Acid-Alkaline Foods
by Paavo Airola, Ph.D. 
(excerpted from How To Get Well)

Balanced body chemistry is of utmost importance for the maintenance of health and correction of disease. Acidosis, or over-acidity in the body tissues, is one of the basic causes of many diseases, especially the arthritic and rheumatic diseases. 

All foods are “burned” in the body - more commonly called “digested” - leaving an ash as the result of the “burning”, or the digestion. This food ash can be neutral, acid or alkaline, depending largely on the mineral composition of the foods. Some foods leave an acid residue or ash, some alkaline. The acid ash (acidosis) results when there is a depletion of the alkali reserve or the diminution in the reserve supply of fixed bases in the blood and the tissues of the body. 

It is therefore, vitally important that there is a proper ratio between acid and alkaline foods in the diet. The natural ratio in a normal healthy body is approximately 4 to 1 - four parts alkaline to one part acid, or 80% to 20%. When such an ideal ratio is maintained, the body has a strong resistance against disease. In the healing of disease, when the patient usually has acidosis, the higher the ratio of alkaline elements in the diet, the faster will be the recovery. Alkalis neutralize the acids. Therefore in the treatment of most diseases it is important that the patient’s diet includes plenty of alkaline-ash foods to offset the effect of acid-forming foods and leave a safe margin of alkalinity. 

A healthy body usually keeps large alkaline reserves which are used to meet the emergency demands is too many acid-producing foods are consumed. But these normal reserves can be depleted. When the alkaline-acid ratio drops to 3 to 1, health can be seriously menaced. Your body can function normally and sustain health only in the presence of adequate alkaline reserves and the proper acid-alkaline ratio in all the body tissues and the blood. 

ALKALI-FORMING FOODS 
• Figs • Potatoes • Soybeans • Pineapple • Lima beans • Cabbage • Apricot • Spinach • Tomatoes • Turnip or beet tops • Peaches • Raisins • Apples • Almonds • Grapes • Carrots • Bananas • Dates • Watermelon • Celery • Millet • Cucumber • Brazil Nuts • Cantaloupe • Coconuts • Lettuce • Buckwheat • Watercress•

NEUTRAL (OR NEAR-NEUTRAL) ASH FOODS 
• Milk • Vegetable Oil • Butter • White Sugar

ACID-FORMING FOODS 
• Oysters •Most grains • Veal • Rice • Most fish • Organ meats • Liver • Natural cheese • Chicken • Lentils • Peanuts • Eggs • Most meats & fowl • Whole wheat or rye bread • 
Most nuts except almonds & Brazil 

Most grains are acid-forming, except millet and buckwheat, which are considered to be alkaline. Sprouted seeds and grains become more alkaline in the process of sprouting. 

All vegetable and fruit juices are highly alkaline. The most alkali-forming juices are: fig juice, green juices of all green vegetables and tops, carrot, beet, celery, pineapple and citrus juices. Vegetable broth is an extremely alkalizing drink.

For additional information go to: www.poweritup.com/acidalk.htm