60% water) get overloaded. Here are some possible causes of acidic overload:

1. Dehydration: In order to wash dietary and metabolic acids from our bodies, we need to drink enough to “wash the acids out through
   urine, perspiration (and even defecation).
2. Acidic drinks and liquids: consuming large amounts of sweetened, fizzy drinks, fruit juice (other than lemon, lime and grapefruit),
   alcohol, and vinegar. Remember “diet” drinks with artificial sweeteners can be even more acidifying than their regular couter-
   parts.
3. An acidic diet: regular intakes of meat, fish, eggs and cheese are all likely to leave acidic residues in the body. High intakes of sugar and
   refined (white) carbohydrates will have similar effects
4. Under (and over) exercise: exercise increases perspiration and respiration. High levels of anaerobic (beyond our body’s ability to
   replenish oxygen) exercise, followed by acidic drinks or dietary choices, can actually increase acidity.
5. Negative emotions: stress, anxiety, (in-appropriate or excessive) anger and grief, can all have acidifying effects on the body.
6. Medication: modern pharmacology is an incredibly intelligent business. Huge amounts of money and some of the most intelligent minds have been applied to developing drugs. In extreme circumstances such as a road accident, they can be life saving and life transforming. The flaw however lies in the philosophical approach behind their development. Pharmaceuticals are (sometimes) fantastic at symptom manipulation. They rarely however are used to treat the cause of a disease or condition. Medication is likely to acidify the body. A urinary pH test should confirm this. Note: neither Gareth nor Energise are advising that you do not take prescribed medications. Please consult your doctor before making any decision about any health condition or your general health

The Outcomes of An Acidic Lifestyle

Overload (over-weight):

If acids start to build up in our body fluids or tissue, our clever bodies will usually create a way of keeping them away from vital organs and body tissue. We’ll actually start to lay down fat to buffer (neutralise) the fat and keep it in a “safe” place. This safety mechanism may help preserve you, but it’s not ideal in the long term.

Underweight:

When some people become over-acidic the micro-organisms that thrive in an acidic environment actually start eating the food you consume (and make you even more acidic). The acids can also erode the delicate finger-like projections in the intestines, where food is absorbed. This can lead to congestion and fermentation in the intestine and an inability to gain desired weight or body mass.

Turning the tide

So if you want to achieve a healthy weight, here’s what you can do:

• Hydrate with alkaline water: Adding pH drops or pHour salts to water which is alkaline is a good start. Adding green vegetable, grass and herb powder (i.e. green drink) will help nourish you in alkaline way and provide soluble fibre to help draw toxic elements from your body.

  Start with weak concentrations and build up to one scoop per litre of greens three to four times a day. Washing out stored acids can
  require super-hydration. Build this up slowly and be sure to maintain an intake of mineral salts.



• Fresh Vegetable Juices: Once or twice a week, more often if you can, make yourself a fresh green vegetable juice or wheatgrass juice. Use cucumbers and / or celery to give the fluid content and use green veggies such as spinach, kale, broccoli, lettuce, rocket, chard and anything else you can get your hands on! Here is an alkaline vegetable juice recipe I posted to the blog a few weeks ago, and here are Energise’s Juicers!
• Buy the Energise Alkaline Diet Recipe Book and get busy! (buy some sprouting jars to add extra super-nutritious variety – click here for Ross’s article on Sprouting)
• Exercise:Find a form of exercise that you really enjoy (walking, playing with kids, cycling, swimming, judo, tennis) and do it for at least 20minutes three times a week. Eat and drink alkaline drinks and food afterwards to “recover”. pHour Salts is especially effective after exercise to replenish the body with alkaline salts (electrolytes) and to neutralise lactic acid build up.
• Manage Emotions: Acidic foods can be a way to anaesthetise ourselves from unwanted feelings. There’s an interesting article by Nicola Gratrix about this in this month’s Get Fresh magazine from the Fresh Network. Getting help from the right place with emotional issues can be a huge part of gaining a healthy shape. Doing work you love, following your passions and processing emotional cellular memories or interpretations with a programme like “the Journey” can all help. You might like to read “Feel the Fear and do it Anyway” by Susan Jeffers.
• Check-in for a Check-up: If you are following a super-alkaline diet, hydration and exercise programme and still not shedding (or gaining) the pounds you desire, I would encourage you to review any medication you are taking with a pH and nutritionally aware physician. Quite often conditions such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes will start to resolve once you start to alkalise, so you should be able to have an open discussion with your physician, based on measurable factors.

Most of all …. Have some fun experimenting with new ideas, drinks and flavours. What better time than summer to whip up a fresh water-melon and grapefruit cordial!

Gareth

Remember: you can now book in a 30-minute telephone consultation with Gareth for just £45. Gareth is an exceptional nutritionist and will be able to offer you specific advice and guidance and help you build a nutrition plan specific to your needs. Click here to book a telephone consultation with Gareth Edwards.

Disclaimer: Not intended to diagnose any condition, please seek help of nutritionally aware physician if experiencing health challenges.

Tagged as: alkaline diet, alkalize, lose weight, weight loss

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.