JP via RSS
Health is Wealth: The Alkaline Paleo Diet for Prosperity
The more modern idea of acid-alkaline balance and of consuming more alkaline foods to make the body condition slightly more alkaline was championed by Claude Bernard, a contemporary of Louis Pasteur.
Bernard rejected Pasteur’s germ theory of disease and argued instead that the terrain of the body was more important. This terrain refers to an alkaline condition that prevents harmful viruses and bacteria from thriving.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Bernard
Similar concepts were taught in macrobiotics by the late Herman Aihara.
Aihara’s teachings on acid-alkaline balance and alkaline foods.
So what are the basic foods?
They are rightly called alkaline-producing foods.
The important thing to note is this – we want to know the end result, not what the food originally tastes like.
Lemon, for example, tastes acidic, but eating lemon will produce an alkaline condition. To understand this better, it helps to know a bit of chemistry. Otherwise, we can just refer to the chart below on acid-forming and alkaline-forming foods.
Acid-forming vs alkaline-forming foods
Acid is formed when elements combine with hydrogen (H).
For example, hydrochloric acid (HCI) is chlorine combined with hydrogen. Sulphuric acid (H2SO4) is sulphur and oxygen combined with hydrogen. And so on.
The elements that combine easily with hydrogen are sulphur (S), phosphorous (P), chlorine (CI) and iodine (I).
Foods that are rich in these elements tend to form acids. They are said to be acid-forming foods.
Alkaline-forming foods are those that do not combine with hydrogen.
The main alkaline elements are sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and iron (Fe). Foods rich in these elements are said to be alkaline-forming foods, or alkaline foods in short.
