We hear so many things about keeping balance in our lives: balancing work with pleasure; balancing exercise with rest; balancing our diets. Our bodies are finely tuned machines that need to be treated respectfully. We need to be sure not to tip the scales in the wrong direction by consuming too much of the wrong food. But do you know why?

One of the main reasons we keep an eye on our diet is to ensure that we don’t send the pH balance out of whack.

The pH in our bodies refers to the balance between acidity and alkalinity in our blood, urine and saliva. If you consume too many high acid foods, don’t exercise, and experience stress often you are likely to be acidic.

Acidity in our blood is connected to a host of health problems, and as Cathy Wong put it in her article for About.com, “a diet high in acid-producing foods disrupts balance and promotes the loss of essential minerals such as potassium, magnesium, calcium and sodium…”.

Other health problems associated with high acidity are:

1. Lack of energy

2. Being susceptible to colds or flu’s

3. Irritability

4. Headaches

Many alternative therapy doctors believe that pathogenic diseases thrive in highly acidic environments. In turn, the theory is that pathogenic diseases cannot grow in perfectly balanced pH environments.

Each organ in your body has a different pH, but in general it is considered wise to consume about 70% alkaline foods and 30% acidic. It is definitely important to have both to keep balance.

Essentially green foods rich in chlorophyll, vegetables, fruits, and other sources of protein like whey protein powder, eggs and cottage cheese are all alkaline. High acidity foods are things like red meat, salmon, white flour pasta and olive oil.

For a comprehensive list foods that are alkaline and foods that are acidic, click here.

To view some of the alkaline products offered by AstroNutrition, click here.