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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!Cool

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.

 

Filed Under: Alkaline Paleo Diet, Candida albicans, Depression, Detoxification, Foggy thinking, High fat diet, Leaky Gut, low carbohydrate diet, Probiotics, Wheat Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Am I a Victim Because I Can’t Eat Wheat, Sugar and Lots of Carbs?

June 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Can’t we ever eat like a ‘normal person’ again and be healthy?

“Why can’t I just eat  like a normal person?”  is a frequent cry I hear from my fellow sufferers.

Eating like a ‘normal person’ in this era of such a high carbohydrate and  processed diet cannot be sustained by most people without they also sooner or later succumbing to disease.   Perhaps  to want to eat ‘normally’ is like saying why can’t I smoke and stay healthy?

It has become quite obvious to me that when I mention that wheat should be taken out of every person’s diet as  it is actually poisonous that people just go blank.  I think this is because wheat has such a hold on us that it is incomprehensible to our wheat addicted minds that we could ever take it out of our diet.  It’s just part of everything we eat.  We can’t go anywhere without being confronted with food made from wheat.

It doesn’t matter what nationality people  I talk to.  Wheat is ubiquitously found it’s way to all cultures in a big way, even Asia, home of rice.

Cheap but nasty

The lovely Heidi, a women in Italy I am staying with is getting a bit wider every year I see her.  She is a very aware and loving person but mention that wheat might  be a good thing to give up and she has up to now ignored me.  Her new American partner, Mark, is diabetic.   Diabetes can be reversed by taking high carb food out of the diet but they eat carbs…. breakfast muesli with chocolate bits and fresh cherries, lunch always has large quantities of pasta, rice or potatoes and dinner is mostly the same.   They eat some lettuce and other veges everyday which we grow in the garden but vegetables don’t play a large part in her diet.  Neither does meat.  She isn’t vegetarian but she is a frugal buyer and meat it’s true is more expensive than pasta.  They also snack on dark chocolate.

The trouble with skimping on good food is that you pay and you pay in the way your body works.

The other problem is you will eat a hell of lot more empty carbohydrate fillers, firstly because wheat does make us more hungry, and secondly because our bodies are trying to get more nutrients from these foods  which  just can’t supply it.

So food may be cheaper but nutrient density wise are they really so cheap?

What Ian and I are eating in Italy

Here in Italy Ian and I each eat  a bacon rasher, 2 eggs, 1 medium mushroom and 4 tiny tomatoes cooked in coconut oil  with some rocket for breakfast.  We are totally satisfied with this.  For lunch we have a large salad with home grown lettuce, tomatoes, celery, cucumber, olives, rocket and a small amount of salted anchovies and sometimes some prosciutto.  This is covered with a dressing of olive oil, salt and lemon juice.  Yummy.  Again totally satisfying.  For dinner a medium sized bit of meat and above ground vegetables cooked in different ways. Sometimes we might feel like a snack and we eat some nuts, not a lot but it’s a good snack.  Totally filling, nutrient dense and not a lot of food when you look at it compared to a large nutrient empty pasta dish.

Oh yes, that’s right Heidi has fruit trees with the most unbelievable tasting cherries, peaches and apricots.  They are nothing like the fruit at home.  We have eaten some of this fruit (blush).   The good thing about these trees though is that they bear for about two weeks and then they are over.  No more fruit till next year!  This is how it is in nature, no year long supply and this is how it should be for us, just a short window of fruit eating opportunity.

Heidi says she could never be full on what we eat.  She told me last year she had tried the low carbohydrate diet and it wasn’t right for her. It’s obviously not going to be right for anyone who sees wheat as a staple that cannot be given up.  This  is the addictive nature of wheat.

So wheat, even though our guts might complain bitterly we will still ingest a food not only nutritionally pretty empty, addictive, makes us more hungry, feeds bad bacteria in our guts, brings our glucose levels up like sugar does (see Dr William Davis “Wheat Belly”)  actually causes the gut wall to become leaky because of the Zonulin hormone it releases in the gut and can damage the gut villi due to the gluten contained within it.  

Hmm..what else?  Oh yes there is a high concentration of phytates in wheat, actually in all grains, which are called antinutrients because they actually stop the absorption of minerals into the body.  

 

Wheat out does us humans in intelligence

Am I still a victim because I can’t eat like a ‘normal person?  I have great respect for the power of wheat, after all it’s managed to make it’s way all over the world into everyone’s food and people can’t stop eating it.  Perhaps it’s the most intelligent species on earth, not us?

Oh and yes, is whole wheat different to refined wheat?  That is an absolute no, whole wheat or not it’s still doing all those nasty things to the body.

 The multitudes of health defects from wheat eating

Study on zonulin:  www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21248165

Filed Under: addiction, Alkaline Paleo Diet, Candida albicans, Gut dysbiosis, Italy on Alkaline Paleo, Leaky Gut, Wheat Tagged With: , , ,

Why Red Cabbage Sauerkraut is SO good! (plus a recipe)

June 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

There are many, many good reasons for eating home made red cabbage sauerkraut!

  • Sauerkraut is a natural probiotic which helps the gut bacteria to become healthy.

    Use an organic cabbage as the natural bacteria enhances fermentation

  • Sauerkraut  aids the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach to increase digestion
  • Sauerkraut is easy to digest as the cellulose has been broken down so bad bacteria in the gut don’t get to use it as food
  • Sauerkraut naturally contains vitamin K2 from the natural bacteria created in the process of making sauerkraut.
  • Red cabbage sauerkraut reduces homocysteine levels. Low homocysteine levels are a good sign for heart and arterial health
  • Red cabbage sauerkraut contains phytonutrients, nutrients such as vitamins.
  • Red cabbage sauerkraut contains polyphenols, these are antioxidants.
  • Red cabbage sauerkraut  contains anthocyanins - red and blue pigments – that protect the brain and aid digestion.
  • Red cabbage sauerkraut contains contain sulforaphane glucosinolate  a highly reactive antioxidant. In extensive studies, sulforaphane has been demonstrated to be a potent inducer of detoxifying enzymes and protector of our DNA.
So all in all red cabbage sauerkraut is very special.
Here’s the recipe (you don’t need a special sauerkraut crock)
 1. Weigh the cabbage.
 2. Calculate and measure your Celtic salt.  You will need about 15grams  for every kilo of cabbage.  (It’s not that critical).
 3. Shred one whole red cabbage.  (Try to pick a fresh juicy one as it creates more liquid).  
 4. Layer the cabbage in a large bowl with the salt.
 5. Cover the bowl with a wet tea towel and leave overnight.  This will start to draw the water out.
 6. The next day scrunch the cabbage with your hands.  Really knead it for about 10 minutes.  You will end up with quite a bit of liquid.
 7.  Use a 5 litre plastic bucket  and put the cabbage into the bucket pushing down the layers down as you go.
 8.  If there is not enough liquid at the end of this process to cover the cabbage then make some extra salted water into the container to cover the cabbage.
 9. Put a large plastic zip lock bag full of water on top of the plastic bin covering the top of the cabbage completely.  
10.  Put a wet tea towel over the top of the bucket. Rinse and replace daily. 
11.  Everyday make sure the liquid is covering the cabbage.  If not top up with some salted water.
12.  Depending on your climate the cabbage will soon start to make some foam and start making strange sounds as it ferments.  The warmer your climate is the faster it will ferment.
13. Allow to ferment for 10 to 21 days depending on your climate. The sauerkraut should smell sour but not off.  It should not be mouldy.  It it’s off or mouldy throw it out.  
When you taste it it should be crispy and taste nice and sour.  This is the Lactobacillus culture.
14.  Put it into glass bottles and put into the fridge.
You can add some fresh dill, ginger, seaweed or caraway to the recipe for an extra zing. Fresh horseradish (if you can get it) is supposed to be really good for retarding mould growth.
You can eat this with any meal. I  think it goes particularly well with fish. It’s a lovely vegetable!



 

Filed Under: Alkaline Paleo Diet, Candida albicans, Gut dysbiosis, Leaky Gut, Probiotics, The Alkaline Paleo Foods to Eat Tagged With: , , , , ,

Inflammation, Acid and Candida

January 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Thanks to Dr Greg Emerson for this link to a study that indicates the relationship between Candida Albicans and inflammation. The study postulates that inflammation can increase candida overgrowth, which in turn increases inflammation.

WE already know that acidic conditions cause inflammation, so when I read the study I thought they could have taken it to the next logical step. To reduce candida overgrowth, reduce acidity, which reduces inflammation.. which reduces Candida. What do you think?

Filed Under: Acidosis, Candida, Scientific Reports, scientific studies Tagged With: ,