This report from Science Daily describes a study of around 10,000 people, of whom around 2500 had dichlorophenol in their urine. Click here to see how many of them had allergies. Oww!
So you STILL don’t think you need a water filter??
Owwwahh! Chlorinating chemical used in water linked to allergies.
December 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Arsenic in Rice. Important Message
October 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
This is bad news.
So many brands in the US have arsenic above safe levels. Makes me wonder whether any similar testing has been done in Australia. So glad I’m paleo.
Here’s the link.
Is it Possible to Still be Alkaline Balanced on a Diet including meat?
July 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment
How can we remain in natural alkaline balance if we are eating meat – which is so acidic ?
Thanks Chantel for asking this question it’s a really good one!
Here are 12 reasons why I believe our bodies, if given the right nutrition, will be so much more alkaline when including meat in the diet.
1. Stress is the greatest acidifier to our bodies and getting the right nutrition can help calm the mind enormously.
It’s been mine and Ian’s experience that stress is no longer nearly the problem it was prior to going on this Alkaline Paleo diet.
By getting all of our amino acids so necessary from high quality protein (meat, eggs or fish) and the good fats we 
need, we’ve created a platform for the body to have the brain function as it should.
A really calm and clear mind, a mind that doesn’t get caught on the small stuff and with the big stuff is able to creatively find ways through and beyond.
A calm mind also allows for deep breathing. When we are stressed we shallow breathe which means we don’t eliminate the carbon dioxide so well from our lungs. Carbon dioxide comes from carbonic acid which is acidifying and part of the way the body gets rid of excess acids.
Depression which doesn’t allow good thinking has become something that is very rare for us now and only lasts for a very short time before we get to understand what it is about and then do what it takes to move quickly through it.
Stable blood sugar levels from the Alkaline Paleo diet ends the up and down mood swings that come from low blood sugars. Ian used to get really grumpy when he didn’t eat on time. He can now miss a whole meal and remains a happy boy!
2. Grains are more acidifying to the body than meat.
There has been much said about meat and its acidifying effects but the most acidifying food (apart from sugar) is grains. One of the things about any grains is they are not easily digested because of many factors including phytates, lectins, gluten (forms of gluten are found in all grains) and high carbohydrate levels. When foods are difficult to digest this sets up inflammation in the gut which then promotes gut dysbiosis and finally inflammation throughout the body.
Inflammation is acidifying and painful which causes more stress which in turn is acidifying.
One way to gauge acidity is to measure acid-induced calcium loss in the urine. A study by the Uni of Toronto examined the effect of increasing gluten consumption with the level of calcium loss in the urine. An incredible 63 percent increase in calcium loss occurred with an increase of gluten from bread.
About 10,000 years ago our Paleo ancestors ate meats, vegetables and a small amount of fruit, nuts and roots. This formerly alkaline human diet pH balance shifted to the acid side with the introduction of grains, especially wheat.
3. Sugars: the most acidifying foods – are almost eliminated and cravings for sugar just disappear!
If we do decide to eat berries we will be ingesting some acidity and sugar from these fruit, but for the most part, with the Alkaline Paleo diet, Ian and I just prefer savoury foods now. Our sweet tooth has just faded away. No more cravings. This doesn’t mean there isn’t an occasional foray into the fruit world but where we craved sugar and fruit before, it is now just a nice thing to eat a tiny bit of fruit every now and again – as it would have been with our Palaeolithic ancestors.
4. We need only a small amount of meat, eggs or fish with every meal; a lot less than if we still needed to get all our essential amino acids from grains, pulses and nuts.
Compared with the amount of grains, nut and legumes we need to eat to get enough nutrition, the amount of meat, eggs or fish we need is comparably much much smaller in bulk. Meat, eggs and fish are the only foods that contain all the essential amino acids, B12 and easily absorbed iron. We are probably even saving money on this diet!
5. There are other factors in meat that mediate the acidity.
In his book ‘Wheat Belly’ Dr William Davis tells us that “new research suggest that meats have other effects when ingested that partially negate the acid load. Animal protein exerts a bone-strengthening effect through stimulation of the hormone insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), which triggers bone growth and mineralization. The net effect of proteins from meat, despite their acid-generating properties, is that of increasing bone health. Children, adolescents, and the elderly who increase their meat intake show increased bone calcium content and improved measures of bone strength.”
The fact that vegetarians don’t eat acid forming meat would lead us to expect their bones to be strong and healthy but they actually have the highest incidence of osteoporosis.
6. Total food consumption lessens due to satiety from eating healthy fats, and less food consumption means less acidity in the body
Eating too much is very acidifying no matter how alkaline a food is. When the stomach and digestive system is overloaded it puts tremendous stress on the body to deliver the saliva, hydrochloric acid, pancreatic enzymes, bile, digestive enzymes and all the other hormones and enzymes needed for digestion. We all know what it’s like to be over-full. We feel awful. The body is in an enormous amount of stress trying to deliver what is needed to digest this surplus of food and we know what stress does – it acidifies!
7. Dairy products are acidic
Sorry, but dairy – especially plain milk – is acidic and so is cheese. It’s usually a part of a vegetarian diet as it is one of the few ways that a vegetarian gets enough quality protein, and fat soluble vitamins such a Vitamin A, K2, D3 and the vitamin B12.
If someone is vegan and doesn’t eat these foods they quickly become deficient in essential amino acids and all these vitamins will need to be supplemented in order to get these nutrients. Is this an optimal diet if you need supplements to survive? How can it be ‘natural’?
What happens if you are vegetarian and have a food sensitivity to dairy? Unless you supplement with a large amount of eggs you will have a lot of deficiencies, you will get sick as vegetarians and vegans often do, despite their alkaline diet. I know. I was one of them.
8. Leafy green vegetable juices are very alkalizing due to high potassium salts and we love them!
We drink (when we are back in Australia) a green vegetable juice every day. We don’t add carrots, beetroot or fruit as they are high in sugar. Fruit juice is acidic also. We have juices of kale, celery, cabbage, cucumbers, parsley, lettuce, coriander (detoxes mercury) and some ginger.
The alkalinity of the palaeolithic diet has been estimated to be 6 to 9 times more alkaline than the modern diet thanks to his large potassium salt intake from vegetable sources.
It is thought that our ancestors’ urine pH was as high as 7.5 to 9.0 compared to the our modern range of 4.4 to 7.0. Our Paleo forebears also lived in a much cleaner world where his air was clean and rich in oxygen, with clean food and (most likely alkaline) pure water, stress would have been limited to those moments where they were hunting – or being hunted!
9. Stable blood sugar levels from eating good fats and less carbohydrates means less acidity in the blood and a slowing down of the ageing process
High blood sugar levels will of course increase blood acidity. Sugar = Acid. You don’t need to have high blood sugar levels all the time to cause damage. Just fluctuating levels can do this. Making the blood more acidic means the body has to utilise its precious alkaline minerals to neutralise the acidity. The blood must be kept at a very specific alkalinity for optimal health. Increased blood sugar levels increase the amount of AGE’s (Advanced Glycation End Products) which cause all the ageing symptoms such as cataracts, dementia, arterial hardening, wrinkling, age spots etc. Everytime we allow our body high carbohydrates foods our blood sugar elevates thereby increasing these AGE’s and forcing us to grow old that bit quicker.
10. Just drinking alkaline ionized water alone will increase alkalinity – and help to negate the effects of AGE’s (free radicals)
Unlike our Paleo ancestors” world, in today’s world we need all the help we can to stay alkaline and drinking alkaline water is an easy and great way of achieving this. Alkaline water is a rich sourse of antioxidants. Antioxidants are fantastic for negating AGE’s in the blood stream thereby increasing the ability of the body to remain youthful and healthy.
11. Candida Albicans and other bad gut bacteria, with their excretion of very acidic waste, will no longer thrive in a low carb environment
Getting the proper probiotics environment back in the gut is essential for alkalinity.
12. We eat more vegetables now with the Alkaline Paleo diet than we did as vegetarians. We don’t fill up on grains, pulses or nuts so there is more room for fresh vegetables.
This has been so good to write and I hope I have helped to make it clear that contrary to our modern belief that eating meat = acidity that actually eating meat= great nutrition and more alkalinity.
I would love any comments on the above or any ideas you might have about why the Alkaline Paleo diet might contribute towards alkalinity.
Why the Alkaline Paleo Diet?
May 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Why a Diet At All? Why Not Just a Pill or a Super food to Fix My Particular Ailment?
When I took a pharmaceutical drug, a vitamin pill, natural remedy or a super food I became aware that these remedies might give me some relief from my particular ailment temporarily…. but that any remedy, be it natural or chemical, couldn’t address the fundamental problem for why that ailment occurred in the first place.
I can’t say that the latest super food will fix our bodies up just like that because it won’t. Our bodies are an amazing and intricately connected thing and when you treat it right it will perform beautifully.
Food is a Powerful Medicine
I have taken so many pills and potions – some worked temporarily, but after a short time I would find another problem would just pop up somewhere else in my body or the original one would just return. Does this ring a bell for you?
By finally addressing the food that I ate and the water I drank, my body was able to start really repairing itself I never really understood before how food could be such a powerful healer until I found the Alkaline Paleo diet.
Since using this diet health problems that I believed were the result of ageing or a genetic inheritance have disappeared
Why the Alkaline Diet?
The Alkaline diet and water have been amazing at maintaining my own and my family’s immunity. We just don’t get the usual colds and flu every year. Alkalizing our bodies has also really helped to reduce our bodies’ tendency towards inflammation. In our world there are many, many acidifiers, which causes inflammation. Stress, high carb food, shallow breathing, pollution, toxins. Adding an alkaline buffer – be it by water and/or food allows our bodies to mediate these acids created by our modern lifestyle. This lifestyle has never been seen before in the history of man.
With our world full of pesticides, chemicals and drugs, simply consuming a daily glass of Green organic vegetable juice is the ongoing strategy for detoxifying the body. When we drink green vegetable juices we give the liver a huge helping hand to get rid of some not so good chemicals and heavy metals that we might be storing .
The blood pH is a crucial component of our ability to survive and the body does absolutely everything to keep the blood pH at a certain level. This pH level can not go outside a very small range or we die. Doctors tell us that this is not something to concern ourselves with as the body is able to keep this balance all by itself. The body can and does rebalance almost continuously but when it can’t find the raw materials it needs to rebalance – alkaline minerals, it strip mines our bones for the alkaline components it needs to bring the pH back to the right balance.
An extreme example of this is end stage cancer . Cancer patients can have a strong alkaline ammonia smell as the body goes overboard trying to right a very acidic imbalance and actually starts to break down our organs to obtain alkaline minerals.
We are a constant rebalancing mechanism.. but you can’t rebalance from imbalance unless you bring more of what is missing to the process. If we are living the acidic life, I believe we support the body’s balance process by making sure we get enough alkaline minerals.
In his book, Alkalize or Die, Dr. Theodore Baroody explains the alkaline reserve, “The great alkaline reserve is the body’s bank account. The body can call upon it any time to release alkaline elements for the neutralization of acid.”
When the body uses minerals from its alkaline reserve, it’s important to replenish that supply through the food we eat and the water we drink. Why? Because if the alkaline reserve isn’t stocked with what it needs, your body will begin to find the alkaline minerals it needs elsewhere-in places like your your bones and teeth.
To help keep your alkaline reserve well stocked it’s essential that you eat and drink foods that are alkaline. Here’s a partial list of some alkaline vegetables you can include in your everyday diet. Eat them raw in a salad if possible. If you choose to cook your vegetables try steaming them instead of boiling.
Silverbeet, Spinach, Broccoli, Kale, Coriander(great for detoxing mercury from the brain), Parsley, Cucumber, Celery.
Eating what is in season is best and of course where possible eat organic.
Why Not Just Do the Alkaline Diet Then?
The Alkaline Diet is fantastic up to a certain point and that point came for me a few years ago and with my beloved this year. You see my beloved discovered some pretty scary things about his body which had not evidenced itself up until recently. In fact my beloved thought he was incredibly healthy as everything seemed to be working fine, no outward signs at all, but then I noticed his memory was getting increasingly bad and when he broke his leg and found out he had osteoporosis, I realised he needed something more needed to be done. As for myself I started getting some not so nice menopausal symptoms along with my usual IBS symptoms which was still giving me problems.
What’s wrong with the Alkaline Diet?
The Alkaline diet exponents as you see on the net have claimed for years that all you need do is eat 80% Alkaline and 20% Acidic foods. One of the major food groups that has been and still is allowable in the Alkaline 80% side of the diet is fruit. I have now found out that fruit is not the alkalizer that we thought it was. The high sugar content of fruit actually acidifies the body. Sure it has some alkaline minerals but they are far outweighed by the sugar content. It appears that the alkaline diet exponents were looking for alkaline minerals and ignoring the acidifying ones!
Fruit was a favourite of mine and I would eat it throughout the day believing it to be a healthy snack. I often added fruit to my juices to make them taste nice, but using fruit especially as a juice meant that I was getting concentrated acidity in the form of a sugar. Our livers can’t even see it coming!
Not only that… the acidic foods I was eating included foods that just could not pack the nutrient punch that my body needed. I ate grains, nuts, pulses and lentils.. I always ate whole foods but the truth is you may not like to hear is that these foods are missing many of the essential Amino Acids that are needed for ultimate health. These foods are not nutrient dense.
Now here’s the big secret; Good Fats – lipids – acids – are the most natural thing you can eat!
The brain is 70% fat, the heart get it’s sole energy from fats.
Another thing these ‘whole’ foods are missing are good fats. We need good fats to create cholesterol, the body’s natural food source for all of our hormone cascade. Yes we do need cholesterol.
Cholesterol creates hormones in the body, so if we are deprived of cholesterol we are unable to make the hormones necessary for hormonal balance.
If I am only going to have only 20% acidic foods then they need to be the best nutrient dense foods I can get.
So if we reduce or remove fruit, what do we eat? Greens! Lots of greens!
Remember: Vegetables are great detoxifiers but they are not nutrient dense.
The Paleo Diet- A Nutrient Dense Diet. A diet where you’ll naturally eat less!
The Paleo Diet is based on what mankind has evolved to eat over the course of our evolution. Our Palaeolithic ancestors ate some fruits and vegetables – only in season – and when they could, some honey but the bulk of their food was meat, with fish and eggs in certain areas. This is a very nutrient dense diet . I’m not making this up. You’ll find an excellent link to Dr Loren Cordain’s research on this page.
Our ancestors had clean food, clean air and clean water so they had very little need for detoxifying. They had little need for vegetables and would eat them in small amounts when game was scarce.
It’s now clear to many Paleo Anthropologists that we could not possibly be sufficiently evolved enough to live healthily on the high carbohydrate food that we are giving to ourselves today. An evolution of that degree will take thousands of years. In fact our bodies are still ‘paleo’ – they still have a blueprint that survives best on what they evolved to eat; meat and fat. You may disagree but the research is clear. Never before in our history have we consumed the amount of sugar we have consumed today. Grains – especially wheat – have been around for a relatively miniscule part of mankind’s history. Our paleo gut just isn’t able to deal with these high levels of carbohydrates , so opportunistic bacteria abounds in the bowel consuming what our normal digestion can’t deal with- carbohydrates.
Why the Alkaline Paleo Diet?
The Alkaline Paleo diet is a diet using the best of the Paleo concepts and the best of the Alkaline concepts. We live in a very different world than our Paleo ancestors. Never before have we had such a sedentary life, so much more chronic stress, so many toxins and so much more acid creating food and drink. Our ancestors could just run away from danger. We can’t – and danger comes in different forms, and manifests as long term chronic supressed stress and it is highly acidifying to the body.
But we still need the highly nutrient rich foods that our ancestors naturally ate. They didn’t have a pill to take, they just ate good food and remained healthy and went on to dominate a whole world as a species!
Hence the Alkaline Paleo Diet- 80% green and coloured vegetables, alkaline water and 20% meat, eggs, fish and good fats. Good fats are incredible important to creating hormones.
Why has the Alkaline Paleo Diet Made Me SO Clear Thinking with Such an Even Mood?
May 2, 2012 by 12 Comments
All the Amino Acids are Necessary for An Easy Going Mood
I just listened to a doctor explain another reason why I am so happy and clearing minded on the Alkaline Paleo diet!
Apart from the fact that I am just healthy and getting all the nutrition my brain and body needs there’s even more benefits on being on the diet.
Dr Daniel Kalish treats people who have depression with natural foods.
From what I heard from him, I am finally getting all the Amino acids including L-Cysteine from good quality protein (eggs, fish and pasture fed meats), plenty of organic greenvegetables which supplies another important ingredient, 5HTP, and I’m getting plenty of Vitamin B6 which is necessary for amino acid and neurotransmitter synthesis (Serotonin & Dopamine).
There is evidence that shows that vegetarians are more depressed than meat eaters. I can vouch for that! Not only was I not getting the amino acids I needed but the high carbs were feeding the bad bacteria in my gut making me sick in mind and body.
Alkaline Water: A Great Detoxifier and Antioxidant Booster
I’m drinking good water which is a great detoxifier and I’ve taken out coffee and alcohol to give the liver a chance to get healthy so it can do its job of detoxifying. After my last binge in Italy my liver actually hurt to touch!
Eating Gluten Has A Big Effect on Mental Health
Another important thing is I am not eating any gluten. Gluten has a huge effect on the brain, not only does it have an opioid like effect but it also increases Serotonin which I would have thought was a good thing, but it’s not. The reason being is if we make too much Serotonin then our Dopamine is not being balanced and we are back in trouble again brain balance wise. We need a balance of Serotonin (the calming neurotransmitter) and Dopomine (the exiting neurotransmitter) to have the best happiness opportunity!
Balanced Blood Sugar Levels
Of course my blood sugar levels are balanced without the up and down of a high carb diet. This means that I don’t get mean if I don’t get something to eat on time!
Not Feeding the Little Critters!
Also I am not feeding those bad bacteria whose excretions go into my blood stream through my gut wall from leaky gut. This phenomena leads to foggy thinking.
Healthy Fats Feeds the Hormonal System and the Brain
Add to this that I am getting plenty of healthy fats (coconut oil, meat fats) which are giving me plenty of good cholesterol to create a good hormonal balance. Also coconut oils medium chain fatty acids creates Ketones which is a great source of energy for the brain.
All these factors are balancing my thinking so I am able to distinguish between the important things in my life that I need to address (like my present food choices) and the things that really aren’t important at all (like whether home is a bit of a mess!).
No wonder I am just so darned happy my body and mind are finally getting the chance to function as they should! I sure hope I’m not going to get caught again like I did with my Italian experience. Cross fingers!
