Is the acid-base balance important?
We understand its vital importance in emergency medicine, where even relatively small deviations from an optimal blood pH value can become life-threatening as an expression of the current ratio of acids and bases.
Signs of metabolic acidosis
Typically a metabolic acidosis results in the following clinical pictures:
- all forms of inflammation
- periodontitis
- catarrhal diseases infections
- all types of pain
- heart attacks, strokes as as result of latent acidosis
- osteoporosis
- periodontal disease
- rheumatic diseases
- civilisation diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus
- gelosis
- malignancies
- “signs of aging” such as loss of concentration
or performance etc.
The importance of nutrition
The overall question now is, how to regulate the acid-base balance in oder to stay healthy or become healthy again. So how can we fight or prevent metabolic acidosis? A major factor is the right nutrition. Food, or better – the digestive system has a massive impact on the metabolism. With the intake of food we ensure that there is a constant interplay of acids and bases in the body. Through this rhythm, which in the course of evolution has established a “basic metabolism”, we guarantee a healthy digestive process and elimination and detoxification function of the organism.
Food and its impact on the acid-basic balance
It is now easy to understand that food – as long as it introduces acids or bases into the organism – either strengthens the acidic balance or provides the body with more bases. The following table shows food groups in the acid-base balance:
ACID
meat, fish
legumes
cereals
diary products, e.g. cheese, curd cheese
citrus fruits
refined oils and fats
industrial food and beverages
stimulants
BASIC
vegetables
potatoes
milk, whipped cream
ripe local fruit
cold-pressed vegetable oils
spices and herbs
Key factors causing metabolic acidosis in everyday life
Unfortunately, we do not always make it easy for our body to keep itself “alkaline”. The following factors are most important to an acidosis:
- modern lifestyle (stress)
- one-sided food selection which is mostly acidic
- poor eating habits – tendency to indigestion
- excess consumption of stimulants and addiction
- extreme physical exertion – competitive sport
- increasing exposure to environmental toxins
