This year the theme for the seminar run with our association’s AGM was Pain and Inflammation. This slide really captured for me a surprising fact about pain and how intense it can be for people who are acidic. There were a few other surprises too in terms of alkalinity and how beneficial it can be for the body and your health. Overall the top three takeouts from this presentation were;

1. People who are acidic experience more intense pain. Basically receptors are able to absorb more signals in an acidic environment thereby intensifying the experience.
2. Each tissue requires a different type of Ph to do its job correctly however blood operates at a very narrow range and will pull calcium from bone to form calcium carbonate and alkalise. Acidity therefore aggravates conditions such as osteoporosis where bone density is already low.
3. The body can excrete acidity but only about 60% of what most people produce.
4. The major factor in whether you are alkaline or acidic is your diet!

Well the standard Australian diet also known as SAD creates more acidity than we can excrete. Typically foods such as grains are mildly acidic, meats are more acidic and vegetables are alkaline. A diet heavy in meat and grains is more acidic. For more information on the acidity and alkalinity of foods have a look at Acid base nutrition .

How do you compensate for a diet heavy in grains and protein – well if you are eating the SAD you need 12 serves of vegetables a day! That’s the equivilant of 6 cups of vegetables which is an awful lot for most people to eat.

Alkalising your diet can be as simple as having modest serves of protein (palm sized and thickness) plus 3 serves of vegetables with each serve. A moderate amount of grains possibly 2 serves a day plus good fats. Fats are neutral in this equation. In other words a healthy balanced Mediterranean style diet. No demonising one component like protein or fat just a diet loaded with vegetables, proteins, carbs and fat!!

Christine Pope is a practicing nutritionist and homeopath based at Elemental Health, St Ives. Phone for appointments on 80840081 or book online at Elemental Health .