By Todd Lee M.D.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGWMdRejL-c]

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What Is Alkalinization

Alkalinization is the opposite of acidification.  An acid is a compound that donates a proton or has a Hydrogen Ion that it donates to a relative base.  Now the deprotonated acid is a conjugate base and the recipient of that proton is a conjugate acid.  The relative pKa’s of different compounds determine how they will interact with each other.

The pH of the solution is a measurement of the free Hydrogen concentration: the lower the number, the more acidic a solution is.  A neutral solution is 7.  A pH of 5 is 100 times more acidic than a pH 7 and  pH 9 is 100 times as ALKALINE as  pH 7.

Got it? That's high school level chemistry.  If you don't get it its ok, just do what I say. ;)

What Was The Point Of That?

Here is one of the most important things you can ever know about your body: Your blood has to be a pH of 7.4 or you start dying.

You see, the enzymes in your body only work in a very narrow pH range and narrow temperature range. Having a 7.3 pH is like having a fever.  Our American lifestyle is acidifying our blood and that is how so many people are sickly and dying.  Processed foods and artificial additives drive down the pH.  Poor cardiovascular health causes us to retain CO2 and not breath it out and the increase in blood CO2 causes the pH to drop as well.  Ever workout till you puke? That's your body dumping your Hydrochloric acid so your pH can rise back up to a survivable level. You know why you feel like you’re going to die before you puke but feel much better a few minutes later? Because you were dying, but puking normalized your blood and your pH is back to at least 7.3 after vomiting and your now not dying. So you feel better!

Alkalizing Your Blood Through Food

It used to drive me nuts in school when the teacher would give us a super clear table and then read to us, slowly, what the table said. I am a visual learner and a top down and bottom up thinker so I would much prefer charts, graphs, and data to a human voice.  But not everyone is like me, so I'm going to explain this table.

The center column is the categories column.  Counter intuitively, the Alkaline foods are on the left and the acidic foods are on the right, it should be the other way around.  Now, you may say, “Lemon juice is a ph of 2 and is mostly citric acid WTF!?” You’re right but because the purpose of the table is to represent what the food does to your blood, it's more complicated than just what the food is in a test tube (in vitro).  It's about what effects it has in your body (in vivo).

Vegetables and nuts:

Avoid your rice, beans, lentils, soy and peanuts, those are acidic.

Use almonds, almond butter, sweet potato and green vegetables instead.

Oils:

Avoid canola oil and butter

Use macadamia, coconut and olive oil for cooking.

Sweeteners:

Avoid sugar, high fructose corn syrup, commercial honey, aspartame, sucralose and saccharin.

Use calorie free Stevia, organic honey and organic maple syrup if you desire the empty calories.

Meat:

Pretty much all meat is acidic, so if you want to have any muscle at all you're going to have to just deal with it. The only protein source that isn't acidic is whey protein, which is Alkaline. CLA and Omega 3 are also alkaline.

In case I wasn't clear: Fish, chicken, beef, lobster and eggs are acidic.  If you eat a ton of protein then make sure everything else in your diet is alkaline.

Dairy:

Avoid dairy from cows.

Use human breast milk or goats milk.

Seasoning:

Avoid table salt, soy sauce, cocoa, black pepper and ketchup

Use Celtic Sea salt, tamari (gluten free soy sauce), cinnamon,  cayenne pepper and mustard

Special Benefits To The Bodybuilder

Some of the more astute audience have noticed that a lot of the standard themes to bodybuilding food selection are on the Alkaline side of the table and the primary protein choices are whey, fish, egg whites and chicken in that order of preference.  That's because NOBODY knows the human body better than bodybuilders. Science is now catching up with the bodybuilding community and pretending these are their original ideas.

Bottom line is: most scientists, doctors, nurses and even nutritionists look very unhealthy.  Any competitive athlete in the NPC or IFBB is likely to know more about fitness and nutrition than 3 or 4 of those “Health Care Professionals” combined.

Use your eyes and common sense, if someone looks overweight and giving out diet tips who cares what piece of paper they paid for? You can't fake results. The opinions of the fit outweigh the opinions of the unfit everytime. The unfit are unfit to give fitness advice.  EVER.

Why did the Bodybuilders figure this out first?

Bodybuilding is art and science, using science to artistically craft a human to approach asthetic perfection.  Like a human sculpture where your tools are hot food and cold iron.  The human body performs best at a 7.4 pH.  Considering how much protein bodybuilders eat, it's reasonable that through experimentation, it was discovered more muscle could be grown and more fat could be burned by consuming ideal foods over suboptimal foods.  The proposed reason is  the enzymes function in an optimal way when your blood is in the optimal pH 7.4 state.

Disclaimer

Nothing in this article or on this site should be considered medical advice or as an endorsement to violate any law of the country in which you reside.  The information given is for fun and entertainment purposes only.  All claims are 100% dependent upon proper diet and exercise.  Please consult a medical practitioner prior to any diet and exercise program.