Alkaline foods and acid foods have lately been playing a defining role in the discussion of human nutrition. Nevertheless, many people are befuddled about how to deal with yet one more overwhelming health concern. It can be tempting to just steer clear of thinking about the matter rather than sorting through all the facts available, but it doesn't need to be that difficult. When it comes to determining a healthy ratio of alkaline foods and acid foods, there are a couple of central questions that need to be answered:

1. What are the differences between alkaline foods and acid foods?

2. How do you appropriately balance the two?

These questions are critical due to the fact that our diets touch every other facet of our bodies—from energy to behavior, mental capacity, and overall health.

First, it is generally beneficial to find a resource you trust and simply search for the food in question. It is smart to find or create a chart that can be displayed on the front of the refrigerator. Then, as you prepare a meal, you can check out the various items and establish if they are alkaline foods or acid foods.

One important thing to remember is that simply testing an item with pH paper is not the surest way to measure how it actually affects the body. Alkaline foods are not always alkaline before they are digested. On the contrary, they are categorized by the ash they leave behind in the bloodstream. A perfect example of this is lemons. When you cut a lemon open, you find it to be acidic. Once it is digested, however, a lemon actually helps generate an alkaline environment in the body.

Usually, fruits and vegetables are the best choices for alkaline foods, although they will indeed fall all along the pH balance scale from acid to alkaline. On the other hand, chicken, beef and pork are practically always going to be acid foods. Obviously, many people get protein and other primary nutrients from meat, so simply doing away with all acid foods is not necessarily a healthy choice. Many acid foods are, in fact, important for our overall fitness.

As with just about any food-related area of interest, the basic theme to proper nutrition is balance. Choosing a healthy proportion of alkaline foods to acid foods is what will keep the body in its finest working shape. Human blood practically always registers between 7.35 and 7.45 on the pH scale. Therefore it is slightly alkaline, since 7 is referred to as neutral.

In order to keep the body's pH balance in check, it is beneficial to follow a diet that includes the proper ratio of alkaline foods and acid foods. A good guideline is to check that 75-80% of the foods and drinks you select are considered alkaline foods or drinks. Because nearly all processed foods, as well as meats and grains, are ordinarily acidic, this means making sure you get a reasonable supply of alkaline foods each day.

It is also instructive to take into account that coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, stress, and even pollution add to the acid formation in the body. Choosing more alkaline foods and fewer acid foods in the diet can help to counteract these unfortunate realities of the world as we know it.