How To Properly Adopt Alkaline Diet?

The fear of fat hasn’t faded yet and as an alternative, many people are looking to consume alkaline diet as their weight loss plan and a way to achieve better health. Alkaline diet is also expected to provider us protection against osteoporosis. When our body is more acidic than normal, it is usually caused by our improper diet. When it happens, our body will try to regain the balance, by releasing magnesium and calcium from the bones. Even ammonia is released from our muscle to bring the body pH back in balance. Once the balance is achieved, the minerals will not return to our bone and they will be released through the urine. When it happens to frequently, we may start to lose bone and muscle mass. This condition is known as acidosis and believed to be among the common causes of osteoporosis.

For this reason, osteoporosis could happen even when we have calcium-rich diet. To maintain alkaline state of our body, we should consume more vegetables and fruits. At least, one third of our daily diet should come from vegetables and fruits, perhaps more. They are simply food with the densest concentration of micro nutrients and anti oxidants. When our ancestors seek food from nature, their foods contain sodium to potassium ratio of 1 to 10. However, modern diets often reverse that with 3 to 1 ration, due to higher consumption of salt. Potassium is mostly available from fruits and vegetables. Potassium is essential, because it makes acidic foods like lemons, potatoes and mangoes have alkaline effects. On the other hand, processed foods, legumes, dairy, fish and meat have acidic effects. Modern people consume less vegetables and fruits compared to grains and meat. It means that carbohydrate sources have become more acidic and less nutritious.

The acidic influences of dairy products and meat should be negated by eating more veggies and fruits. We need fat for hormone production and sustain our nervous systems and brain. Protein is also important to repair our tissue. It means that dairy foods and meat are beneficial for our body, but we should consume them with moderation. Paleo diet proponents argue that potatoes, legumes and grains are actually toxic and they are responsible for a number of diseases. Compared to fruits and vegetables, they are relatively low in phytosterols, antioxidants, minerals and vitamins. They also contain lectins and enzyme blockers. Protease inhibitor is one of the enzyme blockers found in these food and it can block the enzyme needed to digest protein. Lectins are a type of protein that can remove protective mucus from our tissues.

Lectins can also cause abnormal growth of leukocytes, encourage the production of insulin and cause damages in small intestines. For people who want to maintain alkaline body, but still want to eat some meat, they can adopt the paleo diet that contains fruits, fish, meat, certain roots and non-starchy vegetables. However, paleo diet is more restrictive than alkaline diet, but it still allows people to eat some meat.