Hi all,

So I've been drinking 2 green smoothies a day for about a month now, still eating solids, still not raw but I'm moving in that direction. Am trying out a more alkaline diet. Found this chart from energiseforlife.com. On it it says Himalayan Salt is highly alkaline. I'm suspicious, I've bought the salt and I'm using it. But I'm scratching my head wondering if Himalayan Salt is supposed to be part of the rebalancing of the body's ph towards 7 out of 14 or if it's just a "better for you" substitute to standard table salt. It's so strange to have salt when transitioning into a more raw diet. I have always been gung ho on the salt (mom would look with disbelief as I put salt on bacon) and have been off and on eating it then refraining and eating none at all.

I've been using the himalayan salt when I do eat conventional food. It comes in handy when it comes to things like natural organic peanut butter as it does not have salt so it's nice to add just enough to whet my taste, and supposedly this highly alkaline salt is "good for me".

Comments? Both on the himalayan salt and the broader scope - the alkaline/acidic argument. Personally it makes sense to me that greens and grasses are more essential than fruit, but I can't imagine living without fruit. I have to have some pleasure when eating!

Why would you have to live without fruit?

I use Redmonds Real Sea Salt myself. But I imagine your salt is good too.

I wouldn't be able to forego fruits completely. I guess I am just desperate to have energy, to not feel so much pain in my joints and spine. To not struggle so hard to go to bed early and rise early.

But I am still on a heavy duty acne medication Isotretinoin (think Accutane) so I guess I was fantasizing thinking that only eating alkaline items would make up for that, and once I am off of the medication within the next month or so, drinking only juice (starting tomorrow as that's when I get my juicer in the mail), mostly greens and grasses with a few modest fruits would mean a much faster recovery, to the best health I've ever experienced. That was the idea at least.

I am guilty in searching for a silver bullet. I guess what I should have asked is: do you guys think this Alkaline idea is legit? Most of the fruits are acidic according to this chart and as such should be minimized to only 20% of the diet. I need fruits to make green smoothies edible, even desirable for me to drink. But to follow the regime of this diet, I am limited to the less acidic fruits such as plums and nectarines. Lemons are highly acidic so I always add those.

I guess the thing about the salt, I'm ignorant about the "trace minerals". It's counter intuitive to add salt back into my diet when I'm hearing that salt is pervasive in American processed food which is what I grew up eating. I'm conflicted on "isn't this not a good idea to add salt after years of abuse?" to "this particular kind of salt: it's highly alkaline and my body is acidic, I guess it will help."

How much salt to use too?

wow looked at the list [www.energiseforlife.com] (direct link so nobody has to sign up) and cant say i agree with it much ..Avoid fruits??! if anything on that list id avoid is the grains

someone else with the bigger brains is gonna have to explain acid / alkaline to you more in depth.. its 1am here and i just cant tackle it this late

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2011 08:07AM by Jgunn.

I like to dilute Himalayan Rock Salt (Pink and Coarse grade) with water in a Mason jar w/lid. I rinse my mouth with it a few times everyday. I can feel my Body absorb a tiny amount of the salt. Make it real salty.....WY

[www.saltworks.us]

Ouch... accutane. That is bad stuff man.

That chart's crazy....I've read heaps of literature which says fruit is alkaline-forming in the body, even citrus. Why don't you check out some other acid/alkaline charts, as they all seem to differ quite abit. I like to go to the oldest ones, like the early 1900's before everything got corrupted.

Most fruit should be alkaline.... I think there are only a few fruits which are not and they are closer to neutral... (Not sure but isn't plums one of them?)

adamlogan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am guilty in searching for a silver bullet. I
> guess what I should have asked is: do you guys
> think this Alkaline idea is legit?

That is the problem with these acid/alkaline sites with the wild theories and the plugging of these alkaline drops. They make out that acidity is the cause of all disease and its no wonder you say the silver bullet thing.

Everyone here has read my views on the acid/alkaline theory so i wont go into that again but if you search you will most likely find them. But yeah i don't believe in it, that doesn't that i don't base my diet largely around alkaline forming foods as they are all healthy anyway.

A little mineral rich salt wont do you any harm, personally i use a seaweed blend instead as it has more health benefits and is more mineral dense.

I agree that fruit is alkaline. Perhaps these people are eating unripe fruit, which is toxic and acidic and should not be eaten.

Speaking of unripe fruit, did you know that green bell peppers are unripe? As well as green limes. If you let a lime sit for a while in your kitchen, it will turn yellow. At that point, it is ripe.

While salt my neutralize acids in the body, it is far from a healthy thing to eat. In general, a chemical approach to neutralizing acid is far from an optimal approach. So taking baking soda, or salt, or even alkalizing your water is not going to create health. Removing foods that acidify you, say like meat and animal products, this is going to produce better results in terms of health.

The article states that it's more important that fruits/greens etc are alkaline once digested. It sounded like a more recent discovery.

Anyways, yeah, seems like the common denominator is: avoid manufactured food, keep the meat intake very low if at all, eat mostly greens and some fruits/veggies

I think I'll allow myself to eat whatever fruit I want, but try to eat more greens than fruit.

Prana I did not know that about limes. I've been letting my lime sit there because I did not like them as they were. I think I see it starting to turn yellow now. So green peppers are just unripe peppers? That's kinda disturbing that they sell that to us.

Corathegreen, yeah I'm on Claravis, it's pretty much identical to Accutane. It was a last resort thing, I only had 6 months left on my mother's health insurance too. I've had acne since I was 13 and I am 25 now, enough was enough. What bothered me more than the appearance of acne was the constant distraction, and all the time spent in the bathroom applying lotions etc. It is proving very effective, I'm wondering about how bad the scaring will be now, I'm also grimacing at the side effects and feeling like I've sold my soul since I'm no longer "organic" at the dna level. On the other hand it is a huge relief to not have to cope with acne. Who knows how long I would have had to deal with it if I had not gone this route.

Wheatgrass yogi, that concoction sounds nasty!

Thanks all for responding, it feels wonderful to have your input and support.

A salt water rinse is great for the mouth, it's not nasty really at all. It kills bacteria, that's why it's good to gargle with salt water if you have a cold coming on. I use a salt water dilution to rinse my nasal cavity (neti pot), it's awesome. All the fluids in the body are saline.