You may have to have your DP now, and the fizzier the better, but later you will need your MD. You have always heard that sodas are not good for you. You have been told that the caffeine, sugar, or the artificial sweetener is the problem. Well, there is a hidden problem that goes on inside a carbonated beverage that you probably don’t even know about, and it is considered by most people to be the best part.
Our bodies are mostly made up of water. Water in a pure state has a neutral pH balance of 7. The values on the pH scale go from 0 to 14 with 0 being completely acidic and 14 being completely alkaline. That neutral level of 7 is where we want or bodies to be. The pH scale is exponential when a value drops a point. A 1 point drop on the pH scale is 10 times more acidic. For example, a drop from 7.0 to 6.0 is now 10 times more acidic than previously. From 7 to 5 is 100 times more acidic and so on. A rise in pH multiplies in the same way. Just like when the pH is out of balance on a swimming pool and bad algae begins to grow causing the pool to turn green, when we are out of proper pH, things that are not desirable can happen within us.
Carbonated beverages can greatly affect our pH level. When we talk about carbonated beverages, we are not only talking about sodas. We also include sparkling water, sparkling ciders, and beer as well as others. The pH of regular and diet pops range from about 2.5 to 3.5 with the diet typically having a lower pH than the regular, sparkling waters are about 3-4, most beers are between 3.9 and 4.2, and ciders around 4.
In order to be at our healthiest, our pH should be somewhere from 7.1 to 7.5. Our blood should be from 7.35 to 7.45. Just about everything we do move us to a more acidic pH. Most of the food we consume is digested down to acids. Body fluids are between 4.5 and 7.5 pH. We create acids throughout our body when we exercise. Diseases thrive in acidic, oxygen poor environments. Carbonated beverages aid in the creation of a more acidic environment.
When the terminal of a car battery is covered with corrosion from sulfuric acid in the battery attacking the lead post, we neutralize and wash away the buildup by pouring carbonated liquid over the acid buildup. When we ingest food our stomach produces hydrochloric acid (HCl) to begin the digestive process. Unfortunately and way too often we drink carbonated liquids(carbonic acid), in whatever flavor they may be, with our food, neutralizing the HCl. By neutralizing the HCl, we send an internal message to our pancreas not to send enzymes to aid in the digestion of the food, thus allowing the food to sit in our stomach undigested, and then slowly passing through our intestinal tract improperly digested, allowing for absorption of the fats for a much longer period of time. That full, bloated, long lasting effect is not necessarily from too much food, it might just be that the food is not moving through the system, it has been slowed by the neutralization of the digestive process. The nutrients have also been locked up now inside the food because it was not processed properly. By drinking a soda with a meal, even the most balanced, healthy menu can be sabotaged because nutrients in the food are not digested and absorbed. It can’t pass through and be put to its proper use.
Another potential problem is that bad bacteria that sometimes arrive with the food are generally destroyed by the HCl. With the HCl neutralized with the carbonic acid in carbonated beverages, these unsafe bacteria are given a nice warm place to grow.
If we do not digest properly and get the proper nutrients from food, our bodies begin to deteriorate, not strengthen. Minerals are the alkalizing elements that are essential to good health. Liquids pass quickly through the stomach into the small intestine where they enter the bloodstream without being digested. Once in the bloodstream they pass through and come in contact with just about every cell in the body. They pass through the liver and kidney for cleansing. What is not needed is passed to the urinary tract for disposal.
Your body will try to protect you as long as it can compensate. When you drink a carbonated beverage, the body will use reserves of its own stored alkaline buffers, mainly calcium from the bones and DNA to raise the body’s alkalinity level, to maintain a proper pH level, especially the pH of the blood. When your kidneys are overtaxed from trying to buffer the intake of acid foods and beverages that the body can’t compensate fully, the problems begin. Kidney and gall stones can form, joint pain can result from the crystallizing deposits, the vascular system becomes calcified and narrows caused by hardening and blocking of the arteries. Carbonated drinks have also been shown to contribute to osteoporosis and dental erosion. Without enough minerals to go around, muscle spasms are common. Sleep and relaxation may not be regular. Damage to cells, free radicals, as a result of out of balance pH in the blood, can be seen under a microscope.
Will we die from drinking carbonated beverages? If your body could not neutralize these acids, you would die. Eventually we will all die from some disease or “old age”, but how soon these diseases or “old age” get us is sometimes up to us. Every carbonated beverage you drink raises your acidity, speeding up the aging process. You also lock in the nutrients of the food you eat with these beverages. When we use up or don’t supply enough minerals to neutralize these acids, that’s when “old age” begins. For some “old age” begins when they are still in their youth. Most degenerative diseases, “old age diseases” such as hypertension, arthritis, osteoporosis, hypertension, diabetes, are often a result of lifestyle, not age.
If you must have a carbonated beverage, have it as a between meal snack, but best would be to reach for the water, fruit or vegetable juice, or green tea.
How to Alkalize
Every cell’s life depends on your pH. The primary method to alkalize is change of diet. What you drink is as important as what you eat. You have to limit your intake of acidic foods to improve your alkaline balance. All carbonated beverages, including water and beer, are acidic. You need the proper minerals, magnesium, calcium as well as other alkalizing minerals to regain your balance.
One Time Alkaline Treatment
Juice 10 whole lemons and put into 3 quarts water. Drink slowly for the first 24 hours. Lemon has the ability to balance the body by raising or lowering pH as needed.