I wrote about How To Support The Optimum Health Of Your Body: pH Balance And Alkaline Foods earlier this year, but didn’t actually find the pH strips to measure my own pH level until last week (I finally found them at my local health food store).
They are very cool little tools: inexpensive, easy to use and provide instant results. They also showed me what I already suspected: that my pH level is a little more acidic than I’d prefer.
I read the following on the AbundantHealth4u.com web site:
The optimum pH for our blood and body tissues is about 7.2. (The use of saliva and urine test strips will show a much lower pH level due to the protein present in the solution. Saliva and urine tests from a healthy body should be about 6.6 to 6.8.)…
The body heals best when it is slightly alkaline. To keep the blood and body tissue at an optimum pH, avoid acid forming foods. Make sure your food intake is 80% alkaline and drink plenty of water.
Some alkali-forming foods include dark green and yellow vegetables, sprouted grains, legumes, seeds, nuts, essential fats (omega 3 and 6), and low sugar fruits like avocados and lemons.
We like to flavor our water with 1-2 drops of lemon or peppermint oil. Lemon has the ability to counteract acidity in the body. The citric acid found in lemons is neutralized during digestion, giving off carbonates and bicarbonates of potassium and calcium, which helps maintain the alkalinity of the system.
The instructions on the pH strips suggest taking multiple measurements over a 30 day period at different times per day to get a pH average (we tend to be more acidic when we wake up in the morning than we are at night). I haven’t completed 30 days yet, but so far my pH measurements have been in the 6.0-6.5 range. Not a surprise they are a bit on the low side since I tend to have a sweet tooth and sugars (even natural ones) are acid-forming.
Since my target is between 6.6-6.8 (because the strips show a lower pH than actual, as mentioned above), I’m curious to see how drinking more lemon water daily, eating more alkaline foods with each meal, and cutting back a bit on sweets will start to show up in the measurements.
It’s fun…my own little science experiment over here! (I know, I know, what a geek!)
Have you ever used pH strips, and/or changed the pH level of your own body?
Photo credit: Google images
