Getting to pH 7; it's not just what you eat!
Since starting my health journey soooooo many things have changed for me like what I do and don't eat and the way my body has responded. I am of average height: (5'8"), weight 130 pounds and am at the low end of BMI for my my body metrics (and to be clear I am no athlete)!
Awesome, right? I thought so until I recently attended a fabulous health retreat (look up Grail Springs in Bancroft, Ontario). I may be doing some things right, but there is SO MUCH more I could be doing! Despite my stellar eating habits, I have struggled with achieving the right balance of acidic and alkaline. While our bodies have a tendency to favour one over the other our common challenge is getting to just the right point.
There are a variety of ways to check your pH levels (urine pH test strips available on Amazon are the easiest). pH (potential of hydrogen) is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of your body. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 14—the lower the pH the more acidic you are, the higher the pH the more alkaline your body. When you are neither acidic nor alkaline you have a pH of 7 which is neutral and ideal.
Chronic acidity can lead to many health issues including obesity, slow metabolism and inability to lose weight, chronic inflammation, high blood pressure, diabetes, bladder and kidney conditions, including kidney stones, weakened immunity (that's me!), premature aging, osteoporosis, joint pain, aching muscles and lactic-acid buildup, low energy and chronic fatigue, mood swings, slow digestion and elimination, and yeast/fungal overgrowth just to name a few.
What we put into our body is a big part of getting to 7. Foods themselves are either acidic or alkaline and thus impact your balance. Again there are many tools online to point out the measures for food. Suffice it to say that a large part of our North American diet is acidic. So there's the first challenge.
Back to the retreat! Using a checklist we completed a survey about our environment. Turns out that it is not only what we put inside but it is also about what our bodies are "attacked" by on the outside. Out of 20 questions about my environment I had issues that negatively impacted me on 15! Of course I have a cell phone! And who doesn't use Bounce in the dryer!! Trust me I hate lawn weeds so yes I use pesticide. The questionnaire, far from being judgmental, was intended to get us to think about what's happening to our bodies when exposed to all of these things. They create toxins that get absorbed. But what options do we have? Move into a cave, research healthier options for every environmental factor around us, or accept that we will always be exposed to toxicity and resolve yourself to annual cleansing!
It's a life long commitment to stay "clean". Since I don't like dark, clammy spaces the cave thing is not an option for me. So here goes my late night research again to find alternative solutions to all the toxic elements around me and a commitment to annual cleansing. Thank goodness for Google and thank goodness for all the amazing health practioners around me that are willing to help keep this body stay as close to 7 as possible!