Using pH strips gives you a gauge which provides some insight on how healthy (or unhealthy) you are. Did your mother tell you to eat your spinach? She may not have known why at the time, but just like many of the old-fashioned remedies, there was a great deal of common sense in her advice. Simply speaking you can divide all foods into acid-forming and alkaline-forming groups. Melons, cantaloupe, lemons and limes, dried figs are the best alkaline-forming fruits. Broccoli, spinach, celery, alfalfa sprouts, carrots, kelp, parsley, watercress, and all types of seaweed are very Alkaline-forming. Cayenne pepper and garlic are both Alkaline-forming. In summary for the best Alkaline-forming diet, try to eat fresh and raw foods. And, buy as many foods as possible which are organically grown. Grains are acid forming. Most breads are acid-forming, as are meats, cheeses (the sharper the taste, the more acid-forming) homogenized milk and processed cream. A small number of fruits are also acid-forming. These include cranberries, plums and prunes and especially oranges. Poor nutrition is the worst offender because some foods put more strain on the bodies exhaust system than others. For example, a soft drink has a pH of 2.5. Coffee and smoking are extremely acid-forming. Lack of sleep and exercise and increased stress also play a role in the acid forming lives that people live today. Stressful lifestyles cause excess acid to be released in the stomach. This acid helps ulcers to form. The kidneys bear the brunt of removing excess acid from the body. Promoting alkalinity in your diet can help dissolve the phosphates and urates which can build up to cause kidney stones. Extreme low-calorie diets can create highly acidic urine and put additional stress on the kidneys. Drugs like aspirin remove the symptoms of pain, but are highly acidic. Lactic acid build-up causes muscles to become lethargic and more sensitive to pain. To ensure pH balance, the body will dissolve its own skeletal structure to assure an adequate supply of alkaline minerals such as calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium. Long-term acidity will promote osteoporosis. Acidosis is a condition often found in patients with cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease and even skin diseases such as acne, eczema and psoriasis. Remember, all chronic degenerative diseases share the common characteristic of acidic pH. When Hippocrates' own dietary recommendations were recently analyzed it was found that he suggested a diet of 80% alkaline-forming foods and 20% acid-forming foods. Clearly, it's the careful balancing of acid and alkaline-forming foods which will replenish your health bank. It is the potassium, sodium and calcium minerals which neutralize the unhealthy toxic acid waste in the human body. These minerals are found in alkaline-forming foods. The human body has the ability to control automatically the pH levels in blood and other body fluids. When a person ingests an excess acidic substance, the body transforms that acid element into a solid substance and stores it in the body to control pH levels. When these stored acids accumulate, however, they promote the onset of many adult diseases. Although the pH test in medicine is well known and documented, its significance in regards to the digestive and eliminative systems, and consequent implications towards diet and deficiencies is mostly ignored. Only pH values of internal fluids between 6.8 and 7.8 are compatible with human life, with normal functioning taking place between 7.36 and 7.44. This is the narrowest tolerance of any of the fine balances in the human body. While many people worry about the pH balance of the body of water in their fish tanks, few worry about the pH of the body of water which is the human body. Yet, maintaining correct pH balance is critical to a healthy life. It is truly the secret of life. With a pH of 6.0 and below people start to experience acidic digestive symptoms (gas and loose bowels). Poor digestion indicated by an acidic pH, will cause you to eat more, because we digest less, which would explain many people's current eating and weight dilemma. We just don't have the digestive strength any longer, and we are continually hungry because we are not getting the nutrients from our food. This effects our health and immune system as we become more and more deficient. The early warning symptoms of ill health such as constipation, indigestion, lack of energy, weight problems, frequent colds, and headaches are the signposts telling us of a body becoming deficient and out of balance. What kind of shape are your tissues in? What is the internal "climate" your body provides for them to live and do their work? Measuring your own pH by using pH strips gives you a gauge which provides some insight on how healthy (or unhealthy) you are. These strips can be purchased at our office for at home monitoring. All foods create waste products within our cells and tissues Poor dietary lifestyles often do not allow our bodies to dispose of these waste products completely. The accumulation of these waste products is in fact an important element of the aging process. These waste products are acidic and gradually cause our bodies to become more acidic. To reverse aging, it is important to discharge old accumulated waste products from our bodies. This requires the two steps of chemical and physical change. The first step is to raise the alkalinity of the body so that it can dispose of acidic wastes in the blood and cellular fluids safely and easily. The second step is improving the physical activity in a healthy manner to extract stored wastes and move them into the blood stream so they can be discharged from the body. If you need any more information on how easy it really is to maintain a healthy lifestyle by balancing your pH levels every day contact us immediately........