Last month, I shared all about the importance of drinking alkaline water. Alkaline water hydrates every cell in our bodies and keeps our internal arteries and tissues running clean, clear and in vibrant health. Water is just one part of maintaining a delicate pH balance of 7.365 in our blood and tissues. I encourage you to go back and read all about the simple and powerful effect that drinking alkaline water can have on your health!

Did you know that the following beverages have a pH lower than 7 and are acidifying to the body?

• coffee
• sugary soda pop
• diet soft drinks
• alcohol
• dairy-filled shakes and malts
• even fruit juice

Orange juice, which has always been touted as a great health tonic during cold and flu season, has a low, acidic pH of around 3.4, acidifying the body and weakening the immune system. Orange juice is 10,000 times more acidic than the pH of your blood!

Quick chemistry refresher: On the pH scale 7 is neutral. Anything lower than that is acidic and, in our research, has a detrimental effect on our bodies. Foods and drinks increase in acidity in increments of 10 with each numeral on the pH scale.

The amount of sugar, or fructose, found in orange juice actually slow down the activity white blood cells for 3 to 4 hours! That prevents these all-important cells in our immune systems from responding, cleaning up the bacteria and garbage from what we ingest as they normally should!

I’ve seen this phenomenon in the lab. Under the microscope, white blood cells can be seen to slow down and even become paralyzed in the blood plasma. No wonder so many colds and flus happen during the holiday season, when more sugary drinks and treats are munched away on than at any other time.

This month, I want to add to that all important principle of hydrating with alkaline water as discussed before.  I want to encourage you to consider drinking alkalizing beverages. Alkalizing beverages have pH counts much higher than orange juice – they lead to true wellness and the balanced pH state that are bodies are constantly working toward.

We call this concern for the body’s pH, the “New Biology” approach to health. Looking at the body’s pH levels reveals a fundamentally functional way of understanding our body in states of health and disease. This understanding is, perhaps, far different from what our biology books and teachers taught us way back when. The pH perspective takes into account how our digestive system works and how it contributes to blood and tissues that are healthfully alkaline. Our bodies are alkaline by design and acidic by function.

According to my husband and co-author, Dr. Robert O. Young, any beverage you drink – or any food you eat for that matter – goes into the mouth where the salivary glands immediately produce sodium bicarbonate to start alkalizing the fluids as they pass by the mouth and down the esophagus to the stomach. Once the beverages reach the stomach, the pylorus glands secrete sodium bicarbonate to further alkalize the beverage as well.

You may wonder, “So what?”. Here’s why all this business about bicarbonates matters…

Dr. Young’s research would indicate that sodium bicarbonate is produced in the stomach, the by-product is hydrochloric acid. The more acidic drinks or foods you consume the more the stomach produces sodium bicarbonate to alkalize these things before they enter the small intestine. (The small intestine must maintain a pH of 9.) As a result of all this bicarbonate, there will be more hydrochloric acid produced and left in the stomach as well. This is likely the reason so many people who eat a high acid diet have trouble with acid reflux. They have too much hydrochloric acid building up in their stomachs. That acid isn’t used by the body for digestion, but is simply a surplus by-product of the sodium bicarbonate production that is working to alkalize acidic intake.  Do you see the correlation?

Those of us constantly drinking acidic drinks are actually giving our stomachs the full-time job of breaking foods down with hydrochloric acid, rather than the function of simple processing food with sodium bicarbonate. Even if you’re not a chemist, you can imagine the strain on the stomach all this constant extra work could cause over time.  Hopefully the thought of that is enough to peak your interest in consuming natural, alkaline beverages.

We encourage everyone in our programs and on our retreats to simply drink more alkaline fluids! Fresh, raw green juices from vegetables and our morning Green AvoRado Kid Shake are so healthy for digestion! Instead of fruit smoothies which elicit that acid response from our hard-working stomachs, we drink green smoothies. Green drinks are less acidic in the stomach, so less sodium bicarbonate needs to be produced…and so less hydrochloric acid residue is left hanging around the stomach causing that acidic discomfort.

Think about this: people take an Alka-Seltzer, for an over acid stomach…just what are Tums really doing? Creating extra bicarbonate for our stomachs that we don’t need if we are consuming the bicarbonate-producing alkaline foods and drinks to begin with!

At the pH Miracle Center we all drink things that are close to the natural pH of our blood and tissues.  Drinks like water and green smoothies: simple, affordable and available to all! Self-healing and most preventative medicine are made of simple protocols just like this.

Equipped with that one concept of bicarbonate production in the stomach, you can do so much to improve your health. I challenge you to truly ‘digest’ this idea and to start an experiment with yourself: I challenge you to add raw green veggie juices (we drink spinach, cucumber, parsley, and celery juice every morning) and green shakes this coming week for breakfast and take note of how you feel and function.

•           Do you notice less digestive disturbances?
•           Do you have more energy?
•           Are you finally dropping those unwanted pounds you’ve struggled with for so long?

Some people who start making these types of changes actually lost a pound of fat a day.  Incredible!

To get you started, try the Avocolada shake below. It’s base is organic cucumber with spinach (with a protein content of 49%) and avocado, which has more potassium than a sugary ripe banana. Add a little red grapefruit juice for some kick and some coconut meat for the ‘colada’ and your ready to go!

This is our favorite way to start the day at the pH Miracle Center, but you can also enjoy this creamy, dreamy shake anytime during the day or night. Babies and kids love it too!

Shelley’s Green AvoColada Shake
Serves two
Ingredients:
1 English cucumber
1 avocado
4 cups baby spinach (two handfuls)
Juice from two red ruby grapefruits
Meat from one Young Thai coconut (I use Let’s Do Organic boxed raw coconut meat)
1 scoop greens powder (optional) (I use Doc Broc Greens from pH Miracle)
12 ice cubes
Mix on high in your Vita Mix or blender until smooth. Serve immediately!

 Variations:
Add 1 TB. Almond butter
 Add some good oils like pH Miracle Omega 369 (I would add 2 tsp.)
 Spray some ph Miracle pHlavor liquid mineral salt
 Use 2-3 limes instead of the grapefruit juice
Sprinkle cinnamon on top or some hemp seed protein granules

For children (or even transitioning adults) who are weaning off of sugary ice cream shakes you could use some Coconut Palm Sweetner, which is high in minerals and low on the glycemic index (sometimes called palm sugar) to make the shake sweeter to taste.

A Green Giveaway!

Just to make sure one of you can add a great greens boost to your next green shake, we’d like to give away a 1 lb. jar of Doc Broc Greens by pH Miracle to one reader today! Tell us your favorite way to add greens to your diet and we’ll send the reader with the best answer this green giveaway!