After my recent Alkaline Water Q&A Session there was ONE KEY QUESTION that kept coming up over and over again: what are the easiest and cheapest ways to make alkaline water?

In this short video I run through all of the techniques:

> what they are
> how they work
> the costs
> the pro’s and con’s

Included are ‘lemon water’, adding sodium bicarb, alkaline jugs, alkaline sticks, pH drops and more!

Enjoy
Ross

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...

I understand that price is the #1 consideration when looking at the alkaline water options.

This guide will give you the lowdown on the different options to get alkaline water into your life in the most cost effective way possible.

I’ve also created a comparison of the different alkaline water methods and given pro’s and con’s so be sure to read that guide too.

Cost-Effective Alkaline Water

Alkaline Water Ionizers

I am going to start with water ionizers because not only do I believe they are by FAR the best way to get alkaline water, but also because I think they can be cost effective too. I understand that there is an up front outlay, but we have worked very hard and have managed to arrange an interest free payment plan to try and make these ionizers as accessible and affordable as possible.

We are just days away from launching this payment plan and I will let you know once I know the exact details – but we are hoping to make it comparable to buying pH drops on a monthly basis.

Plus, with ionized water you also can figure in the following savings:

• Bottled Water: according to which.co.uk (the UK’s leading consumer advise service), bottled water costs around 31p per litre if bought in bulk – which at 4 litres per person, per day certainly adds up. This is £38 per person, per month. So presuming there are two of you in the household, on average, this is £76 per month on bottled water
• Cleaning Products: remember, acid water from a Chanson Ionizer at pH 3.5 or less is totally sterilizing and able to rapidly kill bacteria. Click here for the ionizer scientific proof and click here for more acid water uses – plus, click here for the story of the Sheraton using acid water to clean instead of toxic chemicals. Presuming you use, on average bathroom spray, kitchen surface spray, a bottle of bleach, oven cleaner, floor cleaner and glass cleaner and these last, on average 2 months – this will cost you approximately: £14.35 per month. PLUS – you will not have so many harmful chemicals in your life and around your kids. (Prices sourced from sainsburys.co.uk).

• Make Up & Skin Cleanser: acid water between pH 3.5 and 4.5 is also fantastic for the skin, as a toner and make up remover. This would equate to a saving of around £7 per month – plus you, again, won’t be bathing your face with chemicals.

.

I know this might still seem expensive to you – but I hope that our interest-free ionizer payment plan will help make it more affordable.

What you get: alkalised, ionized water that is pH 9.5, antioxidant rich (ORP of -450), microclusterd for better hydration and filtered to remove the toxins in tap water.
What you miss out on: nothing.

COST: about £40-£50 per month for unlimited use and production of acid and alkaline water (price TBC).

Lemon Water

You can make alkalizing water simply by squeezing fresh lemon into it. While lemon in it’s natural state is acidic (citric acid of course), when it is metabolised it has an alkaline effect on the body. Click here for more of an explanation on how lemon water is alkalising.

So this is super cheap and alkaline BUT…

I would not recommend this being your only source of alkaline water. I personally only do this once per day, in the morning to get my body awoken, my metabolism working and my digestive system cleansing.

This does not make the high pH water your body needs. You should see lemon water as a cleansing, enjoyable drink rather than an alkaline water.

What you get: a cleansing drink that is tasty and very mildly alkalising to the system
What you miss out on: the high pH needed, the antioxidant content, the microclustering and the filtration

COST: about 10p per litre.

pH Drops

pH drops are fantastic on-the-go and do a great job of increasing the alkalinity of tap water and filtered water. I would personally use them with a filter too as tap water contains a lot of rubbish you don’t want to be drinking.

What you get: increased pH.
What you miss out on: the antioxidant content, the microclustering and the filtration

COST: about £30-£40 per month.

Portable Ionizer Jugs

I love these little units and took one all over Europe and the USA with me last year – happily filtering tap water wherever I went. They definitely do not even get close to replacing an actual ionizer, but they are handy for at the office, in the second home/holiday home or when travelling.

What you get: reasonable pH, reasonable filtration.
What you miss out on: the antioxidant content, the microclustering and the filtration.

COST: about £50 for the jug, plus replacement filter costs of around £30 per year.

I hope this helps! As you can see, there are varying costs – but if you are committed to paying around £30-50 per month on pH drops or other filtration methods then I strongly recommend you look into buying a Chanson ionizer from us on our interest free payment plan!

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...

I’ve blogged extensively about lemon water before, and even include it in my Definitive Guide to Alkaline Water – because I think it is such a great, powerful, natural, cleansing drink to start the day.

I’ve never heard any complaints from anyone saying it is not good for you but I am very frequently asked: is it alkaline?

Or should I say, I’m very frequently told ‘lemon’s aren’t alkaline, you idiot – do some research and read up on science’.

Of course, these people are right, lemons are not alkaline, they are citric acid of course – but those people are missing the point and are missing what I am saying.

I am not saying that lemons are alkaline, I am saying that lemons are alkalising!

See the distinction here? And by the way, this applies to all foods, not just lemons & limes. The most important thing to note is not what the pH of the food is in it’s natural state – rather the EFFECT THE FOOD HAS ON THE BODY.

Because of its very low sugar content and high alkaline mineral content, lemons actually have an alkalising effect on the body.

Why Acid/Alkaline Food Charts Differ

In fact, this is why a lot of acid/alkaline food charts differ – and the main difference is with fruits. A lot of food charts use the PRAL scale to categorise foods as acid or alkaline (PRAL is Potential Renal Acid Load). While this is a very accurate scale for many purposes, it is misleading for the alkaline diet because it only considers what the pH of the food is BEFORE consumption, not after.

PRAL is determined by burning the food down until it is just an ash residue and then measuring the pH of that ash. However, this actually burns away all of the sugars and yeasts and a heap of other substances that have a dramatically acid effect on the body.

Hence why in some lists pineapple and bananas are considered alkaline. It is because they contain lots of alkaline minerals such as potassium – however they are also incredibly high in sugar (25% +) which means that no matter how many nutrients they contain they will always be really acidic to the body and lead to massive yeast problems.

The same goes for lemons, limes, grapefruits and tomatoes – but the other way around. PRAL would list them as acidic, due to the ash residue, however, because of the low, low sugar content and high alkaline mineral content they are actually alkalising to the body once consumed.

There are lots of people out there (nowadays) writing about the alkaline diet, but we still believe in the research and views of Dr Robert Young – the most experienced biologist, scientist, nutritionist and researcher in the alkaline diet field and, quite frankly, the pioneer of the alkaline diet.

He states:

“Well, isn’t lemon juice acidic too?” It’s actually true that if you took some pH paper and tested lemon juice it would test acid, but once the lemon juice is metabolized in the body, the inherent alkalizing mineral salts contained in the lemon juice (and the bicarbonates that it pulls into the blood during digestion) leaves a residue of alkaline ash in the bloodstream. Also because of their low sugar content, lemons and limes do not ferment in the blood.”

So there you have it – lemon water IS alkalising to the body and I highly recommend you drink it!

How to Use Lemon Water

Here are my simple instructions:

1. Drink daily, upon rising
2. Mix 8 parts normal water to 2 parts boiled water to make lukewarm/tepid water
3. Squeeze approximately ¼ lemon into 500ml of water. This is a rough estimate you don’t need to be precise.
4. Enjoy!

DO NOT ADD ANY FORM OF SUGAR, YES THAT INCLUDES HONEY as this will make this drink HIGHLY acidifying.

Take care and leave comments or questions below!

Ross

For more information about alkaline water click here to download my free report “The Definitive Guide to Alkaline Water”.

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...

Post Updated: 6th January 2010

Since I posted this blog back in March 2006 its received a fair amount of attention and there have been quite a lot of comments left (230+ to date). These comments are a mix of questions, agreement and a whole lot of flaming (some personal) against me. So I thought it would be a fine time to update the post, give you more information and clear up a heap of the questions that keep being asked!

—–

Since we started blogging about the health benefits of lemon water I have received lots of questions from people wondering if it is ok to put a spoonful of honey into their lemon water to sweeten it up (as recommended on other websites and a few books).

The short answer is no.

Honey is obviously sugar, and although ‘natural’ – the effect on the body is the detrimental whether sugar is natural or not.

Now, this is not to say that you can never have honey ever again, but use it very sparingly. I understand, of course, that there are different types of sugar, and I understand that these metabolise differently, but from the perspective of their effect on the blood and our acid/alkaline balance – all sugar is detrimental.

Sugar is such an issue because it causes the blood to deviate from it’s ideal pH level of 7.365 and when this occurs it causes major stress to the rest of the body. The body has to maintain this pH level and it will go to extreme measures and sacrifice everything else to make sure it stays there.

Why Does The Body Have to Stay At pH 7.365?

Because in an acidic state, red blood cells cannot possibly function as they are supposed to and begin a biological transformation into bacteria and yeast (called pleomorphism) and pollute your internal environment. In addition, the acids that are created and consumed in our modern lifestyle also ferment the blood, and create harmful by-products, toxins and alcohols, which then further destroy our internal environment.

With more acid, more toxins are created, the pH is lowered, the bacteria and yeast grows, becomes mold, and a vicious cycle begins

The unfriendly toxins, yeasts, bacteria and mold created by this acidic environment not only cause your system to become polluted and stressed, but they also feed off your good nutrients (meaning you feel less of the benefit of the good things you do eat) and excrete toxic acid waste, making the blood even more acidic and polluted. This toxic waste is…acid. It also acts as a food to the yeasts and bacteria already there, further fueling the problem.

So:

Acids consumed -> turn healthy red blood cells into bacteria and yeast -> creates mold -> mold eats your good nutrients -> excrete acid wastes -> quickly turns healthy red blood cells into bacteria and yeast -> creates mold etc.

Or in picture format:

Sugar, in all its states and forms is the #1 contributor to the over-acidification of the body

I understand there are other benefits of putting honey in lemon water, but these are instantly and massively outweighed by the negative effect of the sugar.

Even though the natural sugar of honey metabolises slower than white sugar, the effect on the acid/alkaline balance is almost instant and is very strong.

Sorry guys! But hey, lemon water doesnt taste that bad anyway does it?

More Reading

• Video Explanation: Lemons ARE alkaline NOT acid to the body
• Original Lemon Water Blog Post – explaining the benefits of lemon water
• Blog Post: The Acid Alkaline Diet Simplified – If you need a background to the acid alkaline diet then this is a great read
• Blog Post: The Top 10 Acid Alkaline Diet Questions Answered

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...

Almost as cunningly simple in its title as ‘green drink’ – lemon water is quite blindingly straightforward in its makeup: it is water with lemon squeezed in. Could it be any easier?

The beauty of lemon water is that it is tasty, refreshing and best of all, alkalising. The lemon juice raises the alkalising effect of the water so even with standard tap water you can make your drink nice and alkalising.

However, for the full lemon water effect: ionised water or filtered water with pH drops (or PuripHy ) and lemon creates the ultimate alkaline water. The trick however, is to have the water lukewarm. If the water is too hot or too cold then it will cause the body to expand energy in order to process it. Lukewarm water also has that comforting feeling to it…

I know a lot of you know about lemon water already, through reading/learning about alkalising or through Gillian McKeith (who also recommends lemon water on rising) – but it is always a good thing to reinforce the basics.

Lemons are Alkaline? Please Explain…

Lemon water is most definitely alkalizing to the body. I know this might seem confusing at first but my short video with Dr Young trained, alkaline expert nutritionist Gareth Edwards will explain how lemons are indeed an alkaline food (click here for a full list of alkaline foods):

Note: I am not saying that lemons are alkaline, I am saying that lemons are alkalising!

See the distinction here? And by the way, this applies to all foods, not just lemons & limes. The most important thing to note is not what the pH of the food is in it’s natural state – rather the EFFECT THE FOOD HAS ON THE BODY.

Because of its very low sugar content and high alkaline mineral content, lemons actually have an alkalising effect on the body.

So What Are the Benefits of Drinking Lemon Water?

Apart from being an amazing body alkalizer/alkaliser, lemon water also gives the following health benefits:

• Lemons are antiseptic
• Lemon water has excellent digestive properties and can ease heartburn, bloating and other digestion problems
• Lemon water cleanses and stimulates the liver and kidneys
• Lemon juice contains calcium, magnesium and potassium
• Lemon juice has been known to relieve asthma
• Lemon water (hot) offers relief from cold and flu symptoms while providing some much needed Vitamin C
• Lemon juice is a great skin cleanser

So if you do not do anything else – start every single day with a glass of lovely lemon water!

PS – I have noticed that someone just found this page by googling: ‘do not leave lemon in lemon water’ and it reminded me of how true this is! Obviously if you are going to drink the water there and then by all means leave it in, but if you are making a batch up then the water can easily get too lemon-y if you leave the squeezed lemon chunks in.

Also, and more importantly, unless you have REALLY washed the lemons or have bought organic then the pesticides and chemicals could leach out of the rind and into your water if they are left soaking for too long.

PPS – yes, it is fine to add some cayenne (cayene) pepper to your lemon water for a bit of a kick, but PLEASE DO NOT ADD MAPLE SYRUP – this will make it have an acidic effect on the body!

NOTE/UPDATE: given the amount of comments that have been left all saying “I thought lemons are acidic” (or something slightly more forceful than that), I thought I should give further explanation – watching my video above with Gareth Edwards will also answer this question – Gareth is an alkaline diet legend:

It is not the relative acidity/alkalinity of the food but rather the effect it has on the body that is important. Seemingly acidic foods such as lemons, limes and tomato are acidic in their basic state, but once metabolized by the body have an alkalising effect. The high alkaline mineral content of these foods means that once consumed and metabolized they increase the alkalinity of the cells of the body.

Here is a video with reknowned nutritionist and blood specialist Gareth Edwards where he explains that lemons are alkalising once consumed.

Extra Update: I’ve received a few emails and comments about tooth enamel and lemon water, and while I’ve been drinking lemon water for years with no trouble on this front here are a few suggestions if you are concerned:

Further resources:

• Our Energise Alkaline Diet Resources
• Middle Path’s Benefits of Lemon Juice – lists ailments helped by lemon water!
• About.com’s lemon water article
• Mommylife gives some other lemon juice benefits here (about 2/3 of the way down!)

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...