Making These Simple Changes In What You Eat
Can Make a Huge Change in How Great You Feel
By Shelia Norling

Some may think you have to make extreme changes in your diet to experience any real results. Actually, making simple changes in what you eat and drink can make huge changes in how great you feel.

I’ve been learning about the critical importance of maintaining a pH balanced body. When our body is too acidic, it becomes overworked from the effort to process and eliminate the acid. A highly acidic system also provides an inviting environment for disease, causes weight gain and joint pain, and accelerates aging.

Since a great deal of what we consume in our society has an acid-forming effect on the body, it’s necessary to counteract the acid with alkalizing foods and drinks. In addition to our common food and drink choices being extremely acid-forming, pollution, manufactured medicines, stress, and toxic emotions also add to the problem.

It helps to know what foods are acid-forming and what foods are alkalizing. Unfortunately, this information is not provided on most packaging. This is probably because if it has a package, it is very likely acid-forming. Certainly not all packaged products are acid-forming but since the vast majority are, and it’s not really a selling point, this information is not provided.

A simple rule of thumb says the more processed the food (i.e. the more dead it is) the greater likelihood that it’s acid-forming. The more alive the food is, the more alkalizing its effect on the body. This rule of thumb is demonstrated by the fact that organic produce is even more alkalizing than the somewhat lesser alkalizing conventional version. This is because the added chemicals are acidic.

Here are some simple changes you can make to move toward a more alkalized system:

* Exchange your regular table salt for sea salt. While table salt is acidic, sea salt is alkalizing.

* Buy organic whenever possible, especially if buying meats and dairy products.

* Reduce or eliminate meat portions and increase vegetable portions.

* Reduce processed and fast food consumption and choose live food whenever possible.

* Drink clean water with lemon instead of sodas, artificially sweetened drinks, or alcohol.

* Reduce your coffee consumption and drink more green tea.

* Use sucanat instead of processed sugars.

* Add alkalizing herbs and spices to your meals.

* Reduce the amount of bread you eat.

These are not all-or-nothing suggestions. For example, you don’t have to give up meat or coffee, just reduce the amount you consume.

Of course, the more alkaline and the less acidic foods and beverages you consume, the greater your results will be and the better you will feel. So the questions to ask yourself are, “How good do I want to feel?” and “How young do I want to stay?” The choice is, of course, always up to you.

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Shelia Norling combines her background in systems design, self-development, and nutrition with her love for cooking and her zest for life to deliver practical, no nonsense information for how to tweak your diet for greater health and vitality and how to tweak your life for greater enjoyment. Claim your free copy of Shelia’s extensive Alkalizing Food List and more at www.Tweakability.com.

© Copyright 2008 Shelia Norling - This article may be reprinted without permission as long as the content and author bio remains unchanged.