• Is a vegetarian diet always a healthy diet?
• Does it necessarily mean that being a vegetarian one is alkaline?
• Will a vegetarian or a vegan have necessarily his pH in balance?
• Can we become more acidic following a vegetarian or a vegan diet?

Now we are going to clarify and gain more understanding about the alkaline, vegetarian and vegan diet.

As explained in Part I of False myths about the alkaline diet, alkalinity is on the rise and continues to gain popularity. And this concept, as clarified previously, goes beyond a simple trend and is backed up with solid scientific basis that supports its health benefits.

While on one hand it´s true that vegetarians reduce or eliminate totally their intake of animal foods, which are highly acidic, on the other hand this doesn´t mean necessarily that their diet has to be is a healthy one. A diet that ensures pH balance has to include, in addition to eating more vegetables and green vegetables, other parameters that vegetarians don’t always take under consideration. The most important are the following:

Avoid acidic foods: apart from meat and fish, there are many other foods that imbalance the body’s pH as for example: sugar, alcohol, carbonated soft drinks, dairy products and eggs, processed carbohydrates, etc.  We recommend that you download our alkaline chart which includes a full table of classifies foods that range from more alkaline to more acidic. You can download it here.

Avoid stimulating foods such as coffee and sugar which are highly acidic and demineralize the body.

Avoid processed and pre-cooked foods that in many cases contain artificial preservatives, additives and dyes which are harmful for our health. Therefore we recommend eating more whole foods, organic and local; we also recommend reading the labels well before adding them to the shopping cart!

Consume more raw vegetables: When we cook vegetables, much of their nutritional value is lost, so it´s important not only to eat vegetables, but to eat a great amount raw, or cook them at least at a low temperature (below 50º C) ) to preserve the maximum of their vitamins, minerals and enzymes. A good way to consume them is in the form of juices, using a slow-grip extractor, or smoothies, salads and soups!

Other healthy habits: Although food is one of the basic pillars of the alkaline lifestyle, we thoroughly recommend including other healthy habits such as spending more time in nature, having enough sleep, practicing any sort of sport or yoga, avoid smoking and avoid staying in artificial electromagnetic fields such as wifi.

Drink enough clean water! Very often we forget to drink enough water to stay properly hydrated, but just drinking water is not enough to remain healthy as the quality of the water we drink is crucial because ideally it should provide us with the good minerals and electrolytes such as magnesium, for example, and of course, it should be clean without toxins. Ideally, water should be bottled in glass or plastic free of BPA and pfalates, as well as having a pH level between 8.5 and 9.5.

Emotions: Our emotions play a crucial role in our health. And in the same way as laughter therapy has become a preventive treatment with multiple health benefits, negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, fear and depression also release specific chemical compounds in our body that undermine our health, making it more acidic and unbalancing our pH.

Take supplements: Apart from following a healthy diet, we recommend analyzing the nutritional requirements of each person. These will vary depending on the gender and stage of life of each person, therefore in some cases it´s going to be necessary to take natural alkaline supplements to balance our pH, minerals and vitamins to ensure the necessary intake of nutrients.

For example, a vegetarian or a vegan who eats too much cooked or processed food probably is going to have a lack of vitamin B12 a very important vitamin o other nutrients; or if the person is suffering high stress levels he is going to be needing an extra magnesium because when we are stressed the body consumes a lot of it, so the recommendation would be to supplement their diet with this mineral.

We hope this information to be useful and that it will help you understand how important it is to take care of your own health just by taking some healthy and simple steps, not only what you eat but also your lifestyle in general to stay naturally alkaline, full of energy and healthy.