Getting the Acid-Alkali Balance Right on the Raw Food Diet

March 9, 2009 | 359 views |  Print |  Email

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Raw food diets are a natural way to help us maintain good health, increase our energy, avoid some serious health risks and enjoy earths’ bounty in the way that Nature intended. There are many different raw foods available for us to eat too. There are a large number of different fruits, nuts, vegetables, and meats for us to incorporate into our raw food diet. However, with all these choices we can make mistakes in our consumption of these foods. This article is written to help us avoid making one of the most common mistakes on the raw food diet – eating too much acidic food.

In this article you will learn why too much acid in your diet can be bad for you and how to avoid that common mistake on the raw food diet – or any eating plan.

Raw fruits provide us with many needed vitamins, nutrients and they taste good. But there are some types of fruit that, when eaten in quantities which are too high, can cause us more health issues than they help to prevent. We are speaking of fruits of the citrus type such as oranges, grapefruits, pineapples, and lemons to be specific. Each of these four fruits has high acidic levels and while they are good in moderation on the raw food diet, too much of them can definitely be a bad thing.

Citrus fruits are good for the body because they also contain high levels of vitamins like vitamin C and the acid within these fruit are great at breaking down toxins. Despite these advantages though, they can create other problems.

As we have just seen citrus fruit acid does have its benefits, but the benefit is only when the fruits are consumed in moderation. Because of these fruit’s high level of acid, over-eating them can create stomach problems and can even make existing problems worse. When there is too much acid in the stomach the body must get rid of it and fast, usually eliminating it in the form of diarrhea, before the acid begins deteriorating the stomach lining.

And this is another point about too much acid in the stomach. Too much acid, to include what our body produces itself, can eat away at the stomach lining which in turn can cause some very serious health issues. If a person has stomach ulcers for example, acid can irritate the ulcer, possibly causing it to bleed even. Most physicians would recommend controlling the acid intake so as not to cause the stomach further damage is there is already existing damage.

Another point about citrus fruit acid is that, in large daily quantities, the acid can actually soften the enamel that makes our teeth hard, to the point that the teeth can break. It is obvious that this is not healthy, especially for eating reasons.

The above is not to discourage anyone from including citrus fruits in their raw food diet. In fact, citrus fruits in the diet are highly suggested, but in reasonable moderation and in accordance to with the amount of acid your body can handle in a healthy way. After all, isn’t a raw food diet about getting and staying healthy?

Earlier we touched on vitamin C and it brings to mind something important about vitamin intake. We all need vitamins to strengthen our bodies and bolster our immune system. However, too much of any one vitamin can put the body into a state of shock and even poison it, like in an overdose. As you develop your raw food diet plan find out what levels of vitamin intake is good for your body and then design your raw food diet plan accordingly.

The key point in this whole article is the thought of moderation and balance, just as in all things in our lives. And balance is the key principle to establishing and maintaining a healthy raw food diet. And any nutritionist will support that principle.