Maintaining a balanced diet doesn’t just mean eating an adequate portion or serving from each food group in the food pyramid. Health professionals recommend that individuals keep pH balance in mind when choosing what foods and beverages to consume on a daily basis. Avoiding certain foods can go a long way in decreasing the potential for diseases and medical conditions like acid reflux to arise.

Classification

Food with a pH of 7 is considered neutral. Higher pH levels are classified as alkaline and lower pH levels are classified as acidic. Human blood typically ranges from 7.35 pH to 7.45 pH. While this falls just above neutral and within the alkaline classification, people shouldn’t eat a large share of acidic or alkaline foods. Striking a balance between the two groups is ideal for a healthy lifestyle and disease prevention.

Health Risks

Consumption of large quantities of acidic foods can lead to undue emotional stress, toxic imbalance and changes to naturally occurring immune system functions. Mineral absorption rate is compromised by the abundant intake of acidic foods and can cause a significant decrease in energy and cell repair. Cancer forming cells may increase as well as the likelihood of fatigue, disease and death.

Making a Change

Regulating your diet is the most effective method of adjusting your body’s pH level. People with high pH levels are prone to illness and should make every attempt to change their diet. By replacing some foods that are acidic with foods that are alkaline, you can ward off several harmful conditions.

Food Groups

• Vegetables: Instead of acidic olives and winter squash, try cucumbers and pumpkins.
• Fruit: Replace blueberries, cranberries and currants with strawberries, raspberries and raisins.
• Protein: Nix high fat animal protein like beef and pork and opt for almonds, whey, and chestnuts.
• Dairy: Products like ice cream, cheese and butter are highly acidic. Balance them with non-traditional products like lecithin granules, molasses and bee pollen.
• Sweeteners: Alkaline sweeteners such as Stevia, can be used instead of corn syrup and sugar.
• Alcohol and Caffeine: Beer, coffee, and most sodas have high acidic levels. Drinking water or vegetable juices are a much healthier option.

Acid Reflux and Diet

A perfect diet is not one that features alkaline foods only. It is essential to eat a variety of foods that will help the body maintain the appropriate pH balance. Knowing the types of food that will help to prevent acid reflux is very important. Eating foods that hinder the symptoms of acid reflux is one method of controlling this medical condition. Eating smaller portions throughout the day, limiting meals right before bed, and consuming more meals per day will decrease the occurrence of acid reflux. In general, the consumption of citrus, fatty foods, caffeine and alcoholic beverages should be closely monitored. Diet is an excellent tool for remedying acid reflux and should be taken seriously.

So you finally figured out what was ailing you.

Having a hiatal hernia isn?t as bad as it feels if you know what to do to reverse it.

The most important thing about being diagnosed with a hiatal hernia is staying optimistic. In other words the first step to curing your hiatal hernia is in actually believing it can be cured.

Otherwise you?re typically stuck with watching your underlying hiatal hernia symptoms get worse as you treat those symptoms. The absolute worst thing you can do is ignore the root cause of your hiatal hernia symptoms by ignoring it.

The root cause of your hiatal hernia is, simply put, your diet.

The best diet for hiatal hernia is a diet that gives back to your body, rather than take away. Basically that?s the key to unlocking your body?s own inner hiatal hernia cure . . . stop taking and start giving back.

Through the years you?ve eaten things you shouldn?t have eaten and as a direct result you triggered critical deficiencies of nutrients, including enzymes, minerals and their cofactors.

The big problem is there are a lot of mixed messages out there concerning hiatal hernia and the best diet. Perhaps knowing the worst diet for hiatal hernia will help you by process of elimination to learn what the best diet is for you.

Too often I hear people with hiatal hernia come back from the hospital, or doctor?s office, saying they can?t have any acid foods.

Avoiding entire food groups is more than unrealistic, it?s incorrect.

You see some foods are acidic, but they produce a non-acidic or alkaline environment in your body.

For example if you eliminate all citrus foods, you?ll not only create more nutritional deficiencies, you may even make your hiatal hernia and acid reflux issues worse than before.

Vitamin C is necessary for optimum cellular health. One of the easiest sources of vitamin C is from citrus fruits. Many leading health experts insist vitamin C is necessary to help prevent heart disease, oxygenate blood and promote healthy digestion.

Besides, the best diet for hiatal hernia is not necessarily creating less gastric acid. The key is to enjoy a diet that helps create a non-acidic or alkaline pH, in your blood, saliva and tissue. You need stomach acid to digest your food to take pressure away from your hiatal hernia. The acid reflux effect is usually caused from a gastric acid deficiency triggered from eating a diet that was high in bad fats and low in minerals and enzymes.

The best diet to reverse hiatal hernia is to eliminate foods that take away nutritional factors like enzymes, minerals and their various co-factors.

Here?s the best diet for hiatal hernia menu:

? Eat slowly and chew your food extra well

? Eat until your 75% full, stay a little hungry.

? Eat your raw fruits an hour in between meals.

? Don?t mix nuts with fruits.

? Don?t mix protein with fruits.

? Drink half your weight in water ounces daily

? Drink your water in between meals and snack, don?t dilute gastric acid.

? Avoid alcohol, tobacco and caffeine; they relax your esophageal seals.

? Eat raw vegetables like avocado, broccoli and spinach after you?ve eaten your protein.

? Avoid artificial sweeteners and MSG.

? Avoid pharmaceuticals if you can.

? Eat steamed yams, potatoes and brown rice sparingly.

? Avoid refine salts and sugars.

? If you eat grains, use sprouted grain sources.

? Eat your salad last.

? Use Celtic or Himalayan sea salts.

These are a few tips for the worst diet and the best diet for hiatal hernia. You?ll have to make adjustments for your lifestyle and tastes.

You were born to heal,

Todd M. Faass?

Health Ecologist