“I don’t know if I’m hungry or just tired.” That’s a refrain most of us have heard coming out of our own mouths. It’s a symptom of what may be the central dilemma of 21st century life.
To some extent food and sleep are interchangeable. Fatigue causes a lowering of the ability to use blood sugar, and food — especially sugary and rich junk food — feels like a quick fix. Time being increasingly precious and food being increasingly cheap, we sometimes give in to the temptation to use food as a sop to fatigue. A similar urge leads us down the rocky road of eating increasingly rich foods to make up for the fatigue that comes from not getting enough sleep.
A bloated body isn’t the only consequence. The ability to get a good night’s sleep is the other victim. Once we get into the habit of abusing food to distract from the need for sleep, we are on our way to cultivating insomnia and hindering the biochemical reactions that power our existence. My habit of waking up several hours too early is what led me to become aware of the role pH balance plays in regulating every vital process.
pH is a scientific notation whose origin has been lost. No one remembers what the “p” is supposed to represent, but the term is generally read as “potential for hydrogen” or “power of hydrogen”. It is used to denote the concentration of positively charged hydrogen ions present in a standard quantity of fluid. The higher the concentration, the more acidic the solution. Because pH is keyed to the negative logarithm of the concentration of dissolved hydrogen ions, a low pH indicates a high concentration (which is bad) and a high pH indicates a low concentration (which is good). As we learned in chemistry class, distilled water has a pH of 7 and is considered a perfectly neutral solution, neither acidic nor alkaline.
Healthy oxygenated blood pumped from the heart has a pH between 7.4 and 7.45. Blood returning to the heart is slightly less alkaline with an average pH of 7.35. Urine, which removes the acid waste carried away by blood, averages a low 6.0 pH. Saliva pH ranges between 6.0 and 7.4. You might have noticed that your saliva takes on a sweet taste after a good workout or a good night’s sleep. That’s the alkaline taste of health.
If our blood pH were to drop below 6.8 or rise above 8.0, we would die a miserable death. Blood supplies cells with the oxygen needed to neutralize and carry away the acidic waste products of routine metabolism. If blood pH is too low, waste removal is compromised and cells succumb to acidosis, acid poisoning. As it acidifies, the body becomes susceptible to diseases, including cancer.
“The microbe is nothing,” Louis Pasteur is said to have admitted on his deathbed back in 1895. “The environment is everything.” The father of the germ theory of disease—the foundation of today’s off-base western medical system—was essentially conceding that diseases and other infirmities only appear when the body’s biochemical balance has been thrown off—the rival theory long espoused by his good friend and scientific rival Claude Bernard.
Alarmingly, over half of American adults show a saliva pH level of 6.5 or lower. (Hypochondriacs should note that saliva pH does vary somewhat during the day though it shouldn’t get downright acidic unless you’ve just been gorging on sweets and pastries). It drops to 4.5 in terminal cancer patients. Long before our pH descends to such depths, we suffer from ailments like obesity, diabetes, gout, kidney stones, chronic fatigue, chronic yeast infections and insomnia. Insomnia and overeating, therefore, are but two early warning signs that our body is out of pH balance.
It’s helpful here to understand how an acidic body —one whose pH is too low— is particularly susceptible to obesity. When blood pH falls below healthy levels and is unable to carry away acidic waste quickly enough, the body begins producing more fat cells to serve as a buffer between tissue and acid. That’s because fat cells can absorb a large quantify of acid. If you’ve been wondering why you can’t seem to lose that spare tire, it may well be due to a high pH level and your body’s resulting effort to keep the acid waste away from your vital organs.
Even if you somehow manage to avoid a spare tire by dint of exercise and calorie-counting, a high pH level will interfere with sleep and the proper functioning of your immune system—conditions which generally leave you feeling far less energetic than you should be. In other words, you can be trim but still be suffering from poor health. Conversely, it’s possible to be a bit overweight and be brimming with energy if you can sustain the proper blood pH levels.
How do you engineer a healthy pH balance? The short answer: exercise regularly and eat more alkalizing foods.
The bad news is that most foods we crave are acidifying. Coffee, tea, meat, eggs, chocolate, even fish, beans, grains, nuts and most kinds of dairy products are acidifying. The good news is that you only need to get about 20% of your calories from alkalizing foods like soy bean sprouts, spinach, cucumber, swiss chard, lima beans, avocados, beets, kale, carrots, figs, apricots, prunes, plums, peaches, lemons, cantaloupes, grapefruit, nectarine, tofu, yogurt, bananas, onions, tomatoes, cabbage and sweet potatoes.
I had always made a habit of getting regular exercise and staying in shape. But the pH imbalance caused by my love of coffee and meats was acidifying my body. For years I had thought the culprit behind my insomnia was caffeine. But when I switched to decaf I saw no improvement. If anything, that worsened my insomnia, possibly because the knowledge that I was drinking decaf made me think I could drink as much as I wanted. The big complex molecules that give coffee that satisfying aroma and flavor are highly acidifying, not to mention extremely drying.
When I became aware of the impact of pH balance, I stopped drinking decaf coffee and switched to green tea. (All teas are acidifying, but far less than coffee, and green tea is the least acidifying.) I boosted the amount of fresh veggies and drastically cut down my intake of meats and starches.
I discovered that Korean food is ideal for alkalizing, as well as for an invigorating changeup from the usual tame fare. I would highly recommend daenjahnchigae (fermented soybean stew with tofu and vegetables), kimchibokkum (kimchi stir-fried with tofu and pork), soondubu (soft tofu casserole), naengmyun (cold buckwheat noodles with hot pepper sauce), bibimbahp (rice with assorted vegetables and pepper paste). When it comes to Korean food, stay away from all those mouth-watering barbecue dishes and you’ll walk away from every meal healthier than when you sat down. Some Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai and Chinese dishes are also very green, raw and healthful, though many restaurants make everything a bit oilier to cater to rich American palates.
My shift toward a less acidifying diet didn’t cure me of insomnia. But it does help me sleep about a half hour longer each night. And even when I am sleep deprived, a less acidic metabolism makes me feel more relaxed, focused and in tune.
