Stress Leads to an Acidic Body

Wow! I can't believe it has been two weeks since I posted! I have to admit to being extremely busy working with my partners Brenda Underwood and Sue Lewis on building our business. So busy in fact, that I increased my intake of wheatgrass because the stress was really bothering me. Did you know that stress is one of the top factors in creating an acidic body? This means, you may eat pretty well, but if you are stressed out - your body is likely acidic! You have to do something to combat it! If this is you, check out the chart below and start consuming more of the top alkaline foods! It will really make a difference. I immediately starting sleeping better and felt calmer. Also, I made some changes in my schedule to reduce my stress! Very Important! If you are stressed out, look for ways to reduce the stress in your life. As women, we often put everyone else first. This creates a great deal of stress for us as we lack down time to rejuvenate. Just remember, if you aren't well, you can't help anyone - so take care of yourself first, then you will have the energy and focus to help others much more effectively!

What Foods Are Good for You to Combat Acidity?

If your body is acidic, like mine is (remember 6.2 on the scale?) You will need to concentrate on eliminating acidic foods from your diet (not forever) but for at least 6-8 weeks. You will also need to add alkaline foods - alot!! Once your body is alkaline, you will need to work to maintain it by consuming more alkaline foods than acidic. Makes sense? Absolutely!

Oils/Fats: For cooking, use only grape seed, rice bran or coconut oils. They have a low smoke point. For adding onto foods like salad, vegetables and fish, use raw, cold pressed virgin olive, avocado, flax or hemp oils. Try Organic Earth Balance as a replacement for butter if you can't go without something. KEEP ALL REFRIGERATED!

Bread/Grains: Eat spelt, kamut, rye, hemp, millet, amaranth, whole rye grain, wasa crackers or Ryvita. No white breads of any kind. No corn tortillas, use only spelt or sprouted wheat. In place of white rice, pastas and noodles, eat organic brown rice, soba noodles, buckwheat and quinoa.

Proteins: Cut animal proteins and cheese and instead choose wild-caught fish, avocados, hummus, lentils, black-eyed peas, beans, tofu and raw almonds. Replace milk with organic unsweetened soy or almond milk.

Coffee, Black & Green Teas & Soda (Reg or Decaf): These are the most acidic and dehydrating! Replace these with wheatgrass, spring water (test your water for proper PH), and herbal teas.

Fruit & Juices: Fruit, unfortunately is acidic due to the sugar content. Definitely add this back into your diet after the 8 weeks. However, depending on how much you eat, you may need to reduce the amount consumed to maintain a balanced PH. A few fruits are OK to consume during this cleansing process: grapefruits, green bananas & fresh whole coconut. (This has been the most difficult for me as I have been a large fruit consumer).

Vegetables: Here is where you go hog wild!! 70% of your food intake needs to be veggies. Preferable leafy greens! (I'm not quite ready for salad for breakfast, but avocados are OK)!

Sweets & All Sugar (including honey): These should be eliminated completely. They are quite corrosive to the body.

Wheatgrass Tea: Go hog wild here again!! However, you need to be selective of what kind of wheatgrass you consume. The only product we recommend is INS Wheatgrass Tea. Why?

Because it is the only 100% organic, grown aeroponically in purified oxygen so that the leaves and the roots of the wheatgrass are included and consumed. For more information on the wheatgrass and how you can purchase it, go to http://www.gotwheatgrass.com/ How much to consume? One liter per 40 pounds of body weight. So if you weigh 150 pounds, you will want to consume almost 4 liters. Please do this slowly!! If you are not already drinking wheatgrass or other greens, start with as little as 1/2 a packet and work your way up over time. Also, only make up as much as you can drink within a 30 minute time frame. Both your taste buds and body will thank you!

(This diet information was provided by a certified Microscopist. If you are interested in speaking with her, please email me at gotwheatgrass@gmail.com).

Alkaline vs. Acidic - What Are You?

What are these pictures of above? Dried blood! The top picture is healthy blood. The bottom picture is unhealthy blood. Do you know what yours looks like?

Did you know our bodies are supposed to be alkaline? That they likely were when we were born? Did you know that like a battery (which is alkaline when new) our bodies over time start to corrode due to acid that is produced by our environment, stress and our modern day eating habits and lose energy and vitality? I didn't. I just thought we all got old and some of faster than others. Well, now that I became aware of this, I set out to find out about myself!

Last week I made an appointment to see a Microscopist. What is a Microscopist you ask? A Microscopist provides blood assessments to help you evaluate your health and nutritional needs. It takes just one drop of blood to determine if you have an imbalance of acidity and alkalinity. You want proper pH (potential for hydrogen) which for us humans is 7.365%.

The Microscopist quickly pricked my finger, dropped blood on a couple of slides and immediately began to assess my blood. I have reached the ripe age of 41 and have started noticing the affects of aging, skin tones irregular, circles under my eyes, lack of clarity in my mind. It was scary. I felt much to young to be feeling the signs of aging. She started to show my red blood cells that were missing their centers, eaten by candida and other acidic byproducts in my plasma, the liquid my red blood cells float around in. She pointed out ghost cells, cells completely destroyed, not by natural life cycle death, but by "garbage" in my blood.

She sent me home with a list of foods to eat and NOT eat - much of which I have sustained myself on for most of my life....dairy products, fruits and wheat. Here I thought I had great eating habits. And yes, I avoided large quantities of grease, rice, white flour, white sugar, starches etc., but I didn't realize that I was not eating a balanced diet. I was eating mostly foods that were acidic and not enough of those considered alkaline. What was the first and foremost food she wanted me to start consuming a lot of? Wheatgrass, of course! Wheatgrass is the King of Alkaline foods. Why, well, it is the most alkaline food you can eat! Check out the chart below!

The next morning I tested my PH - 6.2, not bad. Not alkaline (which I knew I wouldn't be) but close. So I began the process of cutting out dairy, some fruit (I had an entire bowl of fresh fruit I had just purchased!), coffee, etc. and hit Trader Joe's and Whole Foods for the special oils and supplements she recommended.

I will need to be on the special diet for 8 weeks. However, I need a week or two to get acclimated. Quitting old eating habits cold turkey and diving into 70% veggies a day is not wise, your body will reject this sudden switch. So I will take a couple of days to get my body prepared. I'll update you in a week or two!

If you would like more information about the study of Acidity and Alkalinity, please go to http://www.phmiracleliving.com/

The Benefits of Adding Wheatgrass to Your Diet

Wheatgrass is known as a Superfood and the King of Alkalinity. What does that mean? Actually two different wonderful nutritional qualities that our bodies are craving! A "superfood" is a food that has been identified as having particularly strong health benefits such as preventing or reducing inflammation, helping to regulate metabolism and burn body fat etc.

Wheatgrass is known as a greenfood. It is not the same as green leafy vegetables. Wheatgrass shares some of the same nutrients as green leafy vegetables, but provides far greater levels of nutrients measured in density. This means that if compared by amount eaten, the wheatgrass packs quite the punch over the green leafy vegetables bite by bite.

Many experimental studies showed that wheatgrass has a marked beneficial effect on cholesterol, blood pressure, immune response, and cancer prevention. Some of this is attributed to its high concentration of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the plant equivalent of hemoglobin in red blood cells. It inhibits disease bacteria and acts as a detoxifier helping to eliminate waste and body odors. Wheatgrass also contains P4D1, a "gluco-protein" that acts like an anti-oxidant. It reduces inflammation and is also thought to help the body attack cancer cells.

It is important to understand that wheatgrass, at its early stage of development is closer to a vegetable than a grain in composition. The nutrients quickly change as the plant gets older resulting in a decline in the levels of chlorophyll, protein, and vitamins.

You can get wheatgrass in powder, pill or fresh form. I will discuss the merits of each in a future posting. Next time - what does King of Alkalinity mean?