In this article, we look at alkaline fruits and why one alkaline food list can place fruits in the alkaline category and another can place them in the acidic category.
As discussed in the previous article, How to Thrive on the List of Alkaline Foods, two common raw food/ alkaline dieter’s mistakes are (1) simply not eating enough food in terms of calorific value (leading to either being under-carbed and under-energised and reaching for the wrong food choices) and (2) eating too much fat via gourmet raw food recipes that use a lot of nuts and seeds and oils (leading to sluggishness and feeling under-par).
Both of these situations are frustrating. We choose the alkaline diet and raw food lifestyle because we value our health and vitality, so it’s very disillusioning to feel worse than if eating the standard processed, refined, dairy and meat-laden diet that everyone else is on.
The good news is that these are very common rookie raw foodie mistakes and are easily rectified, without having to revert to old, less than healthy food choices. I give a practical solution called the ‘5 Fruit Solution’ to overcome these common raw foodies’ mistakes 🙂
Alkaline Fruits
In strict terms of the alkaline food list, the only highly alkaline, edible fruit that is sweet is the grapefruit. The other five alkaline fruits are lemons, limes, avocados and tomatoes, although I appreciate that you probably wouldn’t readily want to eat these to get your sugar or fruit fix.
When it comes to other fruits, scientists and nutritionists debate over which fruits are alkaline. Some would argue that the sugar in most fruits negates the alkaline pH of the alkaline minerals in fruits, making them either neutral or acidic overall.
Others would say that it depends on the person – that if your body is alkaline then consuming fruits will continue to be an alkalizing food for you, whereas if your body is acidic, eating fruit will further contribute to that acidity.
Also, food combining plays a part: If you eat any fruit after eating protein or fat then it will simply ferment in your stomach (causing gas and acidification and possibly a candida bloom), since it has to wait longer to be digested. Therefore, fruits should always be eaten alone and on an empty stomach.
My experience and position on fruits is this: If you eat lots of raw alkaline vegetables, including leafy greens and also alkaline fruits (lemon, lime, grapefruit, avocado, tomato) then you can and MUST incorporate a substantial amount of raw, ripe, whole, organic fruits as an excellent diet choice. This will keep your blood sugar levels steady (aka fuelled up and having the energy to live your life to the full), balanced and, in my experience, in excellent health.
The reasons why we MUST include a generous amount of fruit in our diets are threefold:
- The recommended and optimal ratio of alkaline to acidic foods is either 70:30 or 80:20 respectively. If we assume that most fruits contribute to the acidic proportion, then these provide the most nutritious, natural and harmonious foods for our bodies.
- Our bodies have to break all foods down into simple sugars to produce energy. Fruits already come, conveniently, in the form of simple sugars that are easy and quick to digest. Fruit sugar = energy.
- If you don’t eat fruits for energy and to quell that sweet tooth that we all have (it’s the way our bodies and the human species are designed) then it begs the question, what will you eat instead? Cakes? Chips? Chocolate? Grains? Don’t fall off the wagon and slip back into bad eating habits because you make the mistake of thinking that an orange is somehow bad for you.
The Alkaline Fruits Solution
I have come up with what I call the ‘5 Fruit Solution’, which helps you get enough calories whilst following the raw and/or alkaline diet, combats sugar cravings and prevents you from reaching for refined, packaged and processed foods.
Next Page…The Five Alkaline Fruit Solution to Sugar Cravings
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