Short list
Before we get into the shortlist of mostly alkaline foods we have to start with the elimination of most of the bad acid foods that overwhelm any alkalinity that is taken in. We are talking all the "good" stuff, baked goods, fruit juices, candies anything with refined sugars, refined grains and refined salt that is used in most breads, cakes and pies etc. and last but not least meat. We use a barometer of not larger than the palm of our hand when sizing a piece of meat at a sitting and that isn't much. If you can't remove these bad acid foods and overwhelm them with alkaline foods, don't even bother reading the rest of this feature because the recommendations will not do you any good.
Good Fat
The legendary aspects of good fat and we believe the alkalinity effect of good fat comes into play here and fish oil is the champion led by sardines, tuna and salmon. Good fat and this not only takes in the fish role, but olive oil, nuts, seed and especially walnuts have a high degree of omega three fatty acids. (One great seed with huge alkaline and fat properties are pumpkin pepetia seed, and Nuts.com can provide you with quality seed. I personally eat about 100 pumpkin seeds a day, well chewed by the way) The heart healthy aspects of good fat as it relates to cardiovascular health is again legendary, because it has a "mild scrubbing" action that cannibalizes the fatty type residues that build up in the arteries etc. the cardiovascular network and intestinal walls that transfer nutrition to the body.
In our writings in most of our features we bring out the fact that good fat plays a critical role in keeping our arteries clear and our intestines porous for nutritional uptake. There is also another issue that I stumbled on regarding the oily substance on the colon walls that is transferred to the stool as a lubricant.
There has been a great deal written on what they refer to as this mucous plaque and different colon cleaning processes that have been discredited for the most part. If someone has led a long time healthy lifestyle, I would say that their intestines are in pretty good shape in regard to nutritional absorption and it is quite possible that colon cleansing could be counterproductive.
50 years of Tuna
My wife has led a Tuna fish lunch habit for 50 years or more, 7 days a week and even though it started and remains a weight watchers loss vehicle, the bonus benefits to her cardiovascular network and intestinal track has been a God send. In the last year we have switched our Tuna source to northwest albacore tuna from Papa George, as for years she depended on store bought tuna with no regard to Mercury and Omega 3 fatty acid content. Papa George is head and shoulders over and above their competitors and you will find its mention in scientific articles not in promotional ones. In fact you will find Papa George has as much as 8 times more omega 3 fatty acids with a very low mercury content.
Sugar
Unfortunately sugar plays a big role in your health and ironically the foods with the highest amount of beneficial minerals also have a high concentration of sugar. A couple of examples would be all fruits with their sugar on board, prunes, apricots, beets, bananas just to name a few. Fortunately these high sugar natural foods have a great deal of fiber that has a buffering effect and reduces the blasting into your system process that refined sugar does, as it relates to waking up insulin and fat storage. I also want to add plaque storage as it is our theory that the same process that stores extra sugar in your adipose areas as an insidious liquid fat also lines your arteries, hence arteriolosclerosis. In addition there is another area that we believe attracts this insidious liquid fat and that is the intestinal track.
In dealing with the natural sugars to obtain the minerals you need you just can't afford to indulge in the bad sugars, AT ALL.
Short List
Below is a short list of foods that I personally key in on regarding my quest to
keep my body functions in the dominant alkaline range versus acid range. The body
needs both food groups but they must be dominated with alkalinity sources to
absorb acids that we should know by now are the cause of all ills. So
below are the key foods of our alkaline crusade. Keep in mind written in
our many features that all ills are derived from acid wastes.
Pure lemon juice
tops our list with apple cider vinegar a
close second. Both are the superstars of alkalinity that are often
misconstrued as acid foods because they are acid until released into the body
and immediately convert to the finest alkaline foods that exist.
We buy our pure lemon juice in small containers, the Sicilian brand the 7 ounce
size that is convenient to squeeze 2 or 3 squirts into small spring water
bottles that we have drawn a little water out of them before refrigerating.
Lemon is a fantastic food to dissolve acids and in particular hard wastes like
kidney stones.
Apple cider vinegar
is a legend in its own right. I personally start my day with a tablespoon
of Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar along with a few squirts of pure lemon juice in a
glass of distilled or spring water.
Citrus
as in lemon juices is a citric acid fruit and can be misconstrued as an acid
producer when they are a super alkaline food once they hit the stomach.
We buy fresh orange juice with the most pulp as the pulp will slow down the
blast of the sugar in the citrus. Citrus is a high potassium food and a
must in any mineral based alkaline regimen.
Micro waved/Baked Potatoes
Above is the two options in
preparing a potato with the jacket on. We prefer the Microwave option but
many want to go with the old fashion method of baking it. Whatever floats
your boat.
This particular food is close to the top of my list for many reasons. Whole
Potatoes are about neutral on the acid/alkaline scale. We simply turn the micro
waved/baked potato into an alkaline dynamo by simply removing about 3/4 of the pulp that is
responsible for an acid state and taking this magnificent food and converting
the balance into an overwhelming alkaline food. The skin of the micro
waved/baked potato is the key to its magic.
The skin of a potato has seed properties as farmers and gardeners know that if
they cut up the pieces of a whole potato and leave at least one eye on the piece it will sprout a
potato plant. Incidentally when we scoop the majority of the pulp from the
body of the potato we deliberately leave about a 1/4 inch of pulp on the
inside of the skin as we do not want to scrape the inside of the skin as we do
not want to dispose of the most valuable properties along with the skin.
The seed magic has many properties. I might add that most foods that have
seed all berries by the way transfer the magic of life when they are consumed.
Therapeutics
Therapeutic benefits of the skin was what the old timers referred to as "roughage". In addition to the mechanical aspects of the "roughage" you have the nutritional/electrolyte aspects of the skin of the potato that interacts positively with the intestinal tract and it's alkaline state that by the way contains a generous amount of potassium that is a waste grabbing neutralizing component. This process should lead to a super healthy colon and a good chance it will avoid malignancy.
A couple of points regarding the handling of micro waved potatoes. It is important that potatoes are washed in cold water with soap and a good vegetable scrubbing brush. Potatoes are grown under ground and can have soil borne organisms on the skin. Again thorough cleaning with cold water and dish soap with a good stiff brush is critical. In addition potatoes should not be done in foil or anything that could activate bacteria. Potatoes done in a micro wave oven/baked works best after you take a sharp knife and pierce the skin after cutting the ends off a little. Prick the potato all over, not deep just the skin. Put the potato on a piece of paper towel. You have to turn the potato after about 8 or 9 minutes. You can take a dish cloth and test the potato for doneness. It should be pliable. With these measures taken care of the ingestion of this magnificent food will be unparalleled in its multiple benefits to you and yours.
All seeds
Again seeds have the gift of life embedded along with their fiber properties.
Chia and sesame seeds in particular have a nice contingent of alkalizing
minerals especially calcium that along with intelligent sun exposure will
provide your body with calcium absorption. I grind shelled Sesame and Chia
with unshelled Flax seed so it doesn't gum up my coffee bean grinder.
Don't grind the mix for too long as it could leave a residue in your grinder.
I don't worry about this mix in our daily smoothie as the high speed 3 hp
Vitamix blender we use takes care of the seeds very well.
Nuts.com have sesame and chia seed
and in fact they have a nice 5 lb pack of pepita pumpkin seeds. We consume
about 100 of these pumpkin seeds during the day as pumpkin seeds are loaded with
magnesium and much more. We usually buy our flax seed from Whole Foods and in fact
split our purchase evenly between the Golden Flax seed and the Brown. In
fact what we are doing now is taking an equal amount of Sesame and Chia seed a
couple of lbs each and mixing them up with 1 lb of Golden Flax seed, 1 lb of
brown flax seed along with the sesame and chia seeds 2 lbs each. We mix
them up very well in a big grocery bag, pour the mix into supermarket plastic
bags that we refrigerate and feed these plastic containers we have for every day
use.
Prunes
We like the Delmonte's brand, the regular size. There are few foods that
have the mineral and alkalizing benefits of prunes. 3 a day would be
great, 4 even better. Prunes are very high in fiber (roughage) by the way and foods such as
prunes with their high mineral content create an optimum source of intestinal
health benefits.
Apples
Especially the skins, close to the same benefits of micro waved/baked potatoes. In
the case of the pulp of the apple, eat it all, it is
what keeps the Doctor away? Apples are a great carb and they don't call me
Apple Bob for nothing.
Bananas
When we discovered that my wife
needed more alkalizing potassium for a water retention issue, the cardiologist told her to eat a banana
every day.
Bananas are loaded with potassium.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are alkaline and when they are processed (cooked) they are even better. Loaded
with Lycopene too. We use the grape tomato because we feel the
concentration of benefits are in the concentration of skin content.
All berries
Berries are loaded with alkalizing minerals and have life benefiting seeds even
blueberries. They claim blackberries are the superstars of all berries,
but we eat them all every day breakfast, lunch in yogurt and dinner.
Whey protein
Whey is an alkalizing food and the protein that we need for our muscle
building. It takes the place of more meat that is acid. You need a
little meat every day though or at least we think so.
Steamed veggies
You can't believe the alkalizing benefits of steamed vegetables. There are
different methods of steaming. Of course the best source is fresh
vegetables. Check out the new microwave steaming concept using supermarket
products
Don't over do the steaming and stay with the straight vegetables, you don't need
any these creamy combinations. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels sprouts,
String Beans and Peas are my favorites. Go easy on carrots with their
sugar content.
Sardines
Although sardines being a protein are slightly acid, the amount of alkalinity in
its minerals on board buffer the acidity.
Sardines have Vitamin D on board as well as calcium and the combination make it an incredible contributor to bone mass protection because of the absorbability factor. Sardines have a host of minerals including iodine that is unique in itself. They found in a recent study that African American men that passed the 100 year old mark had one thing in common, they all ate canned sardines.
If there are any foods that contain,
calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, phosphorous, iodine, protein, omega 3
fatty acids, vitamin D3 and much more than Sardines I haven't found it. One recent
large publication had a feature that said that sardines were the most important
foods you should eat and don't.
The Sun
I saved the best for last.
The suns ability to interact with minerals especially calcium is unequalled in preventing osteopenia the forerunner to osteoporosis. Keep in mind that anyone showing early signs of bone loss through a bone scan should be prepared to follow our dietary recommendations in this feature and find a way to get enough sun to put the icing on the cake so to speak. If I lived in the north I would hock my soul to install a sun room of sorts. Living in the south is an advantage as long as you don't stay indoors and slobber yourself with sunscreen when you go out. Getting 15 minutes of sun a couple a times a day with as much body exposure as you can at the right time of the day is what is needed to make this bone loss problem a non event. There are also a host of other reasons to get enough Vitamin Sunshine.
There is a direct connection to cholesterol and vitamin D production. It is a study in itself. I personally have a recognized (by the medical establishment) high level of cholesterol around total 230. 230 usually triggers off a Lipitor prescription from your GP. In my case with no signs of heart disease, a rather high HDL level (between 60 and 70 and my personal beliefs in cholesterol as it relates to Vitamin D production I have forgone cholesterol medication. In fact we have recently read that driving cholesterol readings down to 150 and lower could be counterproductive to adequate vitamin D3 production. Lipitor can drive your reading down, even with a low dose of 10 mg of Lipitor.
Personally depending on my HDL reading and an insistence by your GP I would adjust my cholesterol to around the 200 level, by adjusting the daily dosages, but this is my choice and the choice you will have. I would strongly advise you to get on the Internet and obtain the huge amount of information there is on the subject and discuss it with your GP.
The sun has so many benefits they are two numerous to mention. Check out our sun features on blueeyedcurse.com
Bottom Line
Below are 4 considerations that involve the bottom line
1. Eliminate acid foods or at least to a bare medium.
2. Dominate your diet with alkaline foods.
3. Indulge in Omega 3 fatty acid foods that compliment an alkaline diet.
4. To abide by the 40-30-30
principles of losing weight and keeping our arteries clean we always obtain just
about an equal amount of Protein, Carbohydrates and Fat at every meal and snack.