pH – What Is It?
How Does It Affect Your Body?
We all know the most basic rule when trying to lose weight is “Calories In – Calories Out”. But, apart from maintaining a well-balanced diet,
there is another aspect that is as equally important: pH (potential of Hydrogen).
Not only is pH important to weight loss but also to maintaining good health in general, a fact that many weight loss programs don’t mention:
Put quite simply, pH (potential of Hydrogen), based on a scale of 0 to 14, controls the acidity or alkalinity of matter, 7.0 being neutral, which is neither acidic nor alkaline. Anything below 7.0 becomes acidic and above 7.0 alkaline.
Why is the correct potential of Hydrogen important in losing weight and keeping your body healthy? Let me try and give you an example:
A farmer, before planting a crop, has to make sure the soil is right before planting or sowing, it’s no good planting or sowing an alkaline-loving species in acidic soil, and vice-versa, because the crop will fail, or at least be extremely unhealthy.
“But how does the farmer alter the potential of Hydrogen of the soil to suit the crop that he’s planting or sowing?”
He adds the correct ingredients or fertilizer, which increases or decreases the alkalinity or acidity of the soil to suit the crop that he’s planting or sowing. And so it is with your body, you need the correct potential of Hydrogen to aid weight loss and keep your body healthy.
“That’s all very well for the farmer,” you say, “but I’m flesh and blood, not soil!” Exactly, but the principle is still the same.
Whereas the farmer controls the alkalinity or acidity of the soil by adding the correct ingredients or fertilizer, you can help control your potential of Hydrogen through the food and drink you consume.
Just as the farmer has to get the balance of the soil right to produce a healthy crop, so you have to get your body’s natural pH of between 7.3 and 7.5 right to produce a healthy body.
This is why a healthy, well balanced diet not only helps in losing weight but also helps in keeping your potential of Hydrogen at an optimum 7.3 to 7.5.
Your Body And pH (potential of Hydrogen)
Now the burning question: “How does potential of Hydrogen affect my body and aid my weight loss efforts?” Glad you asked!
As you are probably aware, there is a vital organ in your body called the pancreas, which produces the insulin that helps regulate blood sugar levels. Not only does it produce insulin, it also helps maintain the optimum of 7.3 to 7.5 alkalinity in your bloodstream and body’s cellular fluids.
To maintain the optimum of 7.3- 7.5, the pancreas needs four of the sixteen minerals know as essential minerals, these four minerals being potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium.
These minerals are drawn from your bloodstream by the pancreas to maintain the natural pH balance while the food and drink you have just consumed are being digested.
A healthy, well balanced diet, and any supplements you may take, will normally provide enough of these essential minerals in the bloodstream to allow the pancreas to maintain the optimum pH.
But what if your diet isn’t particularly healthy and doesn’t provide enough of these essential minerals? The pancreas will draw them from other vital organs, bones and body tissues to make up the shortfall and neutralize the acid.
Obviously, this isn’t an ideal situation, as a diet which regularly contains a high proportion of acidic food and drink makes the pancreas work harder to maintain the optimum of 7.3-7.5.
For example: processed sugars, including sweeteners; refined and fast foods, including potato chips; French fries; meat in excess, particularly red meat; wheat products, including pasta; consuming to much coffee and soda; are just a few that certainly don’t help the pancreas mainain a healthy pH
The Importance Of A healthy Pancreas
Did you know that it takes the pancreas over 70,000 times more effort to convert a cola with a pH of around 2.0 to a pH of 7.5 than it does to convert something with a pH of 7.0 to a pH of 7.5?
Now you can see why excessive consumption of acidic food and drink can cause severe long term damage to the pancreas, leaving it unable to maintain the optimum of 7.3-7.5 and resulting in a build up of acidic fluid in your body that can lead to contracting one, or more, of any number of adverse medical conditions.
As well as the health problems caused by the build up of acidic fluids in your body, the constant leaching of essential minerals from your vital organs, bones, muscles and body tissues, due to poor diet, can cause problems such as osteoporosis and brittle bones, muscle pain and wastage, fatigue and lack of energy, to name but a few.
I hope the above helps you understand the relationship between potential of Hydrogen and your body but what is the relationship between pH and weight loss? In pH (potential of Hydrogen) – Part 2, we will be discussing how pH can affect your weight loss efforts.