This week Gareth Edwards, our Alkaline Diet Expert, Dr Young trained blood analyst and highly qualified nutritionist, writes about the importance of alkaline minerals for our health.

In this article he concentrates on what he calls the “major players”, which are the four alkaline minerals sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. They are particularly important for our cellular metabolism and for our overall health.

The Importance Of Alkaline Minerals For Health

If you’re interested in alkalising or health in general, you are probably aware of the importance of minerals to health. You might add salt to your food or avoid it. You may choose to take a supplement containing minerals. You may consciously eat foods that contain high levels of minerals you consider to be beneficial. It is possible that you might also avoid foods or drinks that inhibit the absorption of minerals into your blood stream or those that promote or increase their excretion from your body.

This week we’d like to focus on four minerals, why your body needs them and how you might make sure that has the “right” balance of them. We’ve chosen to look at the four minerals contained in Dr. Young’s product pHour salts, but they are contained in other alkalising mineral preparations too.

Four Major “Players”:

Sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium all serve major roles in cellular metabolism (i.e. making us function).

Sodium:

It is the most abundant mineral in body fluids (outside cells). It’s essential for nerve transmission, maintains fluid balance and acts as a major component of one of our body’s instant response buffering systems. Buffer systems are the way that our bodies neutralise acids that are formed in the body by everyday cellular function. Most interestingly and controversially, it is believed, in some circles that it can act as the foundational mineral for trans-mutative changes into the other three following minerals in the body.

Potassium:

It is the most abundant mineral inside our cells. It also is required for nerve transmission as exchanges with sodium ions help create the electrical flow information through our nervous systems. Additionally it maintains pH balance in the cell. When it passes out of the cell hydrogen ions can move in. Concentration of hydrogen ions is what creates the pH (potential of hydrogen). This mineral which is abundant in vegetables and fruits has been associated with a lowering of blood pressure [1].

Magnesium:

It is a huge player in making your body run. It’s central to turning food into energy. It’s needed for the pump that maintains mineral balance in the cells. It too is required for nerve transmission and muscular contraction. Crucially it is essential for functioning of the heart muscle. There are high levels in dark green leafy vegetables as it is the central atom in chlorophyll (the pigment that makes plants green).

Calcium:

It is the most abundant mineral in the body due to it’s presence in bone structure. It too plays an important role in nerve transmission, blood coagulation and the maintenance of muscle tone.

Upping the Anti:

While your body needs all of these minerals for function it can also use them to buffer acids. The Swiss pH focused natural therapist Christopher Vasey, who works closely with pHion suggests that while making alkaline food and hydration choices can help “turn the tide” of increased acidity, it can have limits. He suggests that as acids are released from tissue, they can upset the delicate pH balance of the blood.

Your intelligent body will not allow this to happen and so deep cleansing and release of accumulated acid in tissue may be prevented. He suggests using supplemental minerals in their alkaline form to directly neutralise these acids and allow them to pass into the blood and be eliminated from the body. He also suggests juicing as this makes alkaline minerals more available.

Action Points for Promoting a Healthy Mineral Balance:

• Make healthy, alkalising diet and hydration choices wherever possible. Vegetables and (low sugar) fruits are packed with these minerals. Juicing them will facilitate the ease with which they can be absorbed by your body.
• Ensure that you get some daily sun exposure (maximise at weekends) to increase Vitamin D production, which will allow you to absorb and metabolise Calcium.
• Consider using an alkaline mineral supplement such as pHour salts daily, in order to help promote the release and buffering of acids stored in tissue.
• Find healthy alternatives to tea and coffee which can both deplete mineral levels. So can alcohol and stronger acids from Animal protein and vinegar.
• Sprouted pulses and beans are preferable to cooked or tinned ones as they contain compounds that can bind to minerals and limit their absorption.

1. Houston M.C., Harper K.J. (2008) Potassium, Magnesium, and Calcium: Their Role in Both the Cause and Treatment of Hypertension.

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.

About Ross Bridgeford

Ross is known as THE Alkaline Diet Expert...especially when it comes to implementation and making the alkaline diet REAL in your life. He has been living, learning, teaching, coaching and loving the alkaline lifestyle since 2004 and has written over 600 articles, alkaline recipes, videos and guides on how to live alkaline and stay alkaline for life. Ross loves life in Brisbane, Australia (although is a proud Englishman) and is healthily-obsessed with nutrition, fitness and Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

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From Energise Alkaline Diet & Natural Health Blog - health news, alkaline diet resources & tips to make you happy! do something nice today...

This week Gareth Edwards, our Alkaline Diet Expert and highly qualified nutritionist, is writing about the importance of having sufficient levels of alkaline minerals in order for our buffering systems in our bodies to maintain the crucial and delicate pH of our blood at 7.365.

He also explains why Dr Young’s pHour Salts is a fantastic alkaline mineral supplement in helping to maintain the crucial alkaline state of our bodies and therefore optimum health!

The Importance Of Alkaline Minerals For Optimum Health!

The Food Standards Agency (a British Government organisation) issues a thick book known as “The Composition of Foods”. Originally compiled by McCance and Widdowson some sixty years ago, this book shows mineral and vitamin levels present in a wide range of food stuffs. Disturbingly, but not perhaps surprisingly, one can plot a trend over the years that these tables have been produced, showing a progressive decline in essential mineral levels in vegetables and other foods.

Intuitively we probably know that that probably isn’t a very good thing. What makes it particularly important to us, is that we have buffering systems in our bodies that maintain the crucial and delicate pH of our blood at 7.365 and this uses minerals to function.

The next potential challenge to our health comes from the fact that increased use of pharmaceutical remedies, longer distances from field to plate, greater pollution levels and general adulteration of the food chain, means that most of us face a higher acidic “load” than those who were around when the first McCance and Widdowson food tables were issued.

So what are we to do?

Before jumping to Private Frazer’s (from Dad’s Army) conclusion that “we’re all doomed” take a moment to look at some exciting and refreshing scientific research. In March last year, the peer reviewed journal “Cancer Research” published a paper by Robey et al. (and others) showing that the pH (acidic) tumours could be raised (made more alkaline) by giving patients bicarbonate salts. This also resulted in a reduction of metastases (the spreading of tumours to other body parts).

Also last year, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism published a study by Dawson-Hughes et al. showing that the administration of potassium bicarbonate led to reduced bone depletion (osteoporosis) in older men and women. This is particularly significant because the body draws calcium from bones in order to buffer (neutralise) acids. It is important to note that in this trial potassium alone (not in the bicarbonate form) did not help maintain calcium levels and bone density.

Bicarbonate is the alkaline form of minerals. It is (I imagine) universally accepted that large quantities of alkaline salts are secreted by our bodies as part of the digestive process. If however we are using these resources up in ever greater quantities and yet we are effectively consuming less of them, then there is a strong case for supplementing with bicarbonate salts.

One way to raise your body pH (become more alkaline) with mineral salts is to drink glasses of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) mixed with water. I have known this to be helpful and effective for patients. Make sure that the baking soda you use is pure (no anti-caking agents or other chemicals) if you want to try this.

There are however compelling arguments for consuming a broader spectrum of minerals in the alkaline form. It is important for the body to maintain a balance between sodium and potassium. Maintaining an intake of both of these minerals is important. The same is true of calcium and magnesium. In short large intakes of sodium or calcium without potassium or magnesium to balance them is not advisable. A healthy balance is naturally maintained by alkaline (high vegetable) dietary choices. Once we start supplementing it is important to maintain a balanced intake.

Dr. Young’s pHour salts product seems to tick a lot of boxes in helping maintain the crucial alkaline state of our bodies in the face of acidic challenges. It contains sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium in bicarbonate forms. (It is worth noting that producing the latter two minerals in bicarbonate forms is considered chemically challenging. I am however assured that Dr. Young has found a method of consistently producing powdered alkaline forms of these two essential minerals).

How To Take It:

I have now been using pHour salts for several years and I am happy to recommend them to virtually all of my clients (see cautions below to understand where I might not).

I generally recommend mixing a scoop of the salts with a glass of water and consuming before anything else in the morning. This can be particularly beneficial in helping to settle my stomach if… I haven’t followed my own advice in what I’ve eaten the night before. You can then have another glass before lunch and dinner.

You may wish to build up to this slowly and the taste will probably take some getting used to. The other option is to mix the pHour salts with green powder and drink them regularly through the day.

Cautions?

pHour salts is quite a strong alkalising agent. That’s generally quite a good thing, but take a moment to reflect on what happens when you put alka-seltzer in water. There’s quite a fizz! The active ingredients in this once ubiquitous remedy are aspirin, sodium bicarbonate and citric acid. The fizz is what occurs when the alkaline sodium and the citric acid mix with water.

When pHour salts meet with strong acids it is likely there will be some kind of “reaction”. It is therefore advisable that you start slowly with small quantities and build up your intake over time. If you are taking or have taken medication for a sustained period of time, it is advisable to consult with a qualified, pH aware physician before starting.

Some people are concerned that taking pHour salts (or other un-refined salts) may lead to increased blood pressure. My experience with patients has confirmed Dr. Young’s and my opinion that the reverse is true. These substances have been part of regimes that have helped patients lower raised blood pressure.

It is however important to remember that pHour salts are not a substitute for alkalising dietary and hydration choices. They need to be used as a supplement to them.

Who Should Use It?

You should!

For most people looking to improve their health, increasing your intake of bicarbonate salts should be highly beneficial. At a rescue remedy level, it’s particularly good for helping with indigestion and for speeding up recovery times after physical exercise (less aching muscles). They can help stop urinary tract infections (UTI’s) quickly too.

The scientific evidence strongly suggests that they can be protective against and helpful in arresting tumours and maintaining healthy bone mass. These are things we all want. Start slowly.

Remember to consult with a pH aware physician before starting if you are on or have been on regular medication.

About Ross Bridgeford

Ross is known as THE Alkaline Diet Expert...especially when it comes to implementation and making the alkaline diet REAL in your life. He has been living, learning, teaching, coaching and loving the alkaline lifestyle since 2004 and has written over 600 articles, alkaline recipes, videos and guides on how to live alkaline and stay alkaline for life. Ross loves life in Brisbane, Australia (although is a proud Englishman) and is healthily-obsessed with nutrition, fitness and Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

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From Energise Alkaline Diet & Natural Health Blog - health news, alkaline diet resources & tips to make you happy! do something nice today...

This week Gareth Edwards, our Alkaline Diet Expert and highly qualified nutritionist, is writing about healthy and alkalising alternatives to dairy products.

He explains why dairy products have an acidifying effect on our bodies, what the healthy and alkalising alternatives are and where we can get calcium from instead.

Dairy Alternatives!

“I’ve given up wheat and dairy”.

For a lot of people this seems like the most logical (and in some cases effective) starting point for taking responsibility for their own health.

So why would it be that this super food that can make a little calf turn into a big cow, be bad for us?

The reality is that a lot of the problem is down to what we humans do to it. The image of a grown human being sucking on a lactating cows teat should however be enough to remind us that it’s probably not totally what nature intended us to drink (or eat) certainly in any quantity.

What’s Good About Milk?

Why does ice cream taste good and what is it about a café late that makes some of my clients acquire a middle distance stare when I start to talk about giving it up? Well it’s partly the high fat content which gives it flavour combined with sugars. There certainly are a lot of nutrients in milk (minerals, vitamins, essential fatty acids, protein and carbohydrate) but the package is designed for baby cows rather than us. The proportions are very different to that of human milk.

The biggest challenges with dairy products actually come when we start getting involved. Pasteurising, industrial production (including anti-biotics and lactating prolonging formulas) and the making of cheeses and yoghurts are what really turns milk into an acidifying product. Research showed that children with known dairy allergies actually experienced a reduction in their symptoms when drinking un-pasteurised milk.

(Very!) occasional use of some organically produced (or ideally un-pasteurised) milk is unlikely to be nutritional Armageddon, but for all the reasons I’ve stated you would want to have some alternatives up your sleeve. After all what are you going to put on your Frosties in the morning …….?! Hang on a minute, sprouted buckwheat with blueberries (as occasional alternative to your green smoothy or breakfast salad!).

The Alternatives

Cartons of commercially produced dairy replacements have their nutritional downsides too. They are all heat treated in order to give them shelf life and can have sweeteners added to remove the bland taste of liquids with little nutritional “life force” remaining. The one that is probably best steered clear of is actually rice milk. Like rice cakes it has a very high glaecemic index (it’s sweet and the sugars are quickly released).

Commercially produced nut and seed milks aren’t great for consuming in large quantities either, because they all have sweeteners such as malt, dextrin or agave syrup added.

So what about soya? There’s a lot of debate about whether soya is actually the best solution to the world’s growing population problems, but in reality studies relating increased consumption to infertility are inconclusive. (If you’re already taking great care with your diet and hydration reducing soya intake to increase fertility might be worth considering – I guess). The isoflavone content has however been shown to have protective effects against some cancers and be beneficial for cardio-vascular health.

If you are going to use commercially produced soya milk as a diary alternative then make sure you pick an unsweetened variety.

What To Do…

As soon as you’ve finished weaning, green plant foods combined with salt and healthy fats can provide you with vast majority of nutrition that you need. It is however healthy and enjoyable (even essential!) to maintain variety and breadth in your diet and hydration choices.

Making your own plant based dairy alternatives is a healthy and nutritious way to get healthy fats, vitamins and protein in an alkaline package. Soaking almonds overnight and then grinding them up with water (and a little cinnamon, if desired) is relatively straightforward. You need to push the mixture through a nut milk bag or sieve before drinking.

As ever your lovely friends at Energise have scoured the planet to make life for the health seeker easier. Their non-dairy milk machines (such as the Magic Bean AP – 302 Soy Milk Maker) should help you make nutritious drinks from natural and nutritious ingredients.

Where To Get Your Calcium From

People worry that if they give up dairy products, their bones and teeth may start to crumble. While cow’s (and other animal) milk does have high levels of calcium, there are other, more nutritionally balanced ways for non-breast feeding humans to obtain this essential alkalising mineral. Highly alkalising green plant foods are packed with it. So too are sprouted seeds and nuts.

Remember though, as hopefully the sun in Europe starts to peak its head around the corner of the volcanic ash cloud, that getting sun exposure is absolutely the best way to make sure that you absorb (even the smallest quantity) of calcium from your diet. Remember that pHour salts contain calcium too.

About Ross Bridgeford

Ross is known as THE Alkaline Diet Expert...especially when it comes to implementation and making the alkaline diet REAL in your life. He has been living, learning, teaching, coaching and loving the alkaline lifestyle since 2004 and has written over 600 articles, alkaline recipes, videos and guides on how to live alkaline and stay alkaline for life. Ross loves life in Brisbane, Australia (although is a proud Englishman) and is healthily-obsessed with nutrition, fitness and Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

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From Energise Alkaline Diet & Natural Health Blog - health news, alkaline diet resources & tips to make you happy! do something nice today...

Now that the temperatures are steadily rising and the sun shows itelf more often, I love to eat more healthy salads.

I always look out for ways of creating different salads to keep it interesting and whilst doing this, I have come across this recipe using Kohlrabi and a Vegetable Dressing, which I think is delicious. I have eaten this salad in Germany where I come from and where Kohlrabi is widely used.

A Kohlrabi looks a bit like an alien life form, but has been deliberately developed in Northern Europe during the 16th Century. It has a mild flavour and has the ability to absorb the flavour of other ingredients in a meal.

It’s a good source of Vitamin C, as well as magnesium and phosphorous, which are useful in the absorption of calcium.

I hope you enjoy this salad as much as I do!

Kohlrabi Salad with Vegetable Dressing

Serves 2

Ingredients

3 green kohlrabi
1 spring onion or shallot
4 tbsp fresh sprouts (particularly good are alfalfa and radish sprouts)
3 tbsp olive oil or Udo’s Choice Ultimate Oil Blend
Fresh juice of half a lemon
Himalayan Crystal Salt or Celtic Sea Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Cut the spring onion or shallot into small pieces. Prepare a dressing out of the oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and sprouts and mix in the finely cut onion.

Peel the kohlrabi and cut into very thin slices. Lay the kohlrabi slices onto a big plate and cover with the dressing.

As we say in Germany “Guten Appetit”!

About Ross Bridgeford

Ross is known as THE Alkaline Diet Expert...especially when it comes to implementation and making the alkaline diet REAL in your life. He has been living, learning, teaching, coaching and loving the alkaline lifestyle since 2004 and has written over 600 articles, alkaline recipes, videos and guides on how to live alkaline and stay alkaline for life. Ross loves life in Brisbane, Australia (although is a proud Englishman) and is healthily-obsessed with nutrition, fitness and Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Mail | Web | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | YouTube

From Energise Alkaline Diet & Natural Health Blog - health news, alkaline diet resources & tips to make you happy! do something nice today...

Note: again my work is appearing plagairised across the web on some highly respected sites (surprising). Please let me know in the comments below if you see this article used elsewhere without attribution to me as the author. Thanks, Ross.

This one single, simple mistake you could be making with your health could be the biggest mistake you can make:

Not consuming enough alkaline minerals on a daily basis could be the single most damaging thing you could possibly do to your health. And yet 99% of us never get enough.

The good news is that in this article I am going to outline exactly how you can guarantee you will get enough, every day.

Plus, as you will know if you’re a regular reader of my blog, I am big on finding scientific proof to back up health claims. And as you read this article in full you will see how my research uncovers the scientific proof that alkaline minerals are critical to your health, and that an absence of sufficient alkaline minerals will not only lead to symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain (or unhealthy weight loss), poor skin and depression, but also insufficient alkaline minerals can certainly lead to cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis and more.

Background: why alkaline minerals and your pH matters

Just as your temperature absolutely has to stay at 38.5 degrees (and your body will do whatever it takes to keep it at that level) your body has to maintain a pH of 7.365.

If you eat, drink and live an lifestyle that is over-acid, the stress it puts on your body to maintain this pH of 7.365 directly leads to sickness and disease. Your body is naturally acid forming – your natural bodily processes, metabolism and the body’s removal of wastes and toxins leads to small amounts of acid by-products. To neutralise this we have a small alkaline buffering system that keeps this 7.365 pH level in our blood and other cells.

And this buffer used to be 100% adequate…until our modern lifestyle kicked in.

Now a diet of pizza, coffee, chips, chocolate, soda, alcohol, white bread, cheese, microwave meals, trans-fats and take aways plus a lifestyle of stress, pollution, chemicals and toxins means that we are constantly pushing our body to the max to try and deal with this constant, overwhelming attack of acids.

To put this in context, the pH scale (that runs from 1-14) is logarithmic. This means that pH 6 is 10x more acidic than pH 7, meaning pH 5 is 100x times more acidic than pH 7 and pH 4 is 1000x more acidic.

Coke has a pH of between 2 and 3 – pH 2.5 is almost 50,000 times more acidic than neutral water, and you need 32 glasses of neutral (pH 7) water to counteract the consumption of one glass of Cola.

So you can see how a diet filled with meats, dairy, fizzy drinks, alcohol etc would quickly deplete these buffers.

The Scientific Proof That Alkaline Minerals Are Critical To Your Health

Recent scientific research into human health, sickness & disease has shown with increasing evidence that living an acid-lifestyle is extremely detrimental to health & that by living alkaline you can increase your health, energy, vitality, immune system, youthfulness and protect yourself from disease.

As recently as October 2009, a Cambridge University study published in the highly respected British Journal of Nutrition stated:

The concept of diet-induced ‘acidosis’ as a cause of disease has been a subject of interest for more than a century. The present article reviews the history of our evolving understanding of physiological pH, the physiological support for the concept of ‘acidosis’, the causes of acidosis, how it is recognised, its short-term effects as well as the long-term clinical relevance of preventative measures, and the research support for normalisation of pH.

The available research makes a compelling case that diet-induced acidosis…is a real phenomenon, and has a significant, clinical, long-term pathophysiological effect that should be recognised and potentially counterbalanced by dietary means.¹

The researchers, Pizzornoa, Frassettoa and Katzinger have clearly identified that acidosis (increased acidity in the blood – pH below 7.365) is a very real threat to our health.

Furthermore, my research has shown that the effects of acidosis can directly contribute to various cancers^{2, 3, 12}, arthritis⁴, osteoporosis⁵, cardiovascular disease⁶, diabetes⁷, depression/psychological disfunctions⁸, Crohn’s disease⁹, kidney disease¹⁰. Yes, all of the top five killers in Western society and a whole heap more. Furthermore, my experience and the experience of those who have used my twelve week Alkaline Diet Course have given me significant proof that living alkaline also leads to weight/fat loss, muscle gain (also scientifically proven¹¹), energy increases, libido increases, skin improvements and more.

Sound interesting?

Earlier in this article I mentioned that scientific references and proof are very important to me, and I know they are to you too so here are a few extracts and sources for the claims I’ve made above. You can see a full reference list at the bottom of this page.

Alkaline Diet & Cancer

Alkaline Minerals Prevent Cancer Growth
In March 2009, Robey, Baggett, Kirkpatrick et al published a paper in the American Association for Cancer Research Journal proving that alkaline minerals (in this case NaHCO3 – sodium bicarbonate) that raise the extracellular pH of cancer tumor cells and prevent metastasis. Their research shows that the pH of the tumors are always acidic and by using highly alkaline minerals to raise the pH – the growth of the cancer (and involvement of lymph nodes) is prevented.

Source: Cancer Research 69, 2260, March 15, 2009

Cancer Thrives in an Acidic Environment
Also in Cancer Research Journal, in 2006, Gatenby, Gawlinski et al researched and discovered that “chronic exposure of normal tissue to an acidic microenvironment produces toxicity by: (a) normal cell death… and (b) extracellular matrix degradation”. They proffer that glucose imbalance (an acid lifestlye) leads to a chronically acidic microenvironment (the normal cells and molecules that surround a tumor cell) which provides the perfect base for cancer.

Source: Cancer Research 66, 5216-5223, May 15, 2006

Acidosis & Osteoporosis

Alkaline Minerals Prevent Osteoporosis

A recently published study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (Vol 94, No 1 96-102, 2009) has provided further evidence that the consumption of and supplementation with alkaline minerals is essential for good health. The objective of the study was to understand the effect of alkaline minerals (potassium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate and potassium chloride) on bone health – specifically, the ability of these alkaline minerals to slow the bone resorption rate and calcium excretion.

The participants who were taking the bicarbonate supplements had significant reductions in urinary N-telopeptide and calcium excretion when compared to the control group. This means that when taking the alkaline minerals, bones remained stronger and healthier.

Source: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (Vol 94, No 1 96-102, 2009)

Cardiovascular Disease & the Alkaline Diet

Alkaline Minerals Critical to Prevention of CVD

In the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Joseph Campbell provides a thorough review of the scientific literature surrounding minerals and disease and highlights that the alkaline minerals, magnesium and calcium, are critical to the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). He also highlights that “Excessive consumption of acid producing foods, results in metabolic acidosis. When this occurs, the parathyroid hormone stimulates the removal of calcium from the bones and teeth (osteolysis), to buffer or neutralize the excess acidity. After many years, such calcium loss results in depleted bone, bone weakness and structure.”

Source: Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 10, No. 3 & 4, 1995

Arthritis & Alkalinity

Alkaline Mineral Supplementation Decreases Pain in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

This incredible study from Institute for Prevention and Nutrition (Germany) provided clear and unquestionable evidence that using an alkaline mineral supplement (30g daily) reduced pain and increased movement in patients with moderately active Rheumatoid Arthritis over a 12-week period.

Source: The Open Nutrition Journal, 2008, 2, 100-105

Do you want to safeguard yourself from degenerative diseases while living with more energy, a lean, fit body, great skin, youthfulness and vitality?

How You Can Guarantee Your Health With Alkaline Minerals

The above studies prove, without question, that having sufficient alkaline mineral buffers to neutralise dietary, lifestyle and metabolic acids is critical to maintaining excellent health, energy and vitality and to the prevention of degenerative disease.

It is also highlighted in several of these studies that using an alkaline mineral supplement is an effective way of guaranteeing your daily intake of alkaline minerals is sufficient.

The efficacy of using a mineral supplement (and these supplements providing a usable form of these minerals) is further supported by this June 2009 study published in the Nutrition Journal, “Effect of a supplement rich in alkaline minerals on acid-base balance in humans”. The study concluded “that the ingestion of a multimineral supplement is associated with both a significant increase in blood and urinary pH”.

If you want to guarantee you have sufficient alkaline minerals then supplementation is a smart choice

My Favourite Alkaline Minerals

I’ve been working and researching in the alkaline diet field for five or six years now and have seen a lot of supplements come and go, and the one thing that determines whether a supplement will be successful or not is: does it work.

Poor quality supplements get found out very quickly.

With that in mind, these are the two alkaline mineral supplements that I personally recommend to you. I have been using these personally for at least four years now and I truly believe that they are incredibly effective.

pHion Balance: Alkaline Minerals

Almost instantly neutralises harmful acids. pHion Alkaline Minerals contains all five primary alkaline minerals: calcium, magnesium, potassium, manganese, and iron. Once these mineral buffers hit the system, they quickly neutralise excess acids. This is my personal #1 choice for an alkaline mineral supplement.

Another bonus of this supplement is that it makes green drinks taste better when mixed together!

Click here for more information on Alkaline Minerals

Jarrow: Mineral Balance

A comprehensive multi-mineral formula that will aid your pH balance and gives your body at least 100% RDI of all of the most essential alkaline minerals.

Click here for more information on Mineral Balance

Diet Comes First

You should always aim to get an abundance of nutrients from whole foods – there are no shortcuts here. This is just essential.

To make sure you’re getting plenty of alkaline minerals in your life I believe you should both consume good quality (pref organic) fresh, vibrant, healthy, high-water content, often raw foods PLUS I believe that you should supplement this to ensure that you always have a safety net. It is SO important to get enough of the right minerals every day that I fully believe in supplementation in this case.

This is particularly important if you have been out of balance, because there will be a lot of repair, detoxification and tidying up to do in your blood and other cells, so providing your body with an abundance of alkaline minerals is one of the very best things you can do.

Here’s the whole food sources:

1. POTASSIUM:
• Avocado
• Spinach
• Soybeans
• Lentils
• Swiss Chard
• Tomatos
• Broccoli
• Squash
• Cucumber
• Sweet Potato
• Beetroot
• Greens
• Carrots
• Kidney Beans
2. MAGNESIUM:
• Pumpkin Seeds
• Spinach
• Soybeans
• Swiss Chard
• Salmon
• Broccoli
• Cucumber
• Sunflower Seeds
• Navy Beans
• Pumpkin
• Tomatoes
• Celery
• Quinoa
• Almonds
• Brown Rice
3. CALCIUM:
• Basil
• Turnip
• Thyme
• Spinach
• Greens
• Kelp
• Broccoli
• Swiss Chard/Silverbeet
• Romaine Lettuce
• Kale
• Celery
• Cabbage
• Squash
• Green Beans
• Asparagus
• Brussel Sprouts
• Garlic
4. SODIUM:
• Avocado
• Carrots
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Greens
• Parsley
• Peppers
• Radish
• Sunflower Seeds
• Sweet Potato
• Turnip
• Beets

Note on Sodium:

We are talking about proper, pure sodium, not table salt or the salt added to refined foods. According to Dr Young:

Today’s common table salt is a poison that has nothing in common with natural liquid colloidal salt. Most common table salt is made up of chemicals that pollute your body and wreak havoc on your health. Your table salt is actually 97.5% sodium chloride
and 2.5% chemicals such as moisture absorbents, and iodine. Dried at over 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, the excessive heat alters the natural chemical structure of the salt causing the potential for a myriad of health challenges in your body. [see the full article here]

Sodium is essential in the body, and the above listed alkaline vegetables provide you with a good, clean source of this important salt.

SUMMARY

In this article I have proven that consuming sufficient alkaline minerals is essential to good health. Your body really needs you to minimise the acids you consume and keep putting alkali in. When we consume acids, your body uses the alkaline substances in your body (calcium from bones, for example) to neutralise these acids which causes havoc. The body only has a very tiny supply of alkaline buffers and so by giving the body an abundance of alkalinity we not only ease this burden but also give the body the tools it needs to work optimally.

The four main alkaline minerals are calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium (clean, not refined table salt). These are abundant in fresh vegetables (particularly greens), and we advise you to eat plenty each day!

We also recommend two supplements. In the short-medium term these will help undo any previous damage and assist in detoxifying the body of acids, molds and fungus and in the long-term will help to maintain this alkaline balance, giving you a daily safety net to ensure you get enough of these minerals day-in-day-out.

Sources & References:

¹ Diet-induced acidosis: is it real and clinically relevant? British Journal of Nutrition Cambridge University Press; Joseph Pizzornoa, Lynda A. Frassettoa and Joseph Katzingera
²Acid-Mediated Tumor Invasion: a Multidisciplinary Study; Cancer Research 66, 5216-5223, May 15, 2006; Robert A. Gatenby, Edward T. Gawlinski, Arthur F. Gmitro, Brant Kaylor and Robert J. Gillies
³The Potential Role of Systemic Buffers in Reducing Intratumoral Extracellular pH and Acid-Mediated Invasion; Cancer Research 69, 2677, March 15, 2009; Ariosto S. Silva, Jose A. Yunes, Robert J. Gillies and Robert A. Gatenby
⁴Alkaline Mineral Supplementation Decreases Pain in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients; The Open Nutrition Journal, 2008, 2, 100-105; Regina Maria Cseuz, Istvan Barna, Tamas Bender and Ju?rgen Vormann
⁵Treatment with Potassium Bicarbonate Lowers Calcium Excretion and Bone Resorption in Older Men and Women; The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Vol. 94, No. 1 96-102; Bess Dawson-Hughes, Susan S. Harris, Nancy J. Palermo, Carmen Castaneda-Sceppa, Helen M. Rasmussen and Gerard E. Dallal
⁶Minerals and Disease; Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 10, No. 3 & 4, 1995; Joseph D. Campbell
⁷Preservative Effect of Electrolyzed Reduced Water on Pancreatic b -Cell Mass in Diabetic db/db Mice; Biol. Pharm. Bull. 30(2) 234—236 (2007); Mi-Ja KIM, Kyung Hee JUNG, Yoon Kyung UHM, Kang-Hyun LEEM, and Hye Kyung KIM
⁸The Effect of Acid/Alkaline Nutrition on Psychophysiological Function; Int J Biosocial Res. Vol. 9(2); 182-202, 1987; Rudolf A. Wiley
⁹Severe Osteomalacia Associated with Renal Tubular Acidosis in Crohn’s Disease; Digestive Diseases & Sciences, Vol 31, No 3, March 1986; Rui MM Victorino, Margarida B Lucas, Miguel Carneiro de Moura
¹⁰Metabolic acidosis of CKD: diagnosis, clinical characteristics, and treatment; American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Volume 45, Issue 6, Pages 978-993 J. Kraut, I. Kurtz
¹¹Lean Tissue: Alkaline diets favor lean tissue mass in older adults; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 87, No. 3, 662-665, March 2008; Bess Dawson-Hughes, Susan S Harris and Lisa Ceglia

About Ross Bridgeford

Ross is known as THE Alkaline Diet Expert...especially when it comes to implementation and making the alkaline diet REAL in your life. He has been living, learning, teaching, coaching and loving the alkaline lifestyle since 2004 and has written over 600 articles, alkaline recipes, videos and guides on how to live alkaline and stay alkaline for life. Ross loves life in Brisbane, Australia (although is a proud Englishman) and is healthily-obsessed with nutrition, fitness and Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

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From Energise Alkaline Diet & Natural Health Blog - health news, alkaline diet resources & tips to make you happy! do something nice today...

This week Gareth Edwards, our Alkaline Diet Expert and highly qualified nutritionist, writes about the importance and powerful effects of alkaline minerals, as the cornerstone to maintaining the alkaline design of the body and living with health, energy and vitality.

Powerful Alkalinity with These Super-Strength Alkaline Minerals:

“My Granny lived to 97 in good health and she didn’t do any of this alkalising.”

One of the many factors that may have helped her achieve this non-pH miracle, was the relative state of the soil back in 1910, compared to mineral depleted, fertilizer and intensive farming eroded “dust” on which many of crops are grown today.

Since regular records of mineral levels in food in the United Kingdom began there has been a relentless and steady decline in the mineral levels present in vegetables. Magnesium, an essential mineral for human health, being one of the “sufferers”.

Why We need (Alkalising) Minerals:

These (missing!) minerals serve many functions in our bodies. They provide constructional building blocks for or body elements. Calcium in bone being the most obvious example. They also act as co-factors in many metabolic reactions. Also crucially they are used by the body in order to buffer (neutralise) acids.

Basic Terminology:

When considering minerals and their therapeutic effects, it’s important to be aware of some distinctions. Certain minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium are considered macro minerals. These are present at high levels in the human body and correspondingly so in many plant foods.

Other essential (needed) minerals are found as trace levels (e.g.zinc) while others still are actually toxic (e.g. Mercury and Cadmium).

How to Become or Stay Healthy!

Remembering that we are “alkaline by design and acidic by function”, (merely existing makes us acidic…) and that we live in an ever more acidic (polluted, urbanised) and mineral depleted world, our need to support our body’s buffering system is greater than ever. Dietary, hydration and lifestyle choices have to lie at the centre of this. If you eat a lot of meat, poultry, eggs or sugar and / or drink alcohol, fruit juice or coffee your bodies alkaline mineral resources are likely to be “burning up”, faster than any mineral supplement can ever hope to replace them.

Ironically when we are overly acidic these foods often have an instant gratification appeal. The hit or boost of energy that they can induce is all too often short lived and is likely to lead to health challenges in the longer term.

Most green powders are made from vegetables and grasses grown in mineral rich soils. Minerals that are bound up in plant form should be easy for the body to absorb. Regular consumption of green powder mixed with alkalising mineral drops is often a great way to start to break this “cycle of addiction”.

Magic Alkalising Minerals:

Once you feel that you can comfortably sustain a regime, based around low sugar high nutrient foods and fluids, it is definitely worth considering adding additional alkalising minerals to your health regime.

Probably the most hotly debated player in our body’s alkaline armoury is sodium. Many alkalising and living food health specialists consider sodium chloride (salt) to be a demon, while others see it as central and essential to health. The central argument around whether you can over salt yourself, relies partly on the concept of transmutation within the body. This is the slightly surreal concept that mineral forms can be transformed within the body, given the right environment and building blocks to make changes. Proving this theory is possible and the subject for another article. Suffice it to say here, that I have several patients who have come to me with high blood pressure and found that it has dropped after following an alkalising regime including relatively high levels of unrefined and bicarbonate salt.

I am happy to recommend Dr. Young’s pHour salts and pHlavor sprays as corner stones to alkalising programmes, but do remember that pHour salts is a strong alkalising agent and may cause headaches or even increased heart rate in some susceptible people. You should therefore exercise caution when using them regularly and certainly review any medication you are taking with an “alkaline aware” physician, before launching in too aggressively to this particular aspect of alkalising.

Another way to dramatically increase your intake of a broad spectrum of alkalising minerals (macro and trace) is to use Montmorillonite clay. This can be mixed as a paste and eaten between meals or added as a powder to green drinks.

Dosage & Form:

There are of course other specific mineral formulas that can be taken alongside an alkalising regime. Levels and forms of these minerals do leave the “as nature intended” arena and move into synthetic (man made) formulation. The building blocks are natural elements but the proportions are going to be based on the formulators view. That does not of course make them necessarily wrong, but just be aware of that dynamic when consuming them.

One of the primary goals in increasing your consumption of alkalising minerals is to ……. alkalise (!) your body fluids and tissues, so in deciding on dosage and frequency, measuring the effect on urine and saliva pH is a good way to establish whether what you are doing is effective. As a general principal less more often is likely to be better absorbed than more less often. Also colloids and liquid forms are likely to be better absorbed than tablets.

Action plan:

1. Be sure to drink sufficient quantities of alkaline fluid to allow your body to eliminate buffered acids, with added pH drops (such as Dr Young’s Puriphy drops) or increased intake of salt (such as young pHorever pHlavor Mineral Salts).
2. Before reaching for magic mineral supplements be sure to have a close look at your dietary and hydration choices. Eliminate (or reduce) acid forming foods (animal protein, sugar, refined carbohydrates, mushrooms) and liquids (alcohol, tea, coffee, fruit juice, vinegar and fizzy drinks), replacing them with healthy, nutritious, tasty, alkalising alternatives. (See the alkaline lifestyle course and recipe book).
3. Use mineral supplements such as pHour salts, pHlavor and clay alongside your alkaline regime.
4. Consider also adding broad spectrum trace mineral supplements to your programme to help reduce fungus and mould and increase energy.

N.B. if you experience any adverse effects when taking mineral supplements, consult with a nutritionally / alkaline aware physician.

About Ross Bridgeford

Ross is known as THE Alkaline Diet Expert...especially when it comes to implementation and making the alkaline diet REAL in your life. He has been living, learning, teaching, coaching and loving the alkaline lifestyle since 2004 and has written over 600 articles, alkaline recipes, videos and guides on how to live alkaline and stay alkaline for life. Ross loves life in Brisbane, Australia (although is a proud Englishman) and is healthily-obsessed with nutrition, fitness and Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Mail | Web | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | YouTube

From Energise Alkaline Diet & Natural Health Blog - health news, alkaline diet resources & tips to make you happy! do something nice today...