Sounds like an old Beatle's song. The difference is, loving your pH can be imperative to your existence; or not loving your pH can be detrimental to your health. Either way, here are some simple facts you need to know when working with dietary changes.

In the trek to become healthier, one of the most important factors people do not focus on is their pH factor. The term pH, stands for "potential of Hydrogen". It is a measure of the relative acidity or alkalinity of a solution.

Technically speaking, the pH of a substance is measured on a scale from 0.00 to 14.00. The midpoint, 7.00, is neutral, neither alkaline nor acid. The lower the number, the more acidic the solution is; the higher the number, the more alkaline the solution. A factor of 1 = 100 times increase in pH. Therefore, acid is 100 times stronger at 5 than at 6.

Normally, all bodily fluids such as the blood, bile, pancreatic juice, gastrointestinal fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, saliva, urine, aqueous humor, and others, except those of the stomach, should register above 7.0 on the pH scale.

Up until the 1980's, most authorities agreed that the normal pH was alkaline. However, newer evidence reveals that an acid pH in the stomach and urine, and a slightly alkaline pH in the blood, is ideal for optimum health and body functioning.

Unfortunately, the pH factor of the fluids in your body doesn't always stay consistent; it fluctuates according to its reaction to dietary intake. Although we have been wonderfully created to withstand pH changes within our bodies, if these changes fluctuate too widely or for too long, we encounter physical problems.

With proper pH balance in the body and proper hydrochloric acid balance in the stomach, diseases such as anemia, arthritis and colitis can be prevented. Insufficient stomach acid results in symptoms of indigestion due to delay in the emptying of the stomach, including indigestion of protein, and non-destruction of acid-fast bacteria. Thus, foods putrefy in the stomach, causing gas, bloating and discomfort.

One of the many blessings our body gives us, is its ability to store necessary minerals used to neutralize or offset the effects of dietary acid ash. This storage place is referred to as the alkaline reserve, which is made up of minerals such as sodium, calcium, potassium, and magnesium. These various minerals can easily be obtained from fruits and vegetables.

Now the food ash we are talking about, either alkaline or acid, is a residue of "digested food" that is different from the residue of bulk materials such as cellulose in celery, bran, and other foods that contain what we call roughage. Roughage is never really "taken into" the body. It passes through the intestinal tract without being assimilated and is eliminated through the bowel.

The primary mineral used by the alkaline reserve is sodium. Most of the sodium used in buffering is stored in the liver and muscles ready to be used as needed. As with most materials used on demand, if the supply isn't replenished, eventually it will become depleted. If your sodium reserve becomes too low, your body uses alternative sources of minerals, such as calcium, stored mainly in your bones. Should the alkaline reserve continue to deplete, the body moves down the line utilizing the additional minerals stored in other parts of the body.

As your body purposes to survive, it will continue to rob minerals from various resources. Accomplishing its goal short term, it will be faced with future destruction if it is neglected and specific minerals are not replaced.

Requiring the sodium your body needs for buffering, the gallbladder can concentrate bile by releasing it back into the body, along with bicarbonate and chloride. In doing so, the gallbladder bile becomes more acidic, not because it is producing acid bile, but as a result of the body's urgency for sodium in its desperate need.

As too much water, bile salts and lecithin are being absorbed from the bile, the bile tends to become like a thick sludge. As the bile becomes thicker and dryer, cholesterol, which constitutes the greatest portion of gallstones, is transformed from its liquid state and begins to solidify forming gallstones.

If the alkaline reserve continues to strain without being replenished, the body will require calcium to help buffer the overwhelming acid ash, exhausting the bones of their necessary resources. From here, signs of osteoporosis or arthritis may develop.

Although the body knows how to survive short term, it is up to us to proceed with proper nutritional choices. In helping our body to stay healthy, we can avoid serious symptoms that may develop due to the depleting of nutrients necessary for our bodies to function as they were created.

Healthfully Yours,