The first thing you need to understand is what an alkaline food item is. These are foods that, once digested, leave behind an ash that has a basic pH rating of seven or higher. Rather than use this as cooking information, followers of the acid alkaline diet use this combustion as a comparison to how the body breaks down and uses food as a fuel source.

1. What is an Alkaline Diet?
We’re going back to basics on this one. Many of you have asked what makes an alkaline
diet. So I thought I would give you some of the basics in this post.
The first thing you need to understand is what an alkaline food item is. These are foods
that, once digested, leave behind an ash that has a basic pH rating of seven or higher.
Rather than use this as cooking information, followers of the acid alkaline diet use this
combustion as a comparison to how the body breaks down and uses food as a fuel source.
These foods leave behind minerals like calcium, copper, iron, magnesium and zinc when
they are consumed by fire. Foods that leave this kind of residue include low-glycemic
index fruits and vegetables, citrus fruits, tubers, roots and nuts. Switching your diet to
solely these food items, it is believed, will help keep the body’s overall pH balance at a
slightly alkaline level, which is thought to be a natural and healthy state. Foods to avoid
on this plan include animal proteins, processed foods, unnatural sugars, and stimulants
like caffeine.
One of the benefits of following a raw diet plan is that it is inherently alkaline in nature!
A diet rich in alkaline foods is also thought to reduce the body’s reliance on stored pH
balancers such as the calcium in bones. Some studies have even shown that an alkaline-
rich diet, or a regular use of supplements, can increase the amount of bone mass and
muscle mass in older people, helping to offset conditions like osteoporosis in women and
degenerative muscle wasting in the elderly. And while many say that more research is
needed on the benefits of an alkaline diet, there have been studies done that show that the
formation of kidney stones is largely prevented with an alkaline-rich diet.
Followers of an alkaline diet say that their food consumption is closer to what our
ancestors would have originally eaten. They say that, before the onset of Western
civilization, a typical human diet was unprocessed and uncooked plant matter. Grains
were not edible until the discovery of tools like the mortar and pestle, and meats were an
uncommon addition, depending on the hunting prowess of the tribe, rather than
domestication of meat-bearing animals. Instead, people had to rely on the plants, fruits
and vegetables that could be eaten without problematic preparations.
Proponents of an alkaline diet may do so to alleviate symptoms that they believe are due
to larger amounts of acidic foods in the modern diet. Practitioners say that people
suffering from frequent illnesses and headaches, or an overall lack of energy, and women
who have ovarian and benign breast cysts might benefit from an alkaline diet, or at the
very least, a reduction in the amounts of red meat and processed grains that a person
consumes.

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