Key Points at a Glance
- The acid-base balance plays an important role in the body.
- If this balance is disrupted, the body begins to experience problems, and the body becomes overly acidic.
- In most cases, the cause is a poor diet.
- In addition to a few dietary supplements that can help restore the acid-base balance, the most important thing is to make changes to your diet.
If you know which foods cause the body to become overly acidic, you’d think it would be easy to avoid them. And instead, eat more alkaline foods. But that’s often easier said than done—more on that later. Because it’s not just the consumption of certain foods that triggers acidification.
The Causes of Acidosis
Let’s start by focusing on food. It turns out that animal products, in particular, can lead to acidification. For example, people who consume a lot of meat, cheese, other dairy products, eggs, and fish have an increased risk of their acid-base balance becoming overly acidic. Surprisingly, however, rice, grains, bread, flour, and oatmeal are also on this list. It comes as little surprise, on the other hand, that soda, cola, and beer also fall into this category.
However, too much exercise can also lead to acidification. You can tell this is happening, for example, when your muscles feel like they’re literally burning and are very tired afterward—in other words, when you feel weak. Factors such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, stress, medications, and adverse environmental influences can further exacerbate the effects caused by acidosis.
What can hyperacidity lead to?
Lack of energy is generally a major issue when the body is overly acidic. Fatigue and joint and bone discomfort can also be symptoms, as can internal tension, such as nervousness, restlessness, and emotional imbalance. Low resilience and resistance, as well as a loss of elasticity in the skin and connective tissue, can also result.
If you don’t address acid overload, it can have long-term consequences. Osteoporosis and allergies are actually among the milder consequences, at least when compared to other possible complications such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, gout, rheumatism, kidney and gallstones, atopic dermatitis, heart disease, and even cancer.
Identify acid overload and restore acid-base balance
As a rule, a urine test is sufficient, though it must be repeated over a certain period of time—usually a few days. If the average pH level during this period is below 7.0, this indicates acidosis. You should take immediate action to counteract this. First, consider engaging in physical activity without overdoing it; make sure to get enough exercise, go to the sauna, and drink plenty of water. This will help you see the initial results.
Fundamentally, however—and this is indisputable—you will most likely also need to change your diet. If you eat a lot of sausage, meat, dairy products, and other foods mentioned above, then you’ll need to make some changes. By the way, sweets, coffee, products made from white flour, and even legumes—which are otherwise so healthy—are among the foods you’ll need to cut back on.
Instead, your body now needs alkalizing foods. As for beverages, in addition to water, unsweetened tea is also fine. Going forward, your diet should consist largely of vegetables, potatoes, leafy greens, sprouts, fruit, and mushrooms to balance your acid-alkaline levels. Once you’ve achieved this goal, you should aim for a balanced diet—acid-forming foods and sweets are, of course, allowed now and then, but overall, you should continue to prioritize alkaline-forming foods.
