by Gary Null, PhD
Following a vegetarian diet has been demonstrated to offer more associated health benefits than a meat-based diet. These include increased protection for a host of chronic conditions from heart disease and cancer to obesity and diabetes. It seems that every couple of months, a new study is being published that discovers a new association between meat and disease.
Researchers at the University of Leeds reported that a diet with processed meat increases the risks for dementia. When we take a look at the long list of chronic illnesses ravaging Americans today, besides our poor lifestyle habits, foods with low acidic pH, including meat, are contributing to these epidemics.
In fact, the health situation of our nation’s population is so out of control, the CDC has gone on record to say that for the first time in recent history, today’s youngest generations are expected to die earlier than their parents. Indeed, this should tell us that something is seriously wrong with the way we think about health and how we are going about maintaining it and preventing illness.
It is common knowledge that an acidic environment makes us more vulnerable to disease. Given that the average American diet is heavily comprised of meat and processed foods, acidosis weakens our biological systems.
Meat’s pH ranges between 5.2 and 7.0, the red meats averaging between 5.7 to 6.0. Other common foods with a high acidic pH are dairy products, processed and refined grains such as white bread, and soft drinks and sugary desserts. Among the common chronic illnesses associated with excessive acidity include cancer, diabetes, arthritis, obesity, osteoporosis, acid reflux, allergies, and premature aging.
An acidic environment also invites pathogenic infections, notably Candida. The majority of various cancer cells also increase the body’s acidity because they produce lactic acid. The German Nobel laureate physician Otto Warburg observed over 80 years ago that cancer cells have difficulty surviving in an alkaline environment. Consequently, cancer patients are more than likely to have lower pH levels. Therefore, to prevent and fight cancer, it is necessary to keep our body’s pH slightly in the alkaline range, the ideal being between 7.35 and 7.45. The pH scale range is between 0 to 14; 7 is considered neutral and anything below that is acidic.
No doubt health is a primary concern that leads many people to opt for and remain vegetarian or to radically increase their plant-based food consumption. It boils down to the fact that replacing fatty meats with lighter plant proteins radically shifts what is nourishing your body in a way that boosts general health and lowers the risk of contracting many diseases. By eliminating the saturated fats and cholesterol that are abundantly found in meats, for example, one depresses the chances of coming down with breast and colon cancer.
For a lack of a better word, the meat sold in this country’s grocery stores and restaurants is from animals so “shot up” with hormones, antibiotics, tranquilizers, preservatives, additives, and pesticides that it is more pharmaceutical than nutritional food. These added toxic chemicals, such as the deadly organophosphate pesticides, also lower the body’s pH and have been linked to long-term adverse effects on health.
It is critically important to maintain a biological equilibrium by balancing and then sustaining our body’s pH. In his book Your Health: A Professional User’s Guide, Dr. Russell Jaffe writes,
“When an alkaline environment is maintained in the body, metabolic, enzymatic, immunologic, and repair mechanisms function at their best. Maintenance of this state is a dynamic, not static, process mediated moment to moment by numerous reactions that produce acid products. For necessary reactions and functions to occur, our body must maintain a proper pH.”
Jaffe goes on to say,
“The acid-forming metabolics of stress and inflammation and of high fat and high protein foods are adequately and effectively neutralized only when sufficient mineral-buffering reserves are present. Mineral-buffering reserves are the gift that alkaline-forming foods give to our body. A diet that is predominantly alkaline-forming is essential to the maintenance of sustained health. Most vegetables and fruits contain higher proportions of alkaline-forming elements than other foods.”
I always suggest to people that they remove themselves from those foods listed above that contribute to inflammation and pH imbalances and will shorten one’s life by a wide margin. One thing to keep in mind is that maximal health depends on reconnecting ourselves with that which is natural for our bodies. And that begins with eliminating everything unnatural, such as foods that are heavily processed. As we develop towards embodying this principle into our daily lives, including our diets, we can truly create a healthy life for ourselves as well as contribute to the health of our planet.
To optimize the prevention and healing of chronic diseases, I recommend that our diet should consist of 80% alkaline-forming foods. It is not surprising that given a plant-based diet’s multiple health benefits, we would find the most alkaline foods are plant-based. Since our body’s cells have a difficult task to produce sufficient energy in an acidic environment because it deprives them of available oxygen, a plant-based diet is also energy-producing.
Among the most common alkalinizing foods are:
Vegetables: Artichokes, asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, celery, cauliflower, chard, cucumber, dill, dulse, eggplant, endive, garlic, horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, leeks, lettuce, mushrooms, okra, onions, parsley, parsnips, peas, bell peppers, potatoes, pumpkin, radish, romaine lettuce, sauerkraut, spinach, sprouts, squash, sweet potatoes, turnips, watercress, and yams
Beans/Legumes: Green beans, lima beans, peas, soybeans, sprouted beans, tempeh (fermented), and tofu (fermented)
Nuts & Seeds: Almonds, Brazil nuts, chestnuts, chia seeds, coconuts, and sesame
Whole Grains: Amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, and tef
Fruits: Apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, berries, dates, figs, grapefruit, grapes, kiwis, lemons, limes, mangoes, melons, nectarines, olives, papayas, peaches, pears, persimmons, raisins, and watermelon
I would give particular attention to several plant foods that are the superstars for balancing the body’s pH, notably beet greens. Despite this not being a particularly popular vegetable, beet greens are the world’s most alkaline food. Other highly alkaline foods are spinach, kale, and chard; however, since you are unlikely to begin your day with a bowl of steamed spinach and kale unless you start with a fresh vegetable juice, I recommend a good, tall glass of fresh-squeezed lemon water.
Although lemon is highly acidic, it has a powerful alkalinizing effect on the body, especially the “potential renal acid load,” which determines how much your kidneys can process and excrete acids. Lemons therefore significantly reduce the amount of acidity that burdens the kidneys because of their high in minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorous. These minerals help raise your urine’s pH. This is why lemons are so often an essential ingredient in detoxification diets and programs.
So, to reach maximal heath, adopt that which nourishes health and toss out that which threatens it. Normalizing our body’s pH is one avenue on the road to preventing disease, and we can begin that journey by adopting a more plant-based diet.
