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The Acid-Alkaline Diet for Optimum Health: Restore Your Health by Creating Balance in Your Diet | 
| Author: Christopher Vasey
Publisher: Healing Arts Press
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $6.49
You Save: $6.46 (50%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 28871
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5
ISBN: 0892810998
Dewey Decimal Number: 615.854
EAN: 9780892810994
ASIN: 0892810998
Publication Date: November 6, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A practical diet plan for restoring the acid-alkaline balance your body needs to experience optimum health
? Explains how acidification of the body contributes to disorders such as chronic fatigue syndrome, eczema, and ulcers
? Categorizes food according to its acidifying or alkalizing effect on the body, rather than by chemical composition
? Contains food tables to help readers design the best diet for their health needs
To enjoy optimum health, our body needs balanced quantities of alkaline substances and acids. An imbalance can result in health problems ranging from minor skin irritations, chronic fatigue, back pain, and depression to arthritis, ulcers, and osteoporosis.
Most people consume an abundance of highly processed foods that acidify the body and, as a result, are afflicted with many of these ailments. Naturopath and detoxification expert Christopher Vasey shows how a simple change in diet to restore your acid-alkaline balance can result in a vast improvement in health.
Vasey provides easy test methods to determine your acid levels, how to interpret these test results, and ways to establish a proper diet to maximize your health. Rather than organizing alkaline and acid foods on the basis of their chemical composition, Vasey categorizes foods based on their actual alkalizing or acidifying effect on the body so that you can design a diet best suited for your particular health needs. He goes further to explain how some foods, such as fruits, can have either an alkalizing or an acidifying effect, depending on who eats them, and how to use alkaline supplements to support your dietary needs.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 VERY informative for a certain metabolic type ... June 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After reading all the reviews for this book, I decided to contribute because there is one important aspect that has not been mentioned, which has helped me immensely: it is a fine point on the subject of physiological acidity / alkalinity that I have not found in other books on the subject.
The author frequently states that he actually wrote this book for people who have an innate or periodically acquired metabolic deficiency for oxidizing acids (here is the fine point), particularly weak acid foods that for many people, even most people, are alkalinizing in effect. He further explains that for people having this metabolic deficiency, urine PH testing commonly shows false results, i.e., alkaline results when in fact the body's internal state is acid. In this case, urine's alkalinity is not reflective of a healthy system but a loss of needed minerals in an attempt to balance against internal acids.
If you are someone who has tried many "health" foods, such as berries, yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and even many of the current "super foods," as well as popular health protocols such as fruit or lemon (citrus) juice fasts or using apple cider vinegar as a tonic and even as a regular salad dressing, and consequently, felt worse instead of better, you really might benefit from this book, as I did.
Also addressed is the obvious, though not often perceived, fact that an "acid" condition is not merely a physical state but an holistic creation, which can be replaced by application of opposites, not only in diet, but in behavior and lifestyle. Stress, restlessness, hurry, and worry are all "acid" in effect, and though one may strive for a perfectly alkaline food intake, greatest results are attainable through a relaxed (though active) approach to living - which may include a discipline of not becoming stressed or obsessive over the relationship of acid to alkaline !
The author is European, hence, some of the foods that he recommends are not common to standard American markets, and his list of supplements for encouraging alkalinity seems excessive (I used just food-grade potassium bicarbonate - add cream of tartar and lemon juice if you can tolerate them - but the potassium bicarbonate alone worked well for me). Also, many of his assertions as to which foods are acid and which are alkaline bear discrepancies with other sources; however, the author addresses this:
"Based on your own experience ... you may feel that one food or another is better placed in a category different than the one assigned to it here. ... It can in fact be the case that a food has a very acidifying effect on one person, whereas for most people its acidifying effect is weak. You are well advised to trust your own experience rather than to base all your food choices on theory."
Good advice for anything, not just diet !
 Wish I Could Find Any Evidence For These Diets March 5, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
In spite of my best efforts to find any evidence that an acid urinary pH is associated with chronic disease, I cannot. I'm a physiologist and health educator, but I'm definitely not one of those establishment medicine "types" who believes that complimentary modalities are quackery. In fact, I'm a champion of alternative therapies and haven't been to an MD myself in many years. Unfortunately, all I am able to find in defense of the acid/base theory are homeopaths and naturopaths (each of whom I tend to respect in all other areas of their work) making claims of infections and diseases propagating in an acidic cellular environment. But none offer any evidence that there's any connection between urinary pH and cellular pH.
And I have to say, this diet just doesn't make logical sense. The stomach is quite acid, always. Doesn't matter what food you put into it, and that's because of the hydrochloric acid natural to that organ environment and used for digestion. Once in the intestines, pancreatic secretions make all food alkaline...that is, all food.
We couldn't function if the body's cells, plasma or blood were acid. Fall-down maximum exercise may drop the pH down to 7.2 or so (normal blood pH is about 7.4), but a drop even this small overwhelms the blood phosphate buffering system, denatures the enzymes that drive exercise metabolism, and we stop making fuel (we can't live if we're not making fuel). There aren't any cells in the body that can survive in an acidic environment for any time (nevermind over the course of time as chronic disease develops), and any significant shift in pH is immediately restored by the body's buffering systems, and within extremely tight parameters....because to fail to do this can be almost immediately fatal. Just consider diabetic ketoacidosis which can be life threatening within 24 hours and needs immediate hospitalization.
The range of urinary pH can change due to food ash, but to link urinary pH to cellular, blood or plasma pH is a reach.
The tons of anecdotal reporting of restoration of health from this high quality diet has, in my opinion, probably nothing to do with changes in urinary pH, but rather is due to ceasing a previously toxic diet. I request that any proponents or authors of +/- diets offer true evidence of cellular acidity. I would be grateful for that evidence.
after 3 months on diet January 24, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've now been following this diet for three months. I would first like to say that at the beginning of this diet I had head to toe eczema for the first time. Also at least 50% of the symptoms listed applied to me. A pH test confirmed that my body was much to acidic. After 3 months of following this diet my eczema is almost complete'ly gone. Only left on my hands a little. Also I,ve had back pain since I was a teanager and now have no pain. More than half the symptoms I was experiencing are gone. I do see a naturopath and he agrees this diet is a good choice and will benefit me in the long run. You do need to keep in mind that the book was written in 1999 and do a little of your own research. Like finding other supplements because his are not available. And Dr Vassey says that when he wrote the book there was'nt much research done on whether food is alkaline or acidic after entering the body. That information is now available. And so you need to follow an updated list. Genuine health has a good list on their web site. Dr Vassey talks about exercise and some other things to help rid the body of toxins and acids through the skin. Which is a good idea except when you have eczema. This is not mentioned but my naturopath told me this and I read that when doing research. All in all the information in this book has proven to be very valuable to me.
 The Acid-Alkaline Diet January 17, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Fabulous book. A lot of info that I really needed. It seems to be helping.
Healed! December 26, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
After many years of struggling with several illnesses and not finding help at the doctors office, I became desperate for an answer. Turning to God for help, I beleive He led me to this book. After reading it, and implimenting what he teaches, I saw a remarkable difference within 3 weeks, my illneses started to go away, one by one.
Today, I am alot better, and full of energy. However, I notice if I go back to the way I used ot eat, I feel bad again. I think what he says makes sense, and most of Americans really eat too much proccesed foods. Now I cook more and look at my body as a gift from God, one I will only have once, and I better take the best care of it possible.
It is all about balance, eating the right ratio of alkaline to acidic foods. All foods are good, but only in the right balance. He doesnt push any diet, which I like. He simply teaches, and lets us come up with whatever works for us. Alot is by trial and error. He gives the info, and we must do the work. I thank God for this book.
You wont find all your answers in this book, if you want recipes, look elsewhere. But with the suggestions he gives for what to eat, I came up with my own recipes, it is not that hard.
The supplements he suggests were hard to find, but I did find one eventually, and it was helpful. Being from Europe myself, his food suggestions remind me of how we used to eat in France, lots of greens, every day.
Easy read, great book!
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