The Acid-Alkaline Diet for Optimum Health: Restore Your Health by Creating pH Balance in Your Diet

by Christopher Vasey

This expanded second edition provides the latest information on restoring your body’s acid-alkaline balance

• Discusses the role of enzyme supplements, prebiotic and probiotic complexes, and antioxidants in neutralizing and eliminating acids

• Addresses the relationship of proper hydration to essential enzyme activity and acid elimination

• Outlines a sample alkaline detoxification diet

Most people consume an abundance of highly processed foods that acidify the body. As a result, they are afflicted with health problems ranging from minor skin irritations, chronic fatigue, back pain, and depression to arthritis, ulcers, and osteoporosis. To enjoy optimum health, the body needs balanced quantities of alkaline and acid substances. In The Acid-Alkaline Diet for Optimum Health , naturopath and detoxification expert Christopher Vasey shows how a simple change in diet to restore your acid-alkaline balance can result in vast improvements in health.

With two new chapters, this updated and expanded second edition provides the latest information on proper hydration and deacidification, important alkalizing supplements, and how to eliminate the body’s accumulated acids through intestinal cleansing. It also includes a new, detailed example of an alkaline detoxifying diet. Rather than organizing alkaline and acid foods based on their chemical composition, Vasey categorizes foods by their effect on the body, explaining that some foods, such as fruits, can have either an alkalizing or an acidifying effect, depending on who eats them. He describes how to determine your acid levels and how to design a diet best suited for your particular health needs.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Diets

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Mike]

Quackery, complete and utter quackery. This book takes some reasonably sound natural medicine and marries it with flawed science to provide nothing new. When the author can't get basic facts right (page 6: milk is *not* alkaline, it's actually acidic and does not neutralize acidic poisons), how can his more elaborate yet unsupported theories be trusted. I'll stick to other, more reputable sources of natural medicine for any health tips.

[Kali Bosworth]

I appreciate Vasey's simple tone in the book. It is easy to read and comprehend, which I prefer for books geared toward lifestyle changes. However, I see red flags all around this book -

As a prescriptive book, it requires some acknowledgement and nods to other studies / scientific references to support what Vasey prescribes the reader. He includes no other resources to legitimize his recommendations for the Acid-Alkaline Diet, except for the few in the end of the book that are ONLY to SELL PRODUCTS to fit the prescription that is this book.

In this way, I find this book to be unjust in it's manner. Using language such as "recovery of their good health" in the mere introduction, and then offering simple diet change can also be exaggerated and misleading to those suffering, looking for options that may turn out to be untrue and unrealistic.

I criticize so harshly because I have been interested in understanding the idea of the Alkaline diet, and this was my first book I got in hopes to introduce the lifestyle to me. Instead, it has lead me to question the diet as a whole - or discover that there is a need to further understand the diet. I am understanding that there may not be science to back this yet, but even historical or anecdotal references could make a difference. Or truthfully, Vasey could be upfront with this diet as a theory and make a case for it to be researched further... (Here it seems the main point is to create a new market for 'alkaline supplements'.)

[Susan Gast]

Christopher Vasey's book brings up great points regarding making sure our bodies are not overly acidic. He covers the need to have a proper pH balance, and how to achieve it.

A sign of a book I deem "good" is when I've got more than 3 post-it notes stuck on pertinent pages. This book received 6 of my post-it notes!

Also a surprise was discovering that some berries are actually quite acidic, yet I naturally assumed that sweet fruits must all be alkaline. Wrong!

I have the revised second edition, and have no regrets about buying it.

[Tiffany Reddick]

I found this book helpful since I've not read any other books on the subject. It's eye-opening that much of what we eat is acidic, and a number of conditions are caused by excess acid in the body. Following the guideline of eating more alkaline-than-acid meals seems to help my stomach issues a great deal.

[Loree]

good book for an introduction to this dietary theory.

[Tamara Bell]

Required reading for college

Still informative however a bit dry. There are some interesting takeaways present here though if you can have the patience to get through it.

[Alpha]

"I bought this book because of some friends, mostly from Team Beachbody, told me as well as my co-worker Tim who himself commits to a very akaline diet. I am on this health binge as of late and this book helped out a lot. There are a lot of foods that I really like and now I know there is more to my diet and my internal environment thanks to this book.

This book goes into detail about the pH balance of your body and how having too much acid, or being in an acidified state, can be harmful and causes most of your health problems. Why a lot of the bad foods or too much of certain foods have terrible results per say fatty acids, uric acid, and even sweat and urine are acidic thus why it is considered a filtered cleansing of the body.

One problem I used to have was gout and I knew it was caused by an acid that when amplified underneath a microscope looks like spikes thus why it is painful. To me, since I have a high threshold for pain, it was more annoying than anything else. Ever since following this book, I haven't had gout ever since.

All in all, the diet is based off the hunter gatherer lifestyle before processed foods and refrigeration. A lot of the foods hunter gatherers had were either fish or vegetables thus the ""vegetarian diet"" or even up to a point the ""vegan diet"". There is a reason why health was supposedly better back then compared to just sustaining life to living life. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to change their lifestyle for the better. Remember it isn't ""going on a diet"", it is ""changing for a better lifestyle""."

[Rhonda]

Anyone with acid related ailments should read.

So many things in this book are spot regarding in my health and the only thing I've heard to make sense when it comes to fixing them. Taking meds to reduce a problem that only creates another is ridiculous when you can heal yourself by simply changing eating habits.

[Sheila]

I learned how to eat a little more healthier and tame my ongoing bladder issues! It amazed me how acidic I was. YUCK! Now I'm on the road to a better me!

[Liaken]

This book has some interesting and valuable information. It isn't very accessible in many ways, and the credibility factor is basically "take my word for it." I was expecting more scientific background in this book.

[Patricio Ramal]

A good balance of information and rationale behind the acid-alkaline theory combined with useful tips, recipes and information to help achieve that balance. Don't put it away after reading it, but rather keep it in your kitchen to consult from time to time.

[N.L. Riviezzo]

While there was some useful tidbits of information with medical support, there were a lot of redundant segments and sections that contradicted themselves. The writing style was poor and difficult to read.

[waking beasts]

This book had been fairly interesting as far as learning about the number of foods which would logically seem to produce alkalinity in the body but in fact produce acid...

[Yoli]

Very interesting, yet difficult to understand at times. I find I have to read the same paragraph twice or three times to really absorb the information. However, Iam enjoying it

[Marlena]

biochemically insightful.

[Sue]

Wow! Nutrition is complicated. This book uses easy terminology and is easy to impliment

[Eileen Morey]

Good info and very sensible approach to eating.

[Melissa]

interesting and informative.

[Yuriy Ivanchenko]

concentrates mostly on how to remedy the overly excessive acidic diet of most Americans

[Christian]

Very informative and helpful.

[Genoa Yox]

Really basic book without much new info.

[Jazzy]

Very informative

[Lin]

I think there is a lot of fake news contained within that is not backed by solid science. Bottom line, eat healthy.

[Ayush]

Easy to digest book about a critical component of nutrition that we can take into account in our everyday lives.

How to diagnose and what foods to use to fix are included.

[Louise Armstrong]

Reasonably useful and made it clear that I'll have to give up mayonnaise as well. Sigh. Seemed to be a fairly balanced explanation of how acid builds up and how to change the balance in your body. Give lists of food, divided by acid/alkaline and also talked about tisanes and products you could use.

[Michelle]

Good stuff, very informative. Understanding your body helps you make healthier choices.

[Katie]

Some good info