According to Dr. Ragnar Berg, a Swedish nutritionist and Nobel Prize winner, we should be eating about 80% alkaline forming foods and 20% acid forming foods at each meal.

Why does it matter?  Dr. Berg’s research suggested that disease cannot live in an alkaline environment.  He was the first scientist to discover the importance of the acid-base balance.




Of course, our system is always regulating, and will adjust to keep our blood plasma at a pH  between 7.35 and 7.45, but we can give our bodies some help by choosing alkaline forming foods.

So, which foods should we eat?  There is a helpful alkaline-forming food chart from Crohns.net that lists which foods are acid-forming and which are alkaline-forming after digestion and assimilation.

There is also a very detailed list of alkaline forming foods (even down to spices and minerals!) and acid forming foods based on information from essence-of-life.com.

Remember that a food’s acid or alkaline forming tendency in the body is not actually tied to the actual pH of the food itself.  A food is considered to be acid-forming or alkaline-forming based on the effect to our system after it has been processed in our bodies.  One common example is that highly acidic lemon juice actually has an alkalizing effect on the body.

If you’d like more information on this topic, Annemarie Colbin, PhD, and author of Food and Healing, has written a wonderful book to explain the acid-base balance and health risks that may result from eating a highly acidic diet.

One easy tip that has an alkalizing effect on the body:  drink an eight ounce glass of water each day mixed with 1 teaspoon of Bragg’s raw apple cider vinegar.

If this sounds interesting to you, check with your healthcare practitioner and give it a try!

Note: This is not a medical website.  This site is for entertainment purposes only.