Alkaline Diet Questions with Gareth (#33)

Hey everyone!

Each fortnight we’re putting the best alkaline diet questions we receive from you to our Alkaline Diet Expert, Dr Young trained blood analyst and highly qualified nutritionist – Gareth Edwards.

Gareth is right at the very top of his field, so these answers are absolutely the best you’ll find from arguably Britain’s most qualified expert in this area!

Q&A With Gareth Edwards

Question One: Vegan Bulk Up

Hi Gareth, Could you help me with a question I have? My husband and I have been vegans with fish once a week for 2 years since I did UPW in Sydney in 2008. Have just finished it again in Sydney and feeling euphoric still!! Anyway … he is a busy executive with no time to eat much at work and he has lost about 5kg of his very lean frame, leaving him under weight and really exhausted. He doesn’t do any exercise except Pilates once a week and no supplements. Could you suggest some ways he can get weight back on? Thanks Wendy

I think the best thing that he can do is focus on getting plenty of the blood building green drinks and smoothies. Leafy green vegetable juices, with cumber, celery and lemon juice should help build digestive tract health and red blood cells. Being able to absorb food and having the building blocks for healthy red blood cells are essential for building body bulk on an alkalising regime.

Green smothies made with the same juice blended with avocados, almonds, broccoli, sprouted beans and seeds, olive and hemp oil should give plenty of alkalising calories at any time of the day. He can eat these ingredients in big salads too. Adding some sea salt or crystal salt could help provide essential minerals too.

If he doesn’t have time to eat at work then he should mix and regularly drink a green powder supplement (Doc Brocs or pH miracle greens, for example) with water and pH drops. It shouldn’t sit in the bottle for more than two hours.

In addition to diet and hydration some sort of weight bearing exercise, even if it’s just walking, in the sunshine is essential for building healthy body tissue. I would recommend 20 minutes once during the week and two hours on Saturday and Sunday as an absolute minimum.

All this should help with cognitive clarity and efficiency and increased energy, which should have direct work related benefits. There’s a lady called Heather (I think) who I believe is a very effective practitioner and microscopist living in Australia. You should be able to get her contact details from the pH Miracle Center. Blood analysis and a consultation might help get some more clarity around effective strategies too.

Question Two: Mineral Supplements

Supplements: Which school of thought is accurate – the one that advises obtaining minerals from diet alone as they are acidic in supplement form, or the one that advocates supplements because the soil is now so depleted of minerals that diet alone does not provide adequate amounts? And what are the advantages of carbonates over citrates?

What a great question, particularly because it has made me think! It is my understanding that certain minerals are considered to have an acidifying effect on the body, while other minerals promote alkalinity. While most proponents of pH based health programmes agree that calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc and potassium are alkalising, dissent emerges over iron and sodium.

I imagine that your statement about minerals being acidic in supplement form is associated with the fact that many minerals in tablet form are “glued together” with binders and fillers that can mean ingesting them can have an acidifying effect on the body. Many non-tablet mineral supplements, such as pHour salts or pH drops (which are colloid suspensions of minerals) are bound up in chemical forms that are called amphoteric. This means that they can change their chemical make-up to “neutralise” either acidic or alkaline substances.

Even though, I like to think of myself as a heavily food focused nutrition consultant, I am happy to recommend these two products. As Christopher Vasey explains in “The acid-alkaline diet for optimum health”, facilitating the release of stored acids from body tissue should be accelerated by increasing the presence of mineral solutions that neutralise acids once they enter the blood stream.

Having said that, mineral supplements are, of course, no substitute for alkalising dietary and hydration choices. While you are right that mineral levels in soils are now diminished from those of thirty or forty years ago, the properties of fresh plant foods and the way that minerals are bound up within them cannot be replaced by a powder or colloid solution. Acidifying foods and drinks (such as animal protein and coffee) will cause minerals to be drawn from body stores to “neutralise” them. Low sugar plant foods should help promote alkalinity for many reasons and therefore help maintain the body’s mineral status.

My understanding as to why Dr. Young uses Carbonate forms of supplements in preparations such as Core Cleanse or pHlush, is due to the high negative charge or electron presence created by that molecular structure. This should be able to neutralise the positive charge associated with acids.

Question Three: Night time alkalinity

Hi Energise Team,
I’m after some advice please. I’ve just watched Ross’s five-minute acid crusher video and it has raised a question. I suffer from the herpes virus and when I suffer an attack it always seems to be first thing in the morning. So, after listening to Ross, I feel that my body is definitely going into acid-mode during the night, which could also be attributable to me always waking up still incredibly tired.
I was wondering whether you have any advice for maintaining an alkaline state during the night-time hours?
Many thanks
Rachel

Hello Rachel. Thanks for your question. Without a full medical history and ideas about what you are eating, drinking and any supplements or medication that you may be taking, I can only really hypothesise (guess!) as to what might be going on.

Our bodies do a lot of repair and de-toxification work while we are sleeping. The skin is a major elimination organ for acids and toxicity that can be become ruptured or inflamed when the de-toxification capability of our kidneys (and other filter organs) is exceeded. I think that Herpes “outbreaks” are likely to occur when your body’s systems for neutralising and eliminating acids have become overloaded. This may be because of consuming alcohol, caffeinated beverages, large amounts of processed (rather than fresh) foods or high animal protein intake. High exercise and some medications can also cause acidification of body fluids and tissue.

Eating plenty of low sugar, high nutrient, fresh and ideally raw vegetables and sprouted beans and seeds during the day should help support your body’s filter organs. Hydrating with alkaline water and doing gentle sustainable exercise outdoors (in sunlight and fresh air) can help too. In addition to these measures you could try taking a scoop of pHour salts in a glass of water before going to bed, as well as on rising. If you experience loose stools have the pHour salts either in the morning or evening only. Eating and drinking plenty of fresh green vegetables and cucumbers with lemon juice should help you feel more refreshed from sleep too. Let us know how you get on.

Question Four: Pro-Biotics

Re: Pro-biotics – I was lead to believe taking a pro-biotic during & after cleansing or a colonic hydrotherapy treatment is vital as one flushes bacteria (good & bad) from the body, therefore the good bacteria needs to be replaced??

In his ground-breaking book “Sick and Tired” Dr. Robert Young fastidiously recounts the scientific basis for a view of bacterial morphology (change or alteration) based on the environment that microbiological forms inhabit.
What this means in the context of the colon, is that bacteriological balance and the presence of so-called “good bacteria” will be created by the foods and fluids that someone consumes rather than by the consumption of capsules or powders containing bacteria. The pleomorphic concepts (bacteria’s ability to change its form or “species”) suggested in the book create the possibility that these bacteria could become “non-beneficial” if the acidic foods and fluids are consumed.

Unlike many complimentary health practitioners, Dr. Young does not recommend the use of pro-biotics at any time, including after colonic hydro-therapy. His view is that the gut should ideally be sterile (bacteria free) and that adding bacteria to the digestive tract is acidifying. I agree with this view. Consuming alkaline foods and fluids, possibly including pHour salts, is the most important step to take after colonic hydro-therapy. Ideally the hydr-therapist would be familiar with the principals of therapeutic alkalising regimes.

Disclaimer: These answers are not intended to diagnose and do not replace the advice of a qualified physician.

If you have a question for Gareth leave it in the comments below!

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.