Many of us know the importance of “pH balance” for our skin, but have you ever considered pH as a crucial aspect of your overall health? When it comes to wellness, pH balance affects everything from your skin to your metabolism to the creation of new cells to the production of hormones and so much more. So let’s dive right in and debunk a few myths to ensure you have the truth and to make certain that you don’t have any problems with pH in your own body.
What Is PH?
PH is the term for an important acid, neutral, and basic balance that happens in your body. The pH scale runs from 0-14. Neutral pH is 7, anything below 7 becomes increasingly acidic, and above 7 seven is increasingly alkaline.
Does Maintaining a PH Balance Even Matter?
Put simply, your body has a very specific pH set point that it wants to be at. The reason that matters is that it’s strictly chemistry. At the base level, our bodies are nothing more than a big ongoing series of chemical reactions. Any process that needs to happen within the health of your body requires a specific pH balance to function properly, like your metabolism, the creation of hormones, the creation of new cells, etc. If our pH is wrong, proper chemical reactions that need to take place for the healthy functions of our bodies are unable to happen at the proper intensity. Sometimes they’re not able to occur at all when that pH is too far off. This is why it’s vitally important for your body to maintain a proper pH balance.
Your Body’s Role in Sustaining a Liveable PH
Your body will sacrifice near anything for its long-term health to maintain proper pH because it’s a matter of survival. There is less than a one-degree swing in pH that is sustainable for life long-term. So that means if there’s a wandering level within your pH, your body’s unable to function and essentially cannot survive it.
As you could imagine, your body has amazing defense systems, making certain that you’re able to sustain function if your pH balance is out of balance. In fact, it will sell anything out to maintain it. For this, it’s not a matter that your body gets too acidic (as far as a blood pH goes) because your body flat out won’t allow it. What happens is that your body has a system built-in called the bicarbonate buffer system that works hard to maintain a livable pH – no matter what’s going on.
How to Support PH Balance
The body pH measurement that matters is not in saliva; it’s not in your blood because, as we just mentioned, your body doesn’t allow that actually to move very much. The pH that we’re concerned about is actually when we measure at the kidney, called the renal acid measurement.
With foods, we can grade them by something we call the potential renal acid load or PRAL. The potential renal acid load tells us how much of food causes an acid load on your kidney that has to be rectified at the kidney by the bicarbonate buffer system. Some foods cause a net acidic reaction, some foods cause a net basic reaction, and some foods are pretty neutral. The goal is not to think of acid as “bad” and alkaline as “good”. We simply want to make sure that what we’re eating is providing enough balance of basic or alkaline foods to offset the acidic foods that we eat.
Alkaline vs. Acidic Foods
Most plant foods are alkalizing. Acidifying foods are basically anything other than vegetables and fruits. That’s the easiest way to conceptualize the differences. Processed grains are actually acidifying, so we don’t count those pH-wise as “plant foods”. Animal proteins are great for your health in many ways, but they are net acidifying in nature. When metabolized, they have a net acidic potential renal acid load, so eat plenty of alkalizing foods so that your body can properly alkalize any of that extra acid load.
It’s important to understand that the potential renal acid load is entirely divorced from what the pH of the food is on your plate. For example, a lemon is acidic on my plate, but that does not mean it’s acidic for my body. Not true at all. In fact, lemon is very alkalizing. It’s basic in your body with its potential renal acid load because as it burns down to metabolic ash, that metabolic ash is alkalizing at the kidney. That’s where it matters.
Chronic Acidity Causing Long-Term Health Damage
If you’re eating too many processed foods, not eating near enough vegetables and fruits, and your body starts to run acidic, it brings in the bicarbonate buffer system into play. This system actually marries bicarbonate (which you have an endless supply of) with specific mineral salts within your body to produce an alkalizing effect. An example of this is when you were a kid and did your science experiment by combining the acidic vinegar and the alkalizing baking soda, which is bicarbonate that neutralizes the acid, right? Well, the same thing happens in your body.
The problem comes when we’re not eating enough alkalizing vegetables, and thus your body has to take alkalizing mineral stores from elsewhere. It can pull them from your bones or teeth, but it’s far more common for your body to remove those from the bile salts that are held in your gallbladder that have been collecting for the purpose of digestion. It’s simply the quickest and most accessible source for these bicarbonate buffers.
This is an excellent example of how the body does a great job of immediate survival but it can also sacrifice its health long-term. By removing these salts, the bile falls out of suspension, which can solidify and become what we call gallstones. Gallstones are directly an issue of poor pH management.
The unfortunate thing is that many times, rather than looking at this for what it is and making some dietary adjustments to rectify the real issue, the gallbladder is taken out, which digestively disables you for life. We don’t say that to be harsh. There’s flatly no other way to look at it. Your gallbladder is a vital organ, and those who have had gallbladder removal surgery will tell you that there are specific things that have to happen the rest of their life, to digest normally.
We don’t want to see anybody have to go that route that doesn’t need to. So please pay attention to what’s happening with proper pH balance in your diet. It is SO easy to do. We’re not asking you to buy test strips. All you have to do is eat plenty of alkalizing leafy greens, vegetables, fruits, and cut down on acidic processed foods.
If you make sure you’re eating the right type of foods to maintain an excellent healthy pH balance, your body will thank you for it in both the short-term and long-term, as it will be able to function at the proper pH level without having to rob your body of nutrients, using the bicarbonate buffer system.
Experience the Many Health Benefits of PH-Balancing With Essential Greens
Green leafy vegetables provide a wide range of pH-balancing phytonutrients to help support detoxification, stabilize blood sugar, manage weight, support healthy digestion, and so much more. If you don’t get enough green vegetables into your diet, bridging that gap with S4 Essential Greens is a convenient way to deliver 20+ organic pH balancing, leafy lovelies straight to your body. Simply tear, pour, and swig 1-2 superpowered packets on-the-go in a smoothie or glass of water daily for alkalizing health benefits that will last you a lifetime.
