If the last time you thought about acidity and alkalinity was in a high school science class, it might be time to revisit the concept. That's because maintaining the right balance of acidity and alkalinity in your body can have a major impact on your health, including your skin. Unfortunately, many of us are skewing way too far in the wrong direction. Fortunately, it's possible to correct this issue by taking a careful look at your diet.
You may have heard of the alkaline diet before, as it's enjoying some popularity among the celebrity crowd. But just because it's trendy doesn't mean it's ineffective. While many fad diets are based on quick, unsustainable results that are mostly due to reductions in water weight, the alkaline diet's premise isn't strictly about weight loss. It's about restoring health and reducing inflammation.
You know by now that inflammation is a major contributor to skin conditions, such as rosacea, acne, and eczema. Proponents of the diet report that it can correct these conditions and restore radiance to the skin. And when you see which foods are acidic and which are alkaline, I think you'll recognize some familiar enemies and heroes in the battle for skin health.
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Foods that are considered acidic include meat, dairy, alcohol, coffee, sugar, and gluten. But while the diet does involve cutting these out or at the very least decreasing them, the emphasis is on what you replace them with. These include alkaline foods, such as most fresh fruits and vegetables – with the emphasis on vegetables. When people begin making these changes, they often find that the increases in energy and well-being they experience more than compensate for any deprivation they may feel. They also find that they're less hungry, which some experts attribute to the reduced effort the body needs to expend to neutralize acidity and inflammation.
Reducing the acidity in your diet can also keep your body from having to neutralize it by siphoning off alkaline minerals from other areas that need them, like your muscles, bones, and cartilage. When you drain too much magnesium and calcium away to deal with the foods you're consuming, you can end up experiencing in the short-term muscle cramps and fatigue, and in the long-term osteoporosis, and even tooth decay.
Conversely, eating the right foods can fuel rather than drain your body, giving it the building blocks it needs for glowing skin, a robust immune system, and a steady energy supply. If you're interested in giving this diet a try, you can find plenty of resources and recipes online. Just make sure you plan your meals carefully to ensure you're getting enough protein. You may see a difference in your skin in as little as a week by doing a full cleanse, and many proponents of this lifestyle indicate that you can maintain great results by following an alkaline diet 80% of the time, leaving you some leeway to include favorite foods without becoming addicted to them or harming your health.
To your health, naturally,
Janet Zand
Source:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3195546/