How Long Does a Person Stay on the Acid Alkaline Diet?

The Acid Alkaline Diet is the brainchild of Dr. Robert O. Young. The diet is based upon his theories regarding proper maintenance of the blood's normal pH levels. Young argues that illness results not from external sources, but rather from internal failure to properly maintain the body. The Acid Alkaline Diet should not then be viewed as a weight loss program. Instead, it is a diet geared toward creating a permanent healthy lifestyle.

The Program

• The Acid Alkaline Diet is based on the idea of controlling the pH level in the body, or rather striving to keep the pH level at normal levels. Before this can be done, it is necessary for a person to know her current pH level. A simple pH test strip purchased at most pharmacies cheaply can tell a person what her current pH level is.

  The test is simple and depending on type involves either sticking the indicator on your tongue or dipping it in your urine. Normal range is between 6.0-6.5 in the morning and 6.5-7.0 in the evening. Below or above this and a person's blood is out of balance. Most people, if they are out of balance, will find that they are too acidic. Performing this test two times a week will help you understand how your diet is affecting your pH levels.

  Once a person is aware of how his lifestyle is affecting his pH level, he needs to understand how individual dietary choices affect pH level. Again, a person will use the pH test strip. This time the test will be performed one hour before dinner and then again two hours after dinner. By doing this a person can monitor how different foods are changing the pH.

  A person should now start to adjust her diet to better normalize her pH level throughout the day. For most people, this will involve incorporating more fruits, green vegetables and healthy proteins (such as eggs, milk and yogurt) into her diet. She would also attempt to eat fewer animal proteins, legumes, beans, nuts and grains since these tend to increase the acid content of the blood. Ideally, this involves maintaining a diet that is 80/20 alkaline foods to acidic foods. However, a person should not stick to this idea as law, but instead monitor his body regularly to understand how the foods he eats affects him.

  By constantly maintaining a proper pH level, a person should live a healthier life, experience less illness, feel less fatigue, have greater physical stamina and better mental health.

Considerations

• Young's ideas have never been put to scientific study. The diet is based upon his ideas, but no scientific work has ever been performed to validate the claims made in his literature. Furthermore, he has on multiple times faced lawsuits dealing with claims that he has made without providing evidence.