Curing Stomach Acid Problems

My friend Adam had serious stomach acid problems. He was chronically on ant-acids, and had a close call when overdosing on baking soda dissolved in water to treat the intense burning symptoms. I encouraged him to heal himself with foods. The Standard American Diet (SAD) has a way of causing too much acid to build up. I simply suggested that his meals should include green vegetables, such as broccoli, green beans, collard greens, kale, zucchini, snow peas, snap peas, salads. I encouraged him to get a lot of celery and cucumber to have on hand - eating a couple of stalks of celery or cucumber quarters in case of emergency, and for maintenance to have one or two stalks of celery with each meal. (He prefers celery to cucumber.  My personal fave is sweet snap peas when in season.)

These super simple practices completely cured him. He hasn’t touched an ant-acid since making this simple change in his diet.

Alkaline vs Acid

“All foods, after digestion and absorption leave either an acid or alkaline ash in the body depending on their mineral composition. The normal body chemistry is approximately 20 per cent acid and 80 per cent alkaline. This is the acid-alkaline balance. In normal health, the reaction of the blood is alkaline and that is essential for our physical and mental well-being. The preponderence of alkalins in the blood is due to the fact that the products of the vital combustions taking place in the body are mostly acid in character. Carbohydrates and fats form about nine-tenths of the normal fuel of the body. In normal health, this great mass of material is converted into carbon dioxide gas and water. Half of the remaining one-tenth fuel is also con- verted into the same gas and water. This huge amount of acid is transported by the blood to the various points of discharge, mainly the lungs. By virtue of alkalinity, the blood is able to transport the acid from the tissues to the discharge points.
Acidosis:
Whenever the alkalinity of the blood is reduced, even slightly, its ability to transport the carbon dioxide gets reduced. This results in the accumulation of acid in the tissues. This condition is known as acidosis or hypo-alkalinity of the blood. Its symptoms are hunger, indigestion, burning sensation and pain in the pharynx, nausea, vomiting, headache, various nervous disorders and drowsiness. Acidosis is the breeding ground for most diseases. Rheumatism, premature old age, arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, skin disorders and various degenerative diseases are traceable to this condition.”

You can read more at www.natural-advice.com/alkalizingdiet.htm. I disagree with a couple of points there: In particular I am not a fan of oranges or orange juice! I think they cause congestion. I stick with tangerines. Overall I found this page to have comprehensive and helpful info, if a little lacking in professional presentation.

Green veggies are the best for alkalizing the blood - kale, cucumbers, celery, parsley….here is a chart of all foods and drinks which tells you if they are acid-forming foods or alkaline forming foods: Alkaline-Foods-Chart

Further Food-Combining Adventures

The basic premise of proper food combining is that when foods are combined correctly, the absorb properly during digestion and they digest efficiently. When foods are combined incorrectly, they can’t be absorbed during digestion. Weight gain is very often a result of improper eating rather than of too many calories.

Proper food combining is based on the chemistry of digestion - simple physiological formulas. For example when you combine starches with proteins (like meat with potatoes) they each conflict with the digestion of the other, causing digestion to slow, and even not properly to occur.

We are told about all of these new digestive disorders that now have names “IBS” “Acid Reflux.” I just don’t believe in them. My guess is that maybe 1% have the actual disorder as doctors are defining it. But I have known people personally and there are thousands on the web that have cured these “disorders” or “diseases” by changing their diets. For people who suffer from gas, indigestion, acid stomach, constipation, diarrhea, cramping, bad breath, proper food combining is one of these simple approaches that can cause huge transformations.

Today’s food combining lesson: don’t combine starches with proteins. They digest differently, each causing the other to digest more slowly and improperly. This contributes to afore mentioned problems like bloating, indigestion, weight gain, and many more problems.

Avoid combinations like meat and potatoes, chicken and rice. Eat veggies with your meats: lots of them. If you have steamed veggies, put them in a bowl (after cooking) and toss with a little extra virgin olive oil and good quality natural salt and pepper. If you eat sandwiches, stick to vegetable only sandwiches like avocado and sprouts, portabello mushroom with roasted peppers. Stuff like that.

For a complete chart of food combining dos and don’ts check out http://www.thewolfeclinic.com/foodcombining.html