Quite a number of people say that one can subsist on fruits and vegetables only long term. But is the body not going to become overly alkaline eventually, without any acid foods to compensate? My own urine, even in the morning is repeatedly 9 or over 9. Whether I eat nuts and fats or not. Is the body going to regulate on its own eventually? If i get over this hurdle in my mind, then there is nothing going to stop me from living on fruits and vegetables long term, because I see the results on my digestive system. Meanwhile regulating detox with may be a little of the heavier fatty foods.
What is your experience?

I hear your concerns. What are supposed to be the symptoms of this over-alkalinity? I've been all raw for many, many years....and just fruit for the past few years. I'm certainly the healthiest, happiest guy I know. You are certainly correct and wise to recognize and regulate your own detox. I would wager your numbers and system will balance itself out - especially after you have been eating at your goal levels for several years. Just my experiences.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Thanks David, I am going to give it a try and see what is going to happen. I have been taking raw organic apple cider about every day for a long time, which they say is good to correct overalkalinity, but there are no measurable results. I used to believe that nuts and seeds would bring the numbers down, but they don't, and now I have embarked on a low fat trial there will be no acidic foods left. The only thing I can do is intense exercise to get the system acid, and may be that is why I always feel so good after exercise. Anyway, I will be my own guinea pig, may be someone is going to learn from my mistakes!

Your body does not depend soley on foods as a source of acidity. Many metabolic activities that occur naturally in your body generate acidic waste or byproducts. By eating healthy foods, you are providing the counterbalance to stay within a normal ph range.

Wishing you vibrant health

You wrote
> Quite a number of people say that one can subsist on fruits and vegetables only

I have never heard this. Who says this? It is not true. You need to eat seeds at a minimum, you should be eating living nuts and seeds (sprouts)

It is dangerous to have a pH of 8 or 9, you better fix that soon!

Our pH must be around 7.4 , if you get too much above or below that you will experience serious health problems

I've wondered about this myself. I've noticed that the longer I am raw, the less hungry I get (even eating a balanced fruit/green/nut ratio) and that my stomach seems to start producing less and less hydrochloric acid (a possible symptom of alkalosis). Eventually, I don't feel like eating at all (in which case I start loosing weight). After two months of 100% raw, I accidentally coughed some food up like two hours after eating and it wasn't even acidic as usual. The food also seems to just sit inside, not digesting, and I'll stop eating 8 hours before bed and still wake up in the morning with the feeling that the food is still just sitting there (along with all the signs of fermentation). My theory in the past was that I wasn't eating enough greens, which still may be the problem, though I eat a head of romaine or kale a day. Every time I go back to highly acidic (cooked) foods, I feel better (digestion-wise) and the food starts digesting again. I've tried apple cider vinegar as well, but it hasn't appeared to help much, though this last time I went four months 100% raw without the problem (according to Walter Kacera, ACV is alkaline anyway). This may have been due to the fact that I was exercising 4-6 hours a day, however. I was born a fourth generation vegetarian, have been vegan for 15 years with most of that being high raw. Maybe others haven't had this problem because they were so acidic before going raw?? It also seems that vegans and raw foodists by and large have a harder time putting on muscle (though not impossible), which would fit with a low acidic stomach as high acidity is necessary to denature proteins as well as a stomach pH of 2 is necessary for pepsin to function properly. My mom has also been told that she is too alkaline, so she has been taking HCl pills with her meal which she says has greatly helped . . .

It is quite possible that my digestion slowed because I wasn't eating enough stimulants (garlic, onion, cayenne, etc), that we actually don't need a high stomach pH because our foods are already in their basic amino acid form and don't need broken down, and that many of the raw vegans are lean because they don't eat enough greens and work out. I'm hoping that's the case!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2008 03:37AM by ryandvan.

ryandvan,

I've noticed on raw that sometimes I wouldn't totally digest my food before I went to sleep or nuts and seeds would digest less well the longer I ate raw. I wasn't sure what the problem was or whether that was even a problem, because I, too, was eating a bunch of green leafy vegetable a day (~ 200 g).

The problems went away after I both ate way less fat (I started out around 50% fat), but far more importantly, increased my greens intake to 1.5 pounds (~ 675 g). The difference with the greens was tremendous; I felt so much better and now whenever I eat fat, my body digests it so much better. The difference is truly night and day; my energy level dips much less now after I eat fats. I really can't emphasize enough how much that extra pound of greens a day just shot my health through the roof. I now eat 2 greens smoothies, with 1/2 lb of spring mix each, and 1 green juice made with 2 large bunches of kale, chard, dandelion, etc.

In your post, you talk a bit about pH, but I doubt that your mother is too alkaline in the sense that rawfoodists use the word. Stomach pH is different from the "pH" that most raw people talk about, which is food mineral ash pH. Ironically, it seems that the plants with more alkaline ash (esp. greens) improve HCl secretions in the stomach (make the stomach more acidic). Victoria Boutenko did a study showing that increased greens intake led to higher levels of stomach HCl.

Whatever the case, it sounds like you need more of something, and my best guess is that something is greens.

Bryan10 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You wrote
> > Quite a number of people say that one can
> subsist on fruits and vegetables only
>
> I have never heard this. Who says this? It is not
> true. You need to eat seeds at a minimum, you
> should be eating living nuts and seeds (sprouts)

Bryan10,

Why do you say this is not true? Is that your opinion or experience? I know of several fruitarians whose experience and level of health say otherwise.

It's my understanding that the kidneys regulate the ph of the blood plasma at a slightly alkaline 7.4, therefore the ph of the urine changes according to what's being removed. So does that mean that a true test of the body's ph should be based on blood plasma ph? And if the kidneys are functioning properly, then the blood plasma should be close to the 7.4 ph, so why concern oneself with the numbers unless one has some sort of chronic disorder affecting the kidney function?