If you value staying healthy, learning more about acid and alkaline foods is one of the most important things you can do to.

The last time you may recall hearing anything about acid or alkaline was probably in science class.

Basically acids and alkaline are opposites.

There is a simple pH scale used to rate how alkaline or acid something is. Of course we are talking about food so nothing will be too acidic to be very corrosive or too alkaline to be caustic.

The scale starts at the acid end represented by zero and ends at the alkaline end at 14, in the middle ZERO is neutral.

The acid and alkaline foods you eat is the most important factor to living a long and healthy life, other than the obvious things like air, water and sunlight or exercise.

When you are healthy the pH of your blood should be very close to 7.25 or 7.4. This is slightly alkaline or salty. Foods that are ‘alkaline producing’ in your body contain trace minerals, which are nutritional cofactors essential for the cellular absorption of vitamins.

Foods that are ‘acid producing’ must be neutralized so that a healthy alkaline balance is maintained. Alkaline foods neutralize acid foods . . .

If you eat too many acid producing foods like animal protein, saturated fats and refined sugars you may use up all your salty minerals that keep you slightly alkaline.

Once your minerals are depleted from your blood a state of low oxygen may set in called acidosis.

Bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi and cancer cells crave an acid environment.

If you fail to eat enough plant-based foods which provide cofactors of minerals, enzymes and vitamins, then your immune system is forced to ‘borrow’ salty minerals from your tissues, teeth and bone.

People with high serum calcium have a problem. Their blood is full of calcium, not from eating alkaline plant-based foods, but because the calcium salt has been extracted from your body’s store rooms of minerals.

Eating acid producing foods can bankrupt your body of minerals necessary to make stomach acid. This is why so many people suffer from acid reflux, not because they make too much stomach acid, but rather, because they make too little.

Acid reflux and other health issues can be a simple alkaline food deficiency . . .

Your gallbladder, liver, kidneys and pancreas all depend on you eating alkaline producing foods to provide mineral cofactors, enzymes and nutrients. Eating acid producing foods like milk, which is 87% casein or animal protein, weakens bone density, reduces nutrient absorption and can lead to degenerative disorders like acid reflux disease, hiatal hernia and dastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD.)

You were born to heal,

Todd M. Faass

Health Advocate

It’s not hard to find foods that cause acid reflux they’re all around you, everywhere you drive, walk or shop. You can’t help but see a food billboard, a food sign or even pick up a food advertisement on the radio or TV that’s selling you on eating out.

Who doesn’t like to eat out? It’s convenient and sometimes even fun. Fact is you end up paying for your fast food pleasures in more than one way.

People who eat out a lot are prone to more health problems, especially acid reflux and related food caused dis-ease.

Truth is acid reflux isn’t always caused by the food you just eat as much as the food you’ve been eating all along. Sometimes the food you just eat is like the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.

So eliminating a few foods to avoid acid reflux attacks isn’t as easy as it seems. If you eat healthier foods more often you could enjoy a piece of pizza or that pasta dish once in a while, it wouldn’t matter.

So just giving you a list of foods for acid reflux isn’t what you need. You need to know what eating habits cause your acid reflux so you can get rid of it for good.

It’s a scientific fact that when you remove the cause of anything it can no longer have an effect. Your acid reflux is an “effect,” you just need to find the cause and address it properly.

Curing acid reflux with food doesn’t need to be rocket science.

Some people suffer from acid reflux from eating foods that are missing necessary nutrients, minerals and cofactors they need to support proper digestion. Heartburn, acid indigestion or acid reflux, whatever you want to call it, it’s still just a simple digestion issue.

Most people end up making a mountain out of a molehill because instead of addressing the cause of their acid reflux problems they add to them.

One way of making them worse is to take antacids. The Swedish scientists proved to the world that antacids are useless- they’re nothing but a money making gimmick.

The sad thing is if you take antacids for your acid reflux, you’ll never get around to changing the foods and the eating habits giving you acid reflux in the first place.

I suppose if someone sold a pill that prevented drunkenness people would just drink more alcohol, but that doesn’t change the fact that alcohol is bad for your health.

Same goes for taking medicine to block your acid reflux symptoms. You’re just ignoring the reason you have acid reflux . . . just because your “symptom free” doesn’t mean you’re healthy.

The solution is to NOT eat anything you’ve been eating and drinking. Start over by eliminating everything at once and then add only real healthy foods throughout the day.

Do your due diligence and discover which foods deliver health benefits, like optimum digestion for starters. Get some probiotics, enzymes and ocean minerals in you. Look into a plant-based diet high in raw foods from plant sources.

The largest animals on the planet eat plants and lots of them too. Copy nature, return to your roots and change your life the right way.

Don’t just trick yourself by eliminating this food and that food, you’ll be popping pills and chugging gallons of medicine doing it that way. To reverse your acid reflux stop eating the foods you’ve been eating, stop eating the amounts of food you’ve been eating and change the time of day you eat foods too.

Reverse your food and dining habits and you’ll reverse your acid reflux dis-ease.

You were born to heal,

Todd M. Faass?

Health Advocate

I once saw my best friend go through a hiatal hernia attack, which put us both into a state of panic. What do you do when your friend suddenly acts like he?s dying but nobody knows what?s wrong.

He was choking up meat he had just eaten within the hour and had trouble breathing in. I could see the pain and pressure was freaking him out, the look in his eyes and the recurring spasms of violent choking had concerned me as well.

I would have called an ambulance, but he insisted it was over, then it would start again and again- it was nerve racking to say the least, for both of us.

I kept asking him questions, but he could hardly talk. I could tell my asking questions was about the most irritating thing I could be doing, because he obviously had trouble talking as well. There?s nothing like being interviewed while you feel like your choking to death, or dying from a heart attack- we didn?t know.

In between his hiatal hernia attacks all I could do is get on the Internet to see what I could learn fast.

I had never understood what a hernia was, but it didn?t take me long to match the symptoms he was having with the definition of hiatal hernia. Of course, when I told him I thought he was suffering from symptoms of a hiatal hernia, he just looked at me like I was out of my mind.

The situation was bad, he couldn?t relax, sit down or lay down at all, he just kept pacing, leaning against the wall holding his chest area or rushing to the bathroom to choke up his lunch bit by bit.

Today I could recognize the symptoms of hiatal hernia a mile away and now I understand why a hernia caused all those symptoms.

Once I ?Googled? the correct information about hiatal hernia symptoms, I had him dropping his heels, jumping on his wife?s exercise trampoline and finally stretching backwards over her giant grape purple yoga ball . . . and it worked like a charm.

The bouncing and stretching allowed gravity to do its trick, restoring his stomach, esophagus and diaphragm back to their original positions, below in his chest cavity.

Here?s some extra advice for those of you with hiatal hernia symptoms . . . make sure you chew your food better. It?s better for you because the digestive process starts in the mouth as enzymes and saliva to help break down the size and bulk of your food to make it easier on your gut to digest.

When the esophagus or stomach slides or rolls past the diaphragm and bulges upward in your chest cavity, there may be undigested food in that area that can?t go back down below the diaphragm muscle junction. So the better you chewed it, the easier it may be for you to swallow or eliminate any obstructive food stuff.

My friend was very fortunate the food trapped in his throat area didn?t go down his wind pipe . . .I?m sure under the circumstances his hiatal hernias symptoms would have been fatal.

Not a choice way to sign off in my book, especially on my shift!

Let?s review the symptoms published by the Mayo clinic:

• Heartburn
• Belching
• Chest pain
• Nausea

If you have hiatal hernia symptoms chew your food, walk and jump more and keep a giant grape purple yoga ball around just in case, of course the grape purple color is optional.

You were born to heal,

Todd M. Faass?

Health Ecologist