Feeling gross? It might be due to acid.

Are you more bloated than you think you should be? Do you feel more gassy? More uncomfortable? Are you hungrier at odd times of the day? I was there, and I want to share with you how I was able to get to the root of my problem:

Throughout the past few months I have had a lot going on with my life, as well as my stomach. I have been super hungry, as well as burping a LOT whenever I would eat, especially on the weekends. After a few weeks of excessive burps that aggressively came out when I was drinking alcohol, my mom’s friend suggested that I might have an acid imbalance in my stomach. I looked into this and bought the book The Acid Watcher’s Diet, and WOW, I am learning a lot* about the foods we eat everyday. I am also realizing just how much I really do not know about the foods I consume.

Acid is pretty prevalent in today’s common foods, especially since certain canned/packaged foods are made even more acidic in order to be preserved on the store shelves. As a quick refresher, pH is what is affected by the acidic foods that you eat. The pH scale ranges from 0-14 with lower numbers being more acidic and higher numbers being more basic (aka alkaline). The optimal blood pH for humans is about 7.4, which is slightly more on the basic side of things. The main things that affect the pH of a food are its sugar content and its mineral content. So here are some foods/drinks that I had no idea were known for their acidity, which are very possibly affecting all of the pH’s in our bodies, especially our blood:

Red meat (once metabolized), alcohol, eggs (real sad about this one), dairy (milk, cheese. Milk alternatives are less acidic), peanuts, pizza, grains (specifically ones with gluten), soda, fried foods, cold cuts, processed cereals, corn syrup, lemons, bacon (becomes acidic after digestion), apples, bananas, donuts, pickles, tomatoes, honey, kiwi, raw garlic, grapefruit, and soy sauce.

I am not saying that you should not eat/drink these things anymore. I am just suggesting that if you commonly include these items on your shopping list, it might be worth looking into them a little bit more to really know what they are doing to your blood and your body as a whole. Looking into eating alkaline foods with these acidic foods for some balance is helpful. Some alkalizing foods (or less acidic/more basic than the foods above) that can be included in your next food run could be sprouts, kale, pumpkin seeds, cucumbers, broccoli, salad greens, avocado, green beans, carrots, chives, zucchini, chia seeds, flax seeds, cinnamon, raw almonds, and cauliflower.

A common theme in these items is the color green; this is one thing to keep an eye out for. Green, natural, and fresh truly are the safest options when it comes to trying to limit the acidity within your diet. Other things to consider are how much water is within the food and how much sugar is present. Keeping these ideas in your head as you craft your shopping list should help with your stomach’s general response to the food that you are eating, as well as the inflammation levels that your body experiences.

I want to emphasize that I am not a doctor and I am not in a spot to give you nutritional advice, but I am someone that has experienced acid problems. I have found that being more mindful of the food that I eat has helped me feel overall much better, and less burpy (thank gosh). I do not expect this blog post to give you every single piece of information that you need to feel better, but I do hope that it has helped you question your food choices and encouraged you to look into this deeper. Knowledge is power, and learning more about this topic has made my life much more enjoyable because I am more in-tune with my body. I wish you all the best of luck as you navigate the wild adventure that is “what foods work for me?” Stay patient, stay consistent, and I hope it all works out!

Here are the sources I used to help create this post, incase you want to read some more:

https://draxe.com/nutrition/acidic-foods/

https://yurielkaim.com/acidic-foods-to-avoid/

https://foodfaq.org/common-acidic-foods-to-avoid/

https://healthybody.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Alkaline-Food-Chart-Report.pdf

yours truly,