The Beauty Detox Solution (6 page)

However, when faced with an acid overload, our bodies have to scramble to find ways to prevent the blood pH from dropping too low, even at the expense of disrupting other tissues, organs and cellular activities in the rest of the body. With the prevalence of too much acid, the body begins to leach alkaline minerals out of the tissues to compensate. The alkaline minerals, like calcium, potassium and magnesium, that we lose in the process also serve many beautifying functions, such as allowing us to have strong, beautiful bones and opening up detoxification pathways in our bodies.

While foods that promote acidity in the body are not all necessarily “bad,” those foods must be balanced with alkaline foods. The human body thrives on foods that promote blood alkalinity and help neutralize the acidic waste products of metabolism. Among the most acid-forming of all foods are animal products. When the amount of animal protein ingested increases, so do metabolic acids and wastes.

Research shows the connection between increased animal protein intake and a loss of calcium in the bones, to help neutralize the acid. In 2009 an article in the
New York Times
entitled “Exploring a Low-Acid Diet for Bone Health”
⁸
discussed how “when the blood becomes even slightly too acid, alkaline calcium compounds—like calcium carbonate, the acid-neutralizer in Tums—are leached from bones to reduce the acidity.” The article goes on to state, “The more protein people consume beyond the body's true needs, the more acidic their blood can become and the more alkaline compounds are needed to neutralize the acid… [I]t does suggest that those at the high end of protein consumption may be better off eating less protein in general and less animal protein in particular and replacing it with more fruits and vegetables.”
⁹

One study cited in the article analyzed what happened when protein intake (mostly animal based) was doubled from 35 g per day to 78 g per day.
¹⁰
The research showed a shocking 50 percent increase in urinary calcium, in other words, calcium that's lost in the body and excreted in the urine. To drive home the very real implications of this study, consider that the average American intake of calcium is between seventy and one hundred grams a day! In 2001 investigations in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures Research Group at the University of California at San Francisco published the results of a study involving over one thousand women aged sixty-five and older
¹¹
that looked at the proportion of animal to plant protein in their diets over a seven-year period. The women with the lowest ratio of animal-plant protein derived an average of 50 percent of their total protein from animal sources. The study found that women with the highest percentage of animal protein in their diet had 3.7 times more bone fractures and lost bone almost four times faster than the women with the lowest percentage.

An excess of acidity in our bodies is horrifyingly harmful over the short and long term. People that have eaten the standard American diet (SAD) over many years have an excess of acidity in their bodies and this can contribute to poor health, disease, premature death, inflammation, stiffness, tissue degeneration, water retention, bloating and more.

In his book
The pH Miracle
, Dr. Robert Young states, “The pH level of our internal fluids affects every cell in our bodies. The entire metabolic process depends on an alkaline environment. Chronic overacidity corrodes body tissue, and if left unchecked will interrupt all cellular activities and functions, from the beating of your heart to the neural firing of your brain. In other words, acidity interferes with life itself. It is the root of all sickness and disease.” He goes on to say that “this process of acid waste breakdown and disposal could also be called ‘the aging process.'”
¹²

Alkaline blood makes for an alkaline body, which promotes health, beauty and longevity, and enables one to fights disease, toxemia and aging. Moreover, weight loss is much easier when our bodies are in an alkaline state. An acidic body tends to hold on to excess weight and makes losing weight a much bigger effort. That's because when overloaded with acid, the eliminative organs, such as the lungs or the kidneys, become overwhelmed and can not remove all the waste. So, much of the toxic, acidic waste gets stored in fatty tissues all over the body, as explained in Chapter 1. The more toxins you have in your body, the more your fat cells expand to store the toxins. Since the body is always trying to protect itself, much of the waste gets pushed away from the vital organs—which is why fat tends to collect in the usual “problem” areas, namely, under the chin, on the upper arms, along the midsection, and along the hips and thighs.

An overly acidic body also greatly diminishes our beauty. Excess acidity can be a major contributing cause of premature aging, along with premature lines and wrinkles; acne; dark under-eye circles; limp, bodiless or otherwise unhealthy hair; and brittle nails. This is why it is important to really understand that these overt symptoms all start with the biochemistry of an acidic body.

In order to make ourselves the healthiest, most youthful and most beautiful we can be, we must support our body's effort to stay at its perfect, slightly alkaline pH by making changes in our diet. We must also become conscious of which foods leave an alkaline residue and which foods leave an acidic residue in our body.

THE 80-20 RATIO

The way to reach our goal to look and feel our best is to strive to eat 80 percent alkaline-forming foods and 20 percent acid-forming foods. The only foods on earth that leave a truly alkaline residue in the body are fresh, ripe fruits and vegetables (except starchy vegetables, like potatoes) and human mother's milk, which is obviously not on the menu for any of us! All other foods are, in varying degrees, acidic.

 

VERY ALKALINE FOODS

 

 

VERY ACIDIC FOODS

 

 

THE BEAUTY FOOD CIRCLE

We're all pretty familiar with the food pyramid. Though it has been modified, this more modern pyramid still contains the foods that mainstream health institutions have been telling us to eat for decades. The preponderance of the diet is made up of highly refined starches, while milk and meats are a significant part, with their own
separate
categories. No wonder obesity is on the rise and, in varying ways, we are all aging faster and faster.

 

THE FOOD PYRAMID

For your Beauty Detox, we're going to think about an entirely different way to balance our diets. We must imagine not a pyramid, but a circle. To look our most beautiful, we need to eat mostly alkalinizing foods, like vegetables and fruits, rounding of the diet with certain whole grains, healthy nuts and limited amounts of oil and animal products.

 

THE BEAUTY FOOD CIRCLE

When we focus on eating more alkaline foods, it becomes much
simpler
to maintain our weight and improve our health and beauty, without having to get swept into the hype of fixating over one micronutrient or another. Maintaining a high balance of foods that leave an alkaline residue in our bodies will naturally balance our biochemistry. Whole plant foods are easy for our body to digest and will help cleanse our system of toxins so we will get the spectrum of nutrients we need and will absorb our nutrients much better.

You'll see in the proceeding chapters that as we break it down per meal, it's actually a much easier goal to reach the 80% alkaline-forming foods than it might first appear!

BEAUTY DETOX RECAP