Healthy food

Today I would like to talk about a book I just received where the subject matter is the acid-alkaline balance of the body-or PH. The book is called, “The Acid-Alkaline Diet” by Christopher Vasey, N.D.

Now, DON’T FREAK out or tune out because I have found that the acid-alkaline balance is a very easy subject to understand yet very important for the body. Even if you failed out of 11th grade chemistry, this should be a no-brainer. Here is how it works:

“The body is acid by nature/ alkaline by necessity.” (Tim Brantley N.D.). That is all you need to remember!

What this means is that when you stress out or move or work out or digest food-when you do just about anything with the body-you create acid; In fact, you create 8 different kinds of acid.(the body is acid by “nature”.)

For example, we create hydrochloric acid (to digest food) and lactic acid- which everyone who works out knows because sore muscles are the result of lactic acid build-up after a workout. (Plus 6 other acids that if I named them all I would bore you to death!).

But the ‘catch’ is: the organs in the body work better in a neutral or slightly alkaline environment!

So, are we screwed or what? It looks like we are set up to get old fast and diseased early because we have acid running thru our veins!!!

I mean, the body is acid, but likes to be neutral, so, how can that be? What do we have to do to get it to be neutral?

We need to give it the complete opposite of what it has-in this case we need to give it something alkaline. Since the body does not make alkaline like it makes acid, we need to look to outside resources to find this alkaline. (The body is alkaline by “necessity”)

If the body is naturally an acid (5.0 ph) but likes to be neutral (7.0) then we need to put into it anything that is alkaline (8.0 ph) to neutralize it out. That is the Math of it!

(We can understand how acid works by looking at an old car. Acids eat the metal in the form of rust. Well, our bodies are really no different. If we are acid, we will rust from the inside out! Unless of course, we do something to neutralize that acid.)

Well, this is why I eat raw foods! Raw foods are more alkaline then cooked foods are. Raw foods stress the body less; add neutralizing, alkaline minerals that are in their whole and intact form and they are easier to break down because they have their enzymes intact ready to work!

Water should be alkalizing and it usually is alkaline-depending on your source, however.

So you can see that if you are high-stress person, work out a lot, are always on the go-you would need more alkaline food and drink then, say, someone who is more relaxed .

But, even relaxed people should eat some alkalizing foods to make sure they stay in a neutral/alkaline PH. (We DO live in a polluted world and this IS stressful on the body!)

A neutral/alkaline PH is a healthy PH.

So, how do you know if you are acid? You can find your PH very simply-your saliva and your urine tell you everything! Get some PH papers (on carolalt.com) and just dip. Dip in urine and saliva in the morning, the afternoon and in the evening. Dr. Brantley says between 8-10 am (not first urine) 2-4 pm and 8-10pm in the evening. Just NOT around food: 1 hour after eating or just before eating. It’s simple.

Keep tabs on your PH. Check it for three days and adjust your diet, water intake or supplement intake to help neutralize or alkalize or body. And check your results thru your urine and saliva!

So what happens if we find that our PH is acid but we don’t want to go thru the “trouble” of alkalizing? What if we just don’t care about acid- we want to ignore the body’s cry for neutralizing and we want to “eat that Pasta” or we just “can’t live without chicken”? We want to continue to eat cooked (acidifying) foods and work at high stressed jobs (acidifying) and workout in our time off (acidifying)? What happens? Think about it-what ELSE can it do? The body starts to store acid.

Here’s how it works: Understand that the body eliminates acid in several ways-thru the kidneys (urine), lungs (co2 breath and moisture) and skin (sweat). If you are producing too much acid, the body can only get rid of a certain amount of acid a day-AND THAT’S IT!

After that limit is reached, the acid that is not dumped is stored in the body-in the tissues, specifically-making for an unhealthy environment.

So, realizing that all the acid was not dumped-out and that the environment is becoming unhealthy the body then tries to buffer (or neutralize) the acids stored in the tissues to help “sneak” them out of the body. (Remember the body can only dump a certain amount of ‘acid’ day and that is it!)

But, it can neutralize some acid with minerals and dump it as neutral salts! In order to do this, the acid draws its neutralizing minerals from your tissues and organs thereby depleting them of these minerals and weakening them.

As we get older, the damage from years of this type of neutralizing begins to be known thru different aliments and illnesses. (Kidney salts/stones perhaps?)

Also, at some point we start to use up our mineral “reserves”(a misnomer since they are not reserves at all but an integral part of tissues and organs!) and we stop being able to neutralize all of this acid. What happens then is that some of this acid remains in the tissues themselves causing other problems and illnesses. (Skin disorders, burning urination, arthritis, neuritis, colitis perhaps?)

So, if we are acid, what can we do to alkalize our bodies? we can take alkalizing supplements, enzymes, alkaline food/drink and replenish the alkalizing minerals in the body by eating raw foods, as these are all useful to help buffer the acids (neutralize them). This should help the body to restore its perfect PH.

I mean, we can get more complex then this in explaining the PH of the body. And if you wish to understand more about PH there are plenty of books out there such as the one I mentioned above: “The Acid-Alkaline Diet” by Christopher Vasey N.D.

But, this blog is pretty much a layman’s take on the PH of the body-specifically this laymen-ME!

(I also remember: “Alkaline or Die” or “The PH Miracle” to name a couple more books.)

This is such an important subject and I believe that so many aliments and illnesses can be relieved by just changing diet and alkalizing the body! Try it, you might be amazed!

Check on carolalt.com for raw foods, enzymes and other great supplements! (Always check with a doctor!)

Eat an oil

Ok, here is the word on Bragg’s Aminos-they are NOT cooked. I mean, really, you can get this info off of the company’s website.

Why is it that people are still unsure? Go right to the source and get what you need. With the internet out there, you can find everything you want to know.

But, don’t always go to the “positive” websites-the website owned by the company or by people selling a particular product. You will NOT get a clear idea from someone who wants to sell you something! Go to the “nay-sayer” website, too. You might learn something in the process.

As for me? I want to hear the good and the bad and then make up my own mind. Like for instance-Canola oil.

I will NOT touch it and it is everywhere. I ask restaurants if they use it and I will not go there if they do.

Who did these Canola guys bribe? It is so thoroughly processed that there is nothing left except rancid oil which in my opinion causes many health problems. Unfortunately, we cannot attribute these health problems to Canola Oil because it would be hard to track it down. But, if you have health problems, try cutting out the Canola oil for a month and see if that makes any change.

Just always stay with the pure, unprocessed (or as little processed as possible) oils like cold pressed Udo’s choice, or Cold pressed olive oil, cold pressed flax seed oil, etc. that is what I do!

You see, I am a Canadian immigrant and when I first came to Canada, I saw fields and fields of beautiful yellow flowers. My husband, at the time, told me that the flowers were for rape seed.

I had no idea what rape seed was so I asked him: “do you eat it like pumpkin seeds or sesame seeds?” He looked at me like I was crazy- “no, you don’t eat it,” he laughed at me: “it’s a machine oil. It has a high viscosity; breaks down very slowly under high heat-perfect for oiling farm machinery. But the only problem now is that there is a lot of run off”

Ten years later? That runoff is Canola oil-Canada Oil.

Now, for me, I would not like to eat an oil that is the discard of machine oil!

But, that is my personal opinion. And all I have is my ex-husbands words to base my decision on-but that was good enough for me. Then, of course, I read the web page that talks about all the stuff that is wrong with canola oil. Then it kinda all fit-what my ex said, what the page found out-all told me: don’t eat canola oil! So I don’t!!

taste or health

Hi guys,

I know many of you might already know the raw, live drink called Kambucha, but I just found it.

Mostly I was drinking Ojas from Europe-I loved it. I mixed it with pear or orange or other fresh fruit juices or else even plain it was great.

But I couldn’t get Ojas anymore so I called them. I found out they were having some financial trouble. So, tried to help get Ojas back on their feet and into the country. (So if any one wants to invest in a great raw food drink-contact the Ojas folks!)

Anyway, I now found GT’s Kambucha. As with all new things I find, I started to do some research on it. I found that many people did not like the taste! I mean, a lot of the folks online complained about the taste! “Vinegar,” they said. “Cow poop!”

Stop being a big baby! Obviously you looked for and found a potent health drink. You are drinking it because you are looking for a health boost! Well, I say: what price health? I would rather be healthy and drink down 4 ounces of Kambucha in the morning and evening then to be unhealthy and if Kambucha has half the properties they say it has then: what up, man? Suffer!

But the truth is that I have given Kambucha to all my friends AND my family and after the initial warning that they may not like it, I have had only positive feedback! Because it comes in so many flavors, there has to be one you find that you like. Or else, add your own juices to it to soften the flavor-because it IS a rather tart flavor!

So, this is what I have found out about Kambucha:

It is a Chinese fermented tea.

Some people think it comes from mushrooms.

The Chinese and Russians drink it in hot tea form and seem to live FOREVER!

It has live cultures in it and raw enzymes (always good in my book) when I drink it I get this weird tingly feeling in my arms. When this happened I called the Kambucha folks and a nice girl name Wendy called me back immediately. She told me that feeling is the “energy surge” from the drink!

I also asked her about people with diabetes: can they drink Kambucha?

“Well,” she said, “They can drink ‘GT’s’ but not ‘Synergy’. Apparently they have two types of drinks: one has less of a “sugar” factor then the other.

I gave it to my girlfriend Kim the other day because she complained of being light-headed days after giving blood. She had decided to go running and felt ill. So I gave her the kambucha and she told me it “saved” her! I think she meant that it gave her back her energy and strength-even after giving blood and running.

I give it to my boyfriend before he runs-energy boost. But, he drinks it several times a day anyway because we just love it.

The last thing about Kambucha I might add is that it is very “fizzy”. I mean, mucho bubbles! So I open the jar, close it again immediately and then shake it. I do this a few times until I get the desired “fizziness”.

The thing for me is: I don’t care if something tastes tart or sour-if it is good for me or gives me a great feeling of well-being, I will suffer through. But the Kambucha actually grows on you. And this is from someone who won’t even eat raw apple cider vinegar (or any vinegar for that matter) because it is too sour!

So, don’t be put off by all the cry babies and whiners-try it for yourself. Just brace yourself for that first taste-after that, it goes down easy and feels great!

So here is the question: taste or health?

To Your Health

I received a lovely letter the other day from a woman whose daughter had bought my book and started on the raw diet. She told me her daughter felt so great already. And she expressed surprise at this and asked why did her daughter feel so good after just about a week of eating this way? Then she said she was over weight and that she wanted to start on raw but she was afraid. Afraid she couldn’t do it. Afraid she wouldn’t be able to start or that she might not like it. Believe me, in my book, even some raw is better then no raw. And starting somewhere is better then not starting at all! So this is what I told her:

First always check with a doctor who understands raw and who knows you.
That said, I will answer your last question first: change slowly!
Don’t push yourself to be in competition with your daughter. Some people change everything right away and some people move more slowly.
The thing is, you probably eat some raw already-fruits and salads perhaps?
The best way I have found is to list what I like to eat. Then I look for the raw substitute.
For example:as a model I NEVER ate cheese-too fattening. But now I go to the Cheese Store or Whole Foods and ask to taste RAW MILK CHEESES. Then I picked my favorites.
Now I feel fine eating some cheese just about everyday. But remember, I said SOME cheese-some people find their favorite things and they over eat them! Not good. One girl wrote me and asked why she wasn’t losing weight. When I wrote back and asked her what she ate, she wrote that she happened to love the sandwich recipe in my book. And that she ate it everyday-twice even! First of all, the Ezekiel bread is not RAW! And to eat the same sandwich everyday is to stock up on all the minerals and nutrients that are in that combo-only! We need a wide variety of things in our diet so change things around each day.
Anyway, there are raw substitutes for just about everything. And some things are already raw prepared: Spence and company cured fishes (not smoked) and cured ham (also called prosuitto) I found both at whole foods. The thing is to make sure you read the label. For example that salad dressing you eat on your salad is NOT raw. But, go to the store and buy olive oil-COLD PRESSED-it is right next to the cooked stuff. To me, it is the difference between fat and thin, sick and healthy! In my book I have recipes for dressings (among other things).
Even your salt is cooked if you eat iodized table salt-there are many fabulous evaporated salts out there without added iodizing that can be actually good for you.
so, my suggestion was to read “Eating In the Raw”. And don’t fear. Nobody is judging you, but you. I mean she even said in her letter that she was over weight.

So relax, read the book, think about what you eat and like and then do you’re first investigating into where you can buy or order what you like. Many things are right in your neighborhood grocery store; it is just that you may not be aware of them. Also, carolalt.com is a good place to start as I have lots of things on there.
Now, remember, you won’t like everything you try that is raw, just like with cooked food. It is a process of trial and error. But eventually, you will find your likes and dislikes-and your sources.
Second, in a nutshell, as I understand it, the reason your daughter feels better is because she is nourishing her body! She is stressing it less to digest raw foods. (Read the book!) Now because she has nutrients available, she will eventually eat less as her body repairs itself and then rebuilds and then gets to a point where she needs less food to do the same amount of rebuilding and repairing. And her PH will hopefully become more alkaline (as raw foods are alkaline. that is supposedly very necessary for the body)-making her feel better and better!
To Your Health!

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