Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for Pascoe Natural Medicineand BASENTABS. All opinions expressed are my own.
Having flashbacks to high school Chemistry yet? For many of you that likely the last time your considered alkaline or acidic ph levels. With so many people and “coaches” out there who have no professional training but who are happy to dish out nutritional advice, it can be hard to know who to listen to when it comes to nutrition and wellness. Certainly my training leaves me far from a dietician, but having spent many hours obtaining both a CanFitPro certification in Nutrition and Weight Loss, and a Clean Eating For Wellness certificate, as well as countless hours spent reading and learning about our bodies and how they function, it is my goal not to tell you how to eat (as I believe everyone has to figure out what eating style works best for them), but to educate you on things you may not have known or considered that can make a big impact on your health.
And this month, that means taking you on a pH-balancing adventure!
During the month of April, I am partnering with PASCOE Natural Medicine which is the Canadian division of the international laboratory PASCOE, which is based in Giessen, Germany. PASCOE has always been a world leader in natural medicine, manufacturing quality homoeopathic and phytotherapeutic products for over a century.
For more information on PASCOE please check out their website here.
During this month I will be taking BASENTABS an Antacid containing alkaline salts which come with a set of pH strips so I can monitor my pH balance in order to improve my acid-base balance.
But what does that mean?
Every food we eat, and stress we put on our body as an acidic or alkalizing effect on our bodies. And in North America, many of us are living in a state of permanent and systematic acidity, largely due to our food and lifestyle choices. Even those who eat a primarily alkalizing diet can still be in a state of latent acidosis due to pollution, poor air quality, detergents, toxins, intense exercise, protein-rich diets, etc.
It should also be stated that just because food is “Acidic” doesn’t mean it’s bad for you. Acidic foods like Aspartame we know to be bad for us but blackberries are an acidic food, and yet, are extremely nutritious. The same goes for other external factors. Of course, stress and pollution are bad, but intense exercise is not (when done properly).
The goal for our body is to balance our acidic and alkaline based foods and lifestyle choices in order to achieve our ideal pH range between 7.38-7.42.
To do that, it uses buffers which can bind and release acids depending on the need. When we have excess acidity, our body will pull alkaline minerals from wherever it can find them to balance the pH in our blood. The largest source of minerals is in the bones. A body with a low (acidic) pH changes the way that the cells in bone work: osteoblasts (cells that break down bone) become activated, and osteoblasts (cells that build up bone) become inhibited. That means when pH is low, more bone is broken down by osteoclasts and less bone is built up by osteoblasts, resulting in a loss of minerals. Over time, the result is osteopenia, followed by osteoporosis.
So you can see why it is important to ensure you are bringing enough alkalizing minerals into your body so that it doesn’t go looking for them somewhere else – like in your bones.
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While I try to eat a diet that is rich in nutrients and includes many alkalinizing foods I also enjoy quite a few acid forming foods as well so I’m not sure how adequately I’m achieving that balance through diet alone. Lifestyle wise, I try to manage my stress, use dye and fragrance-free soaps and detergents but I have little control over the air I breath when travelling around teaching classes, and because I teach quite a few classes I often wonder if that stress isn’t contributing to a more acidic state.
Those are some of the reasons I decided I wanted to try out BASENTABS. I thought it would be really interesting to determine if by adding this product into my life might make a difference in both my pH levels and how I feel on a day-to-day basis. April is shaping up to be an interesting month as I have quite a lot of blog work lined up, of course, my regular classes, as well as 6 full days of courses towards finishing my 200-RYT. Throughout I plan to keep my diet pretty clean except for a few indulgences here and there and will be bringing you along with me via a few more blog posts as the month progresses.
I hope I’ve piqued your interest and that you will be following my progress this month. I’m quite excited to get started!
Want to know how my month long journey went? Check out my other posts below:
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for Pascoe Natural Medicine and BASENTABS. All opinions expressed are my own.
I will be watching these posts with interest. I hope you will tell us how you test to see if your body is alkaline or acidic. i am wondering if you have to lick a piece ot litmus paper!