Why is it important to consider alkaline foods when selecting the best nutrition for athletes? The alkaline or acid forming elements of foods become an issue when the body burns them for fuel. After passing through the digestive system, they leave behind an alkaline or acid ash. That is why everything that enters the digestive system has an impact on the acid/alkaline balance throughout the body, commonly referred to as pH balance. In order to maintain a good pH balance, dieticians suggest a balance of 80% alkaline foods to only 20% acid foods. Most people are going through life with this 80/20 alkaline/acid diet upside down. This can have an effect on many aspects of fitness and needs to be taken into consideration when seeking nutrition for athletes.

The body is so beautifully designed that it will not allow the blood pH balance to deviate far from 7.4. It will do what is essential to alkalize the acid in the bloodstream, even if that means pulling calcium from healthy bones. Without consuming enough alkaline foods to help manage that delicate blood pH balance, the body has to draw calcium from bones in order to neutralize leftover acid in the bloodstream. You can easily observe how that causes bone weakness, and that's the last thing anyone wants when looking for the most effective nutrition for athletes.

Here is my personal account of how alkaline foods worked for me. The majority of the cartilage in my right knee was removed at age 18, after a back yard football injury. So for more than 30 years I have lived with a right knee that is basically bone on bone. Before implementing dramatic changes to my diet a Doctor told me I had the knee of a seventy-eight year-old man, but I was only 39 at the time. He said I would require a knee replacement before too long. Well, it's been more than 12 years and I just got back from a 3 hour, 23-mile mountain bike ride over harsh terrain in the Arizona desert, and my right knee feels as strong and able as my other knee, without needing surgery or drugs. I am also physically able to snow ski on moguls much of the day when possible. Other younger men can't understand how this is feasible. I can only say the distinction is that I get the need for alkaline foods in a daily routine that supplies the most beneficial nutrition for athletes.

In addition to eliminating a lot of acid foods from my diet, once I became knowledgeable of the need for more alkaline foods, I started to identify more ways to get them. It's like what happens if you buy a blue car, suddenly you start to catch a glimpse of blue cars all over. So, now that you are aware of this necessity for alkaline foods when investigating the highest quality nutrition for athletes, you'll begin to see them as well.