Recently I have heard a number of people speaking that they would like to have more energy. Did you know that diet can be a big part in draining our energy?  Actually our diet can impact much more than just our energy level, it can also affect our mental attitude, our moods and overall health.  An easy way to look at it is through the perspective of acid/alkaline balance.

What is this balance, you might ask?
High acidity can affect all of our body systems, from immune, respiratory, circulatory to digestive and intestinal health. When the body is too acidic it wears on the body, causes cellular break-down, does not allow the cells to operate at their optimum. Further, when the communication between the cells becomes impaired, it can also impact the body’s ability to eliminate waste. This creates the perfect environment for disease, yeast, and bacteria to proliferate, which is one of the theories for the development of some cancers. It is thought that an acidic environment is a precursor for cancer.

The body naturally wants to maintain a state of ph balance around 6.4 for the saliva and urine. You can easily test your acidity-alkalinity with ph strips.

When the body has a high acidity level, this causes the body to borrow minerals like calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium from the vital organs and bones. These minerals are used to buffer the acid while trying to remove it from the system. The other option the body has is to store the acids in the body in places like the joints, arteries, and tissues. This then weakens the organs and bones. You may have heard that our bones often get weaker as people get older, this acidity balance can be partly responsible.
This is also one of the reasons why when we are under a lot of stress we need more minerals. Because stress, too, is a contributing factor to the increased acidity levels in the body.

What if am too acidic?
There are a number of things that you can do:
1.    Eat more greens, like spinach and broccoli, take greens like Nature’s Sunshine Greenzone, which is very beneficial to help alkalize the body as well.
2.    Take some digestive enzymes to help get the most nutrients out of your food.
3.    Cleanse the body, often the bowels can have substantial amount fecal build-up making it difficult for the body to absorb all the nutrients.
4.    Support with an absorbable calcium/magnesium supplement to help in the buffering process.
5.    Drink 8 glasses of water per day and add in some fresh lemon juice.
6.    Enjoy a summer strawberry shake.