The Alkaline Diet | How to eat like a champ

New England Quarterback Tom Brady has a plan: He is slowing the aging process that he says is accelerated by sports. His plan is clearly mapped out, each and every day of his life is meticulously planned – for the next three years! – to program his body to do what he wants it to do. Among the most important parts of Brady’s plan is The Alkaline Diet. Tom eats a diet that is 80% alkaline, and 20% acidic which he says balances his metabolic system. Brady is not alone in believing that an alkaline diet can slow the aging process. Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine states that an alkaline diet substantially reduces the oxidative damage to DNA and tissues that accelerates aging. If you want to slow the aging process, and fight degenerative conditions that can lead to disease, the alkaline diet may be the right diet for you.

Why the Alkaline Diet Works

The alkaline diet helps maintain your blood’s pH level in the healthy range pH range of 7.35 – 7.45. When you’re young, your body has no problem maintaining its pH balance, but as you age your body’s ability to buffer acids declines. Left untreated, that declining ability to buffer acids can result in a chronic low-grade metabolic acidosis: A temporary condition where blood pH drops below it’s healthy range. Since the condition is chronic, it gradually wears the body’s defenses down.

Switching to an alkaline diet substantially reduces the acid load on your body. This means that your lungs and kidneys don’t have to work so hard to expel acidity, and it helps prevent bone loss. For an athlete like Tom Brady, reducing the acid-load from his diet means that his body’s resources are freed up to deal with the acidity that is generated when he works out.

Benefits of an Alkaline Diet

You are likely to lose weight: Eating alkaline means cutting out processed, and acid forming foods. On an alkaline diet, emphasis is placed on eating foods like whole grains and vegetables, plus drinking alkaline water. The foods in an alkaline diet are lower in calories than the foods in the Standard American Diet (SAD) that they replace. Alkaline water hydrates the body and helps raise blood pH, which can help increase metabolic rate. Because of the reduced calories from the foods in the alkaline diet, and the metabolic support provided by alkaline water, your body can burn off the excess weight naturally. Of course, exercise helps too!

Healthy Heart: An alkaline diet will also lower your cholesterol levels and reduce your blood pressure. It works because you cut out the unhealthy foods that lead to high cholesterol, and it delivers the nutrients you need for better heart health. Alkaline water helps too, especially if you’re dehydrated or magnesium deficient. Many older Americans are both chronically dehydrated and nutrient deficient.

Bone Health: An alkaline diet and alkaline water help slow bone loss and provide the nutrients (calcium and magnesium) that you need to build healthy bones. In fact, studies show that drinking alkaline water will reduce bone loss even if you get enough calcium in your diet!

Brain Health: Your brain forms a lot of acid byproducts because it burns glucose. Your body of course has to deal with those acids, or the result over the course of years is degenerative brain diseases like dementia. An alkaline diet helps your body handle that acidity because it reduces the acid-load on your body, which leaves it more capable of buffering the acidic wastes that your brain produces

Alkaline water has been shown to combat oxidation in the brain better than foods or supplements because it passes through the blood/brain barrier. The blood/brain barrier exists to prevent harmful elements in the blood from reaching your brain. But it also stops some helpful elements, such as antioxidant supplements. Alkaline water passes right through the blood/brain barrier, so it’s antioxidant potential actually reaches the brain.

Other benefits: There are probably many more benefits to eating alkaline, and research into those benefits is ongoing. One fact that is well-established is that eating an alkaline diet will improve your overall health if you struggle with acidic body issues.

Why alkaline water is an essential part of an alkaline diet

Alkaline water has benefits for health that plain water doesn’t. Most important for anybody considering an alkaline diet is that alkaline water can quickly (within 30 minutes) raise your blood pH and urine pH levels. Your goal is to raise your pH levels to healthy levels, and keep them there. During your meals, your alkaline diet does that for you. Between meals, you drink alkaline water on an empty stomach to provide acid-fighting alkalinity to your body that it otherwise wouldn’t get if you only alkalized by eating alkaline foods.

You also need the hydration benefit that drinking alkaline water provides. Proper hydration helps rev up the metabolism for weight loss, and helps flush toxins from the body. A recent study showed that drinking alkaline water caused test subjects to discharge 10 different heavy metals from their bodies over the course of two months. They also lost an average of 12 pounds over that period! Clearly, alkaline water is an essential part of your alkaline diet.

 

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References

Ostojic, Sergej, and Marko Stonanovic. “Hydrogen-Rich Water Affected Blood Alkalinity in Physically Active Men.” . Research in Sports Medicine: An International Journal, 06 Jan 2014. Web. 20 Feb 2014. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15438627.2013.852092>.

Wynn, E, MA Krieg, JM Aeschlimann, and P Burckhardt. “Alkaline mineral water lowers bone resorption even in calcium sufficiency: alkaline mineral water and bone metabolism.” Bone. Elsevier, 27 Oct 2008. Web. 1 Jul 2013. <http://www.thebonejournal.com/article/S8756-3282(08)00781-3/abstract>.

Burckhardt, Peter. “The Effect of the Alkali Load of Mineral Water on Bone Metabolism.” The Journal of Nutrition. American Society for Nutrition, n.d. Web. 26 Mar 2014. <http://jn.nutrition.org/content/138/2/435S.long>.

Abraham, Guy, and Jorge Flebas. “The effect of daily consumption of 2 liters of electrolyzed water for 2 months on body composition and several physiological parameters in four obese subjects: a preliminary report.” Highbeam Research. Original Internist, 01 Sep 2011. Web. 2 Jul 2013. <http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-269433201.html>.

Ornish, Dean, Jue Lin, and et al. “Increased telomerase activity and comprehensive lifestyle changes: a pilot study.” ProQuest. Lancet Oncology, [November, 2008]  Vol 9 No. 11. Web. 5 Nov 2013. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(08)70234-1/fulltext

Ornish, Dean, Jue Lin, and et al. “Effect of comprehensive lifestyle changes on telomerase activity and telomere length in men with biopsy-proven low-risk prostate cancer: 5-year follow-up of a descriptive pilot study” Lancet. Lancet Oncology, 01 Oct 2013. Web. 5 Nov 2013. <http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(13)70366-8/abstract>.