Alkaline Diet Principles
Alkaline diet helps to get a body pH balance to healthy levels. There are several principles in maintaining alkaline diet and it may sound complex or difficult to keep but it pays off with a healthy body. Many health conditions and symptoms disappear when acidifying foods are replaced with alkalizing foods.
Try to introduce these Alkaline Diet Principles to your eating plan:
- Eat at least 70% of daily food from alkalizing food groups. The rest should be high protein foods and other acid forming foods.
- Eat at least 2 servings of fruit and 5 servings of vegetables per day.
- Eat fruit in the morning, 30 minutes before breakfast.
- Don’t over eat. Stop eating on the first feeling of fullness.
- Don’t drink any fluids at meals. Drink at least 15 – 30minutes before your meal and then it would be beneficial to wait for 45 minutes after meal before drinking again. This includes water, juices, soups and soda, tea, wine (last 3 you shouldn’t be drinking at all). Fluids dilute the digestive process making it more difficult for foods to be properly digested.
- Meat, eggs and dairy are acidifying foods; eat them sparingly.
- Don’t eat hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. These include margarine, butter. Foods to avoid: fast food, cereals, cookies, crackers, vegetable shortenings, candies, processed foods.
- You still need fats. Use the following fats instead to get real nutritional value: avocados, nuts and seeds, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, flax seed oil. See food chart for more.
- Don’t use table salt. Use unrefined sea salt instead and reduce the intake of salt over all.
- Don’t use sugar or artificial sweeteners. sugar increases the acidity level in our body. Use natural sweetener such as stevia when you want to eat something sweet.
- Don’t drink caffeinated drinks: coffee, black tea, coke etc.
- Drink a lot of water, at least 2 litres per day. Remember it should be filtered water. Alkaline water is also available! Good tip is to squeeze a bit of lemon or lime into your water.
- Use whole grains such as quinoa, millet, buckwheat or sprouted grains instead of white flour. Also swap white rice for brown rice even though it is also slightly acidic but a lot more nutritional than white rice.
Acid – Alkaline Food Chart
Highly Alkaline Foods:
Alfalfa Cabbage Garlic
Avocado Cayenne pepper Ginger
Baking soda Cucumber Oregano
Barley Grass Dandelion Radish
Beet Endive Wheat Grass
Soy sprouts Sprouted seeds White beans
Alkaline Foods:
Artichokes Banana Almonds Borage Oil
Asparagus Cherries Almond Butter Coconut Oil pure
Basil Lemons Caraway Seeds Evening Primrose Oil
Bok Choy Limes Fennel Seeds Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Broccoli Rhubarb Sesame Seeds Flax seed Oil
Capsicum -stalks Sunflower Seeds Sesame Oil
Carrot Thyme Pine Nuts
Cauliflower
Celery Lentils Green Tea
Chives Lima Beans Herbal Teas
Egg plant Soybeans
Green Beans Tofu
Horse Radish
Leeks
Lettuce
Onion 
Parsnip
Peas fresh
Potatoes
Pumpkins
Red Cabbage
Rutabaga
Spinach
Squash
Tomatoes
Turnip
Yams
Zucchini
Neutral Foods:
Acai Berry Agave Nectar Basmati Rice
Goji Berry Apple Cider Vinegar Bulgur Wheat
Coconut fresh Homogenized Milk Buckwheat
Brussels Sprouts Rice Milk Spelt
Figs, raw+dried Brazil Nuts Soy Flour
Watermelon Cashew Nuts Whey Protein Powder
Sweet Potatoes Hazelnuts Kamut
Macadamia Nuts
Walnuts
Acidifying Foods:
Canned Vegetables Apricots Butter Chicken
Frozen Vegetables Blackberries Margarine Duck
Mushrooms Black Currant Mayonnaise Eggs
Sourkraut Blueberries Milk Fresh water fish
Tomatoes canned Cantaloupe Cream Ocean Fish
Tomato puree Cherry sweet Cheese Salmon
Olives Cranberry Ice cream Lamb
Peanuts Dates Yoghurt Liver
Peanut butter Gooseberry Brown Rice Syrup Oysters
Pistachios Grapefruit Barley Malt Syrup
Pumpkin seeds Grapes Honey Cod Liver Oil
Brown Rice Mandarin Sugar, white Corn Oil
Cereals Orange Xylitol Sunflower Oil
Rye Bread Papaya Soda Ketchup
Wheat Peach Sparkling Water Mustard
Wheat kernel Pear
Whole grain bread Pineapple Microwaved Foods!
White Rice Raspberries
Couscous Strawberries
Corn Tortillas Tangerine
Corn Yellow Plum
Amaranth
Barley
Oats
Quinoa
Highly Acidifying Foods:
Fruit Juices – sweetened Beef Beer Coffee
Pickled Vegetables Pork Liquor Black Tea
Artificial Sweeteners Bacon Wine
Chocolate Veal Soft drinks
Aspirin Canned Sardines
Chemicals Canned Tuna
Medicinal Drugs
Tobacco
It is recommended to eat lots and lots of alkaline foods, up to 80 % of foods eaten per day. And to keep pH balance in a healthy level, you can eat acidifying foods only in moderation and highly acidifying foods very rarely.
