Demystifying Acid & Alkaline

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Demystifying Acid & Alkaline

http://www.onepartharmony.org/Articles_Demystifying_Acid_and_Alkaline.htm

by Verne Varona

Macrobiotics Today, Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation

May/June 2001 - Last modified: 02/21/05

The following is part of a chapter entitled, The Healing Power of Acid and

Alkaline from Nature's Cancer-Fighting Foods by Verne Varona.

The concept of acid/alkaline remains one of the most misunderstood concepts in

nutrition. It is commonly referred to as terrain medicine, a reference to

treating the whole individual. It has been established that pH in the blood,

saliva, urine, and other areas is a critical factor for building health.

How does one determine an acid or alkaline condition? Through blood work? Saliva

tests? Hair analysis? Muscle resistance? Urine? These are some of the tests

being recommended by current nutrition authors. Most of these tests can show

relative amounts of acid or alkaline, which is always interesting to compare.

But there are so many varieties of acid and alkaline appearing in the system

that to get any conclusive results about your acid/alkaline status it might be

best to read the intracellular fluid—a test rarely performed. Most current

diagnostic tests show the acid wastes present in the body fluids of blood,

lymph, urine, mucus, or saliva. The problem with such tests is that they don't

read how much acid waste is within the cellular fluids since these fluids are

running through tissues and removing acid wastes. While it might be possible to

measure the relative acid or alkalinity of body fluids, it is rare and more

complicated to evaluate the acid or alkaline quality of body tissues such as

skin, organs, glands, muscles, ligaments, arteries, and vessels. The majority of

standard tests focus mainly on saliva, urine, or blood.

The tissue quality of skin, organs, glands, muscles, ligaments, arteries, and

vessels is the real determining factor of our health. When acid wastes are not

eliminated, they become reabsorbed through the colon, get filtered through the

liver, and end up being re-released into the general circulation. In this case,

you're re-circulating waste, as opposed to cleansing and rejuvenating.

Even measuring a person's blood for acid/alkaline variations can be a difficult

task. When acid is introduced into the blood, alkaline minerals from other parts

of the body (digestive fluids, bones, etc.) are immediately mobilized to

maintain a crucial pH balance of 7.35 to 7.45. The blood cannot tolerate

elevated acidity. It must alkalize. To do this, it goes on an alkaline borrowing

spree, indiscriminately and immediately, with no intention of paying back the

bone, tissue, and digestive juice mineral donors. This means that to do a blood

test for an accurate acid/alkaline reading, testing would require your doctor to

take blood samples at numerous intervals throughout the day and only after

eating one particular food to obtain a true reading.

This could be very exhausting, costly, and still not reliable.

A number of nutrition writers suggest testing acid/alkaline levels with litmus

paper (saliva) or urinalysis sticks (urine). Thinking you can determine

acid/alkaline pH through such testing is assumptive, simplistic, and misleading.

Saliva or urine is not reflective of your overall acidity. Such arbitrary and

unpredictable testing does not read the cellular fluid or tissue quality of

skin, organs, glands, muscles, ligaments, arteries, and vessels. It can only

yield a partial evaluation.

The best barometer for evaluating your general acid/alkaline levels is your

overall well-being.