Before we jump to the method of how we can alkalise our body, first we need to know why alkalising is important?
Having a balanced pH in the body is essential to prevent diseases and have good health. Your body’s pH determines if your body’s fluids are more alkaline or acidic. When your body is in an alkaline state, your chances of getting sick with chronic diseases decrease.
If your body is more often in an acidic state than a neutral one, your risk of contracting chronic illnesses, weight gain, teeth and gum problems, pain and inflammation increases. A condition of high acidity may go undetected for years, which may lead to prolonged damage.
The pH scale
On a scale of negative 4.5 to positive 9.5, when you have a pH level of 7.0 or above, your body is healthy. Your body always tries to maintain an equilibrium at pH of 7.365, which is slightly alkaline.
Daily foods that are acidic in nature
Animal protein, wheat, gluten, dairy, refined and processed sugars are all high acidifying foods. Common substances like coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco are also acidic in nature.
To find a healthy lifestyle balance, your diet should consist of 80 per cent alkaline forming foods and 20 per cent acid forming foods.
Alkaline foods
The list includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, herbal teas, seeds, green juice, melons, lemons and seeds are some of the best alkaline foods.
With our busy schedules and no extra time in hands, we all often end up eating processed food that are too acidic in nature due to their high sugar content. To help you with this, here is a simple tip by nutritionist Luke Coutinho that will help your alkaline your body in just 2 minutes.
The tip
The way that you breathe makes a lot of difference in your body being acidic or alkaline. The deeper you breathe, the more alkalising is the effect on your body. When you don’t breathe in a deep manner or take shallow breaths, more carbon dioxide is trapped in your blood, which makes your system highly acidic.
Shallow breathing also means that your stress, which makes you produce more cortisol (stress) hormones, which leaves you with more toxins in your blood making your body more acidic. Just by taking five deep breathes, you put more oxygen in your system, that helps clean your system. The less the carbon dioxide in our system, the less acidic is your body.
The simple exercise
Put one hand on the tummy and one on the chest. Now when you inhale, your tummy should inflate and when you exhale, the opposite happens. You can start by 4 seconds of deep inhale, 4 seconds of hold and 6 seconds of exhaling. You can do it for five minutes a day to alkalise your body.
