Alkalize Or Die
Kahlil Algya
The human body carefully maintains the pH of blood at about 7.35, which is slightly alkaline, or basic. This is also the pH of the cells in all our organs that depend on the blood supply for their nourishment. Should the pH drop below 7 or exceed 7.7 we are looking at a potentially catastrophic situation. Luckily, our blood constitutes a buffered system, meaning that any variation of pH is immediately compensated for. Should there be an increase in acids entering the bloodstream, we immediately start exhaling more carbon dioxide, which then reduces acidity. Should the blood start to alkalize, the lungs retain more carbon dioxide, which dissolves to form carbonic acid while the kidneys eliminate basic bicarbonate.
The word alkalizing gets thrown around a lot in health and wellness world. Organic Krush considers it an important element in making daily decisions for lifelong personal health. We like to think of an alkalized state as being an internal state of calm and balance. The foods and liquids you ingest (as well as stress levels) play a part as to how balanced your internal system is functioning.
Naturally your bloodstream works to stay at this level, because when it is, you are able to maintain health. When you eat and drink, the item taken into your gut affects your state of alkalinity. Alkalized foods are the foods that tend to be low body burden and super fresh. Things like leafy plant greens, bananas, broccoli, cabbage and tons of other whole fresh fruits, plus olives, seaweed, and almonds. Acidic foods are more highly processed foods that take more work to digest: meats, dairy, coffee, carbonated water, wheat. Here is a great article and a great pH scale of foods that can be helpful; I printed this chart and have it hanging at my desk so that I always have an easy reference!
Alkalize 55 was invented by the Food Movement company in 2011. This unique plant based food and mineral supplement, designed to promote pH balance within the body, was designed in concert with the work of Dr Michio Kushi.
Alkalize 55 is a unique nutritional supplement made from triple-fermented biodynamically-grown foods, and fulvic minerals complexed with natural humic acid. Each capsule contains over 80 bioavailable trace elements, many of which are believed to be essential for optimal physical performance.
The human body, as measured by serum pH, needs to be slightly alkaline. In extreme examples, acidosis causes death. Short of this, humans can continue to live with a blood pH of, say, 7.35 - but experts have found that a more alkalize bloodstream of around 7.46 is much more desirable and can promote measurably greater health.
Nearly ten years ago, Medicatrix Naturae and the Food Movement began a project to develop an alkalizing supplement that could truly impact the human micro biome, as well as the larger organism. The result was Alkalize 55, a powerful blend of 55 triple-fermented dimeter-certified biodynamic super foods grown to custom specifications on pristine organic farms in Brazil and Japan, in combination with the powerful whole earth humic fulvic minerals with over 80 elemental trace nutrients.
The original formula of Alkalize 55 has been popular not just with health experts, but with anyone looking to improve their acid-alkaline balance in their internal milieu (microbiome). Formulated in part by the late Dr Michio Kushi, pioneer in macrobiotics, this combination is a powerful blend of living minerals and triple-fermented foods that are biodynamically grown.
Alkalize 55 has been tremendously popular with everyone from naturopathic doctors to yoga instructors. Maybe you take a multi-vitamin, a probiotic, or other types of supplements. Truly none of them will give you the same broad range of high vibrational micro-nutrients. Alkalize 55 compliments all of the above type of supplements and is fact likely to make them more effective.
Studies have shown that improving your body's acid-alkaline balance can be a key to good health, better bone density and increased mental clarity. Maintaining a health microbiome helps to insure that you are getting all of the natural food and mineral energy your body craves.
Cocoa alkalization is a value-added process in cocoa processing to produce alkalized cocoa mass or powder. It involves the treatment of cocoa nibs with a food-grade alkali solution to raise the pH, producing darker colors and stronger flavors.1
The alkalization process can be applied to various cocoa products such as whole beans, nibs (before roasting and grinding), liquor (prior to pressing), or the powder, although it is most often the nibs that are alkalized.
This is the traditional method and is considered to give a superior product (other alkalization possibilities require more complex conditions and may lead to undesirable lipid reactions). Nib alkalization can be carried out in a drum reaction vessel (pressurized) and/or in a screw conveyor once the unit is charged with the nibs.3
The regulation states that for each 100 pounds of cacao nibs, the total quantity of alkali ingredients used cannot be greater in neutralizing value (calculated from the respective combined weights of the alkali ingredients used) than the neutralizing value of 3 pounds of anhydrous potassium carbonate.
Alkalize is our beloved blend of Wheatgrass juice powder, Alfalfa grass juice powder, Spirulina, and Chlorella. High in chlorophyll, vitamins, minerals, iron, and protein, this blend cools and alkalizes the body. This highly nourishing blend may help with sugar cravings!
RECOMMENDATIONS: Mixed in a smoothie, lemonade, or water, this powdered blend is easy to incorporate into your daily routine! Tastes surprisingly pleasant and also mixes well with water for those hard core health freaks out there!
Acidic urine may be a sign of acid-base imbalance and metabolic acidosis. The kidneys play a crucial role in maintaining acid-base balance and are responsible for excreting excess acid. The metabolic acid load can build up with an unsupplemented high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. This pattern decreases urinary magnesium, citrate, and pH and increases urinary calcium, phosphate, and uric acid excretion (Schwalfenberg 2012).
Urine pH can significantly affect the formation of kidney stones. Acidic urine can contribute to the formation of calcium oxalate, cystine, and uric acid kidney stones. In contrast, alkaline urine may contribute to calcium phosphate and struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate) kidney stones. Urine pH can be increased to 6.5-7 by increasing dietary or supplemental alkalizing factors. If urine pH is too alkaline, it can be lowered to 7 with diet and supplement changes as well (Frassetto 2011).
Increasing dietary or supplemental citrate is one of the easiest ways to alkalize urine, as citrate can be converted directly to bicarbonate. Dietary citrate sources include lemon and lime juice, as well as supplemental potassium citrate (Rahman 2017)
To make cocoa powder, it has to be extracted from chocolate liquor. The liquor is first made by refining cacao from its coarse state to a very fine texture. Next, with the aid of a cocoa butter press, the liquor is then filtered through a sieve at an extremely high pressure, forcing the fat (cocoa butter) to separate from the solids (cocoa powder).
The remaining solids in the press resembles that of a cake, and has to be pulverized into a powder. This powder contains approximately 12% fat, which is a reduction of nearly 40% from its original makeup.
Alkalized cocoa powder, or Dutch Process, has a higher PH level due to an alkali solution being added to the beans, nibs or powder. This reduces the acidity and darkens the colour, ranging from a deep reddish brown to nearly black. The level of acidity and colour will vary depending on the level of alkalization. This is most commonly used in baking with recipes that call for baking powder.
We put both types cocoa powders to the test to see which type performed best and what flavour we loved most. This is part of the R&D for a future bar to hit our shelves. It's based off of one of our all time favourites, Cookies & Cream.
For this test, we used our natural cocoa powder. This comes from one of our all time favourite suppliers, Kokoa Kamili. They are producing amazing cacao in Tanzania, and the cocoa powder is on par for both quality and flavour.
We whipped up a few tests of the cookie for our Cookies & Cream bar. Using natural cocoa powder, we made two different batches, one containing baking soda and one without. We repeated the tests with alkalized cocoa powder and baked them to the same specifications. We were looking for differences in texture, colour, flavour, and reactions during baking.
If you are in doubt about your cocoa powder being natural or alkalized, look on the ingredient statement. If it is one ingredient, then you have natural. If there is a second ingredient such as potassium carbonate, you have alkalized.
Alkalizing diets have been growing in popularity over the last decade. The adoption of plant-based diets has great leverage in their high levels of alkaline foods. By making healthy lifestyle choices and being aware of the effects your decisions have, you can help restore the pH balance in your body.
First and foremost, there is a difference in urine pH and blood pH. The pH of our blood is what we want to have balance in, striving for a pH of 7.4, which the body will do naturally when free of pathological conditions.
Most experiments and studies use urine-based test strips to determine the pH. However, much more extensive tests have to be done in order to determine your actual blood pH. Eating an alkaline meal such as a salad or green smoothie will increase the alkalinity in your urine; however, urine pH is not an effective marker of your overall blood pH.
The term pH stands for potential of hydrogen. It measures the acidity or alkalinity of the body from 0 to 14. The lower the number, the more acidic the body is. The ideal pH for the body is between 7.35 and 7.45. This number is slightly alkaline.
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