How to Test Your Ph Levels on the Alkaline Diet

Daily Testing Can Motivate You To Make Better Food Choices

Sep 24, 2009

The overall goal of the alkaline diet is to create an ideal pH balance of acids and alkaline compounds in the internal environment of the body to promote weight loss.

Tracking your body’s pH shows how drastically foods impact your body’s alkaline-acid levels. It can inspire you to take serious action. Changing your eating habits to enjoy optimum health will not be an option once you understand the importance of your pH.

To test your body’s pH is a simple home procedure that can be performed in seconds by testing your urine several times a day with specially designed litmus paper.

Dieters Get Motivation

“A single measurement is not enough to draw any valid conclusions about the state of the internal environment; pH can vary at different times of the day because of activity, meals, physical effort, stress and so forth, “ writes Swiss naturopath Christoper Vasey, N.D. author of The Acid-Alkaline Diet for Optimum Health. He recommends testing several times a day four or five days in succession.

Testing your pH three times a day may seem like a bother but it takes no time. The important value is that a dieter is getting instantaneous feedback about the impact of foods he or she has consumed in the last 24 hours. That is a shocker sometimes.

The pH strip turns a variation of colors that can then be compared to a chart that indicates whether or not your alkaline-acid level is balanced. When too much acid is being stored in the body, it shows up. With this information about your body, a target goal of reaching 7.35 pH is all the motivation you need to follow the alkaline diet.

As the days and weeks go by the changes being made in your diet begin to reflect on the tests. As the tests show progress toward achieving a better alkaline balance, you may notice the weight loss you experience coincides with improved pH readings.

Why Worry About Your pH Level?

Most people are shocked to discover they have a highly acidic body. This is found more in the United States than other cultures. In the standard American diet highly acidic foods are consumed in large quantities. Chronic low-grade metabolic acidosis is prevalent, according to certified nutritionist Susan E. Brown, Ph.D and Larry Trivieri, Jr, authors of The Acid Alkaline Food Guide. This condition encourages obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis and poor bone health among many other illnesses.

A balanced or neutral pH is in the 7.0 to 7.5 ranges. A reading of 6.5 pH or below is a symptom, or a warning, of potential health problems. “Imbalance between acid and alkaline compounds are certain signs that the body is in danger of becoming unhealthy and increasingly susceptible to disease,” writes Dr. Brown and Trivieri.

When to Test pH

Nutrition expert Vasey outlines in his book in the chapter Detecting Acidification precise protocols regarding how and when to test your pH. The first urination of the day should actually be acidic. That is normal and healthy. It contains all the acids filtered by the kidneys through the night. After testing for five days and you find the urine is not acidic upon awakening then further tests should be performed in a clinical setting. It may be you are too alkaline, though rare.

Thus, the first test for a more accurate reading of the pH should begin with the second urination of the day; then the second test before lunch and the third before dinner.

Discover This Weight Loss Secret For Yourself

Some critics of the alkaline diet believe it is too complicated, too scientific to grasp, changes in foods too confusing or the claims for weight loss hocus-pocus. Discover for yourself.

Different styles of pH strips can be purchased at most local pharmacies or ordered on the Internet. One popular product comes in a small convenient container with 80 pH strips and a handy color chart on the back of the container that matches results from 4.5 to 9.0 pH.

Positive changes in life involve adaptation. Old habits must die. Diets of any kind require dramatic changes in both your thinking and attitude. Without change, there are little results.

Take the alkaline diet in easy steps. Begin with testing your pH. Then learn what to eat and how to alkalize your body. One step at a time will take you on a rewarding journey of weight loss.

References

Susan E. Brown, PhD, CCN, and Larry Trivieri, Jr. The Acid Alkaline Food Guide: A Quick Reference to Foods & Their Effect on pH Levels. Garden City Park, New York. Square One Publishers. 2006

Christopher Vasey, N.D. The Acid-Alkaline Diet for Optimum Health. Rochester, Vermont. Healing Arts Press. 1999.

The copyright of the article How to Test Your Ph Levels on the Alkaline Diet in Weight Loss is owned by Susan Etchey. Permission to republish How to Test Your Ph Levels on the Alkaline Diet in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.