10 Health Reasons to Drink Green Juice – # 2 ALKALIZING 

Do you want to “add life to your years and years to your life”? If the following statement is indeed true: “the human cell is only as healthy as the alkaline fluids it is bathed in”,  then juicing alkaline vegetables has a potential role to play in “bio-hacking” our health and maybe adding a few radiantly healthy years to our lives.  Read on to understand the 2nd reason: ALKALIZING in this series called “10 Health Reasons to Drink Green Juice”…

Background: The acidic or alkaline environment is measured by the pH scale from 0 to 14, where 7 is neutral, 0 to 7 pH is acidic and 7 to 14 pH is alkaline (basic).  

Is Green Juice Even Alkaline? Antoine Bechamp (on right, Louis Pasteur’s accomplished contemporary scientist who first introduced the terrain theory of health – interesting article on the two of them here if you have time…http://danielleduperret.com/articles-blogs/pasteur-bechamp-the-2-sides-of-medicine/) introduced the microzyma concept – an indestructible element from which all cells and more complex life forms evolve, depending on the environment.¹  “When you spin, whip, shake, and press vegetables into juice, the microzymas excrete acid wastes, making the juice mildly acidic, despite coming from alkaline vegetables.”²  So, the reality is that green juices are slightly acidic.  However, the good news is that despite this initial acidity upon ingestion (much like lemons and limes), green juices have an alkalizing effect on the body due to their high mineral and low sugar content.

How Does Food Affect Cellular pH? “When acidic elements (food, liquids, gases), such as chlorine or sugar for example, are ingested  mouth, breathing, skin, or rectum) they are headed into the blood stream and their acid pH has to be neutralized (to the correct pH range) as the blood has to be kept in a narrow pH range of 7.35 to 7.45 or you’ll die.  The body has to neutralize these acidic elements by using up its alkaline reserves (mainly-calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, sodium) that are stored in body tissue such as the bones, teeth, cartilage and muscles or by storing these acidic elements somewhere in the body.  The body also has the tendency to store these acid elements in areas that are already in a weakened state, such as possibly a weakened organ.  If a person puts more acidic than alkaline elements into their body (basically an aquarium) then their cellular pH becomes more acidic and lowers.  This simultaneously lowers cell oxygen levels and its ability to function properly in healing itself while giving a harmful environment for bad things to survive within.”³ The “bad things” are typically unfriendly bacteria, yeast, fungus, mold and parasites (the invitation for a “parasite party”.  This weakened organ can be the connective tissue (fibromyalgia), the joints (arthritis), bones (osteoporosis), etc. –  you get the picture.  Note its the cellular pH that becomes acidic not the blood pH (which, again must remain in the 7.35-7.45 window).

Why Alkalize? Felicia Kliment, author of The Acid-Alkaline Balance Diet explains here the ability of increased alkalinity in the diet to push out acidity: “It follows that normal body function depends on the correct balance of acid and alkaline particles in the blood, lymph, enzymes, urine, and other body fluids.  This is the factor that I had overlooked in the health problems of my patients.  While acid and alkaline substances are both vital to life, acid favours the decomposition of living things, while alkaline (or base) prevents it.  Examples of this are the corpses buried in the fourteenth century under the cathedral of Venzone in Italy.  Some corpses have remained intact while others have become skeletons.  The dead bodies interred where the underground water contains a high concentration of alkaline-forming limes have mummified, whereas the flesh of the bodies buried in places where the water is highly acidic have been eaten away by bacteria.  It took me twenty years of researching, writing, and consulting in the field of alternative health before I found the common denominator in all degenerative disease: acidic waste. 

These wastes are largely the by-products of the food we eat.  Wherever acid wastes accumulates, it causes nearby organs to malfunction and degenerate.  Restoring the acid-alkaline balance in the body can be done using diet and alkaline particles to rid the body of acidic wastes.” 4  A practical example of using the lessons learned from the Venzone mummies is using an ionizing water machine pH dial to set the exact acidic pH to clean countertops or sanitize your hands (using a spray bottle in lieu of using alcohol-based hand sanitizers) or alternatively setting the exact alkaline pH for drinking the water.

How Can You Prevent and/or Reverse a Health Challenge?  Dr. Robert Young, author of The pH Miracle and several more books on alkalinity, describes the benefits of green juicing on health: “The effectiveness of these juices lies in the concentrations of anti-acids or antioxidants that buffer acids and alkalizes the blood and then interstitial fluids that surround the cells preventing and/or reversing inflammation that leads to a heart or cancerous condition.  Several studies have been conducted on the issue of heart and cancer dis-ease and how to prevent or treat these conditions, and have yielded positive results that an alkaline pH in interstitial fluids preclude the development of acidic or unhealthy body cells.  Therefore, if you want to prevent and/or reverse a health challenge, start focusing on the fluids of the body and the cells that make up your tissues, organs and glands will adapt to that healthy alkaline environment!”5

Bottom Line: Green juicing builds healthy, electron-rich (i.e. alkaline) terrain in the human body – one that does not encourage overgrowth of “bad things”. Contrast an alkalizing green juice with a bottle of coke, which is so acidic, it takes 32 glasses of water to neutralize it!6 (not to mention what 10 tsp of sugar does to your blood sugar!).  

Stay tuned for Reason #3  in this blog series: CHLOROPHYLL-RICH…

Nutritionally yours,  Laura

Laura Kissmann, CD, BSc, R.H.N.
Registered Holistic Nutritionist

“Nothing tastes as amazing as healthy does”

References

1. The pH Miracle, Revised and Updated by Dr. Robert Young and Shelley Redford Young, pg. 19
2. Ibid, pg. 129
3. Understanding the Basic Problems of Cancer and Illness Part 2, StopCancer.com
4.  The Acid Alkaline Balance Diet by Felicia Drury Kliment 2010, pg. x
5.  Blog article by Dr. Robert Young, Ph.D., D.Sc.
6.  The Acid Alkaline Balance Diet by Felicia Drury Kliment 2010, page xi

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.  With all things nutritional, there is no one prescription diet, so always consult a medical professional like a nutritionist before embarking on any drastic changes to your diet – we are biochemically unique and our diets should reflect that!