The Alkaline Diet and Arthritis

I.       Introduction

It has been a proven fact that arthritis is one of the most fast rising sicknesses that are mostly seen among adults and as such it may now come as a “normal” disease to aging. Most of the known causes to developing such disease are genetics, unhealthy lifestyle, injury and the like. Anyone would agree that an unhealthy and unbalanced lifestyle is one of the biggest factors amongst those previously mentioned. Being acidic is one that causes bones to erode and become brittle that then leads to arthritis.

II.    Alkaline Diet

And one of the most sought after medication, treatment or prevention to acquiring arthritis is the so called alkaline diet, a diet that has been receiving a lot of attention because of its ability to help reduce the occurrence of arthritis in one’s body. To understand correctly, let us first define alkalinity, it is the amount of ions specifically hydrogen in the body. Chemical imbalance in the body occurs when a person is either acidic or alkaline. Acidity happens when there is too much hydrogen ion in the body while alkalinity happens when there is less hydrogen ion in the body. It is preferable that there is balance between the two in order for the body to stay healthy and disease-free. The measure by which one can say that he or she is either acidic or alkaline is based on a pH scale, 1 to 14, and the most obvious neutral number is 7 which is pure water, numbers 7 and above is considered alkaline while numbers 1 to 6 is acidic.

III. Understanding Arthritis

The blood is primarily the lifeline of the human body; it contains oxygen, nutrients, energy and carbon dioxide that the body needs in order to survive. There are many benefits of having alkaline in the blood; it helps in avoiding one from various pathogens that hosts in acidic environment. The body has its own way of fighting too much acid in the body; the minerals stored in the bones namely magnesium, calcium and others, are released if the blood has too much level of acidity. This is why it is vital that the pH scale of acid and alkaline is at a balance rate to prevent releasing minerals from the bones because such will lead to various bone diseases like osteoporosis and eventually arthritis as well. The weaker the bones get, the more diseases that one gets.

IV.  Alkaline-rich Foods

To prevent one from chemical imbalance like to much acidity in the body, eating alkaline rich foods is one good measure to take. There are many fruits and vegetables that are high in alkaline examples are grapes, mango, papaya, dates, watermelon, melon, limes, cucumber, celery, watercress wheatgrass and many more. Fruit juices are also a good source of alkaline, lemon and grapefruits, some may perceive these as acidic foods but once these are consumed they also have alkalizing properties. Another food group that has alkaline properties is dairy products like yogurt though they have lesser content compared to fruits and vegetables.

V.     Acidic-rich Foods

Foods that have high acid content are those which one should avoid and this includes those that have been processed and refined. Examples of foods that have high acid content are chocolates, sugar, artificial sweeteners and etc. Another food group that one should look out for is to avoid meat products, sodas, coffee, cheese, pasta, beer and many more. These acidic foods when taken in large amounts and without any neutralizing alkaline food, will greatly damage the body in so many ways, it can lead one to have a lot of disease not just on the bones to the whole body as well especially the internal organs. The very essence of this article is to let everyone understand the importance of having a healthy lifestyle and a chemically balanced body. The body takes in all sorts of vitamins and minerals that we take in from the foods that we eat and because of this we can either have a healthy body or a sick one.