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Whether you experience gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, reflux, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Celiac, or other digestive complaints, I guarantee you that acidity and inflammation is the root cause and the smoking gun behind any and all of these tummy troubles.
Even if you just have issues sporadically (and definitely if you have them on a regular basis), you need to find out what’s behind your lack of proper digestion.
Did you know that 80% of your immune system, and 80% of your nervous system lives in your digestive tract! Proper digestive health is CRITICAL to your overall health and energy.
Once you do and you take the necessary steps, you can rid yourself of problems with your digestion completely.
So today, I’ve outlined the 5 most common ways acid causes stomach pains and problems, plus how to correct them.
Let’s jump right in…
- An Acidic Diet Leads to a Leaky Gut
Have you heard of Leaky Gut Syndrome? It’s what happens when the lining of the digestive tract gets damaged, and increasingly, toxins and harmful substances that are supposed to be making their way out of your body slip right back in.
It leads to all kinds of problems, like:
- Stubborn weight gain
- Food allergies
- Slow metabolism
- Thyroid disease
- Joint pain
- Fatigue or lack of energy
- Autoimmune disorders
- Headaches
- Constipation
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- Skin conditions like acne and rosacea
What does this have to do with an acidic diet?
Acid is usually the root cause of a leaky gut. An acidic diet full of sugar, grains, meat, dairy, and processed carbs is the single biggest culprit.
That’s followed by too much stress, environmental causes, and an imbalance of bacteria in the gut caused by antibiotics and too much sugar.
What happens with Leaky Gut is that the problem spirals downward. As nutrients don’t get properly absorbed from food, acid and inflammation increasingly builds up.
At the same time, more and more toxins leak out into the rest of the body instead of being swept away during digestion.
So more acid builds up throughout the body, and the gut becomes increasingly leaky, and the vicious spiral continues. As it gets worse, it can lead to bigger and bigger problems like autoimmune diseases and eventually, even cancer.
How do you fix a leaky gut?
The only good news about Leaky Gut Syndrome is that it can be cured. First, you have to remove any and all trigger foods. Rule #1 is to stop the poisoning, which I call the ‘weeding’ phase! Keep reading for more about food sensitivities and how to do an elimination diet.
Next is called the ‘seeding’ phase. You can start to heal the gut with a combination of nutrient-dense, alkaline foods and restorative supplements like good quality probiotics and magnesium, which leads us to the second way acid causes digestive problems...
- Magnesium Deficiency
A diet with a lot of acid like the Standard American Diet (SAD) is low in magnesium. In fact, 80% of Americans are deficient in this mineral.
Magnesium is involved in over 600 chemical reactions in your body, and also prevents problems such as constipation by keeping your digestion moving properly. It’s so effective that research found it out-performs store-bought laxatives.
So, by eating a diet that is high in magnesium such as dark green leafy vegetables and lettuces, avocados, raw nuts and seeds, and green veggies, you can prevent constipation. It’s no coincidence these are staples of the alkaline lifestyle.
The more alkaline a food is, the more healing it is for your insides.
- Lack of Chlorophyll
The green plant pigment that you remember from biology class is also essential for the human body! In the same way that in plants, it turns light into energy, in people, chlorophyll stimulates our metabolism and digestion. Most importantly, it is the same molecular shape as your blood (except for the center atom, where blood has iron, chlorophyll has magnesium), so the more chlorophyll you consume, the more you cleanse and purify your blood.
Chlorophyll speeds up waste removal, reduces constipation, and speeds up the metabolism. So, if your diet does not contain plenty of naturally occurring chlorophyll, you’ll have a harder time losing weight, be more likely to gain weight, and experience constipation.
Eat these foods to get plenty of naturally occurring chlorophyll:
- Spinach
- Kale
- Swiss chard
- Wheatgrass
- Snap peas
- Parsley
- Watercress
- Green beans
- Arugula
- Leeks
- Endive
- Chinese cabbage
- Seaweed like kelp and red algae
- Mung bean and alfalfa sprouts
- Food Sensitivities and Allergies
These days, with our modern food supply and all too commonly poor diets, sensitivities to particular foods are a huge cause of digestive issues.
What are the most common foods that irritate digestion?
- Dairy products
- Gluten/wheat
- Soy
- Heavy, fried foods
What do these foods all have in common? ACID! This is such a prevalent problem that the first thing I tell patients who come into my practice with digestive problems is that we need to do an elimination diet to determine which of these culprits is to blame.
If you haven’t tried eliminating them, I recommend you eliminate all 4 of these categories for a month and see how you’re feeling. Gradually, you can try to add these foods individually to see which ones trigger a response.
- Acid Leads to Reflux and Ulcers
Most doctors will tell you that ulcers and acid reflux or heartburn are common issues caused by foods like coffee and citrus.
Unfortunately, the truth is much more complicated than that… And more alarming.
What starts to happen is that tissues respond in two different ways to all of the acid they’re regularly exposed to. Some types of tissues harden, becoming leather-like (sclerosis). If you’ve ever heard of hardening of the arteries, this is what’s causing that.
Other types of tissues form ulcerations because they aren’t protected by the delicate microbiome that’s been destroyed after all of the damage we’ve walked through already, so ulcers crop up in the stomach, cirrhosis of the liver can occur, or other digestive organs like the duodenum or esophagus experience lesions or ulcers.
If you are having reflux, that is a sign that acid is regurgitating back into the esophagus where it doesn’t belong, and this is the #1 cause of esophageal cancers, so you don’t want to sit idly by and let this happen.
This is VERY serious. If you are having ANY reflux symptoms, please do not wait and put it off, because the consequences can be deadly. I say this not to scare you, but to help you.
I lost my father over a month ago to esophageal cancer that metastasized to the lungs. My father fought a truly courageous battle, that lasted nearly 3 years. I was grateful to learn that the nutrition work we did with him, and his fierce will to live, was able to extend his life beyond professional expectations. His medical doctor told me that. I am truly grateful for the extra time that this lifestyle afforded him, and our family.
But at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough to reverse the damage that had been done. Looking back, I never was aware that he suffered with reflux. It saddens me to think that there may have been more I could have done to help. I couldn’t save him, but it has become my LIFE’S MISSION to help save you.
So again, something that may seem as insignificant as reflux, has the capability to be deadly (check out the 5 stages of acidosis to see how this can progress to cancer). Don’t let it be. Start taking Alkamind Daily Minerals immediately, as this is the most powerful antidote to reversing reflux.
When ulcers occur, they are not the only problem. They are symptoms of a much larger problem that’s been going on for some time.
If not treated holistically, the damage continues, leading to organs actually degenerating. So it’s crucial you do a couple of things to stop future damage and repair what has already occurred. First, you need to start eating alkaline foods that heal including healthy fats, leafy greens, and low-sugar fruits and vegetables that provide plenty of vitamins and minerals.
Again, it’s so important to start on Alkamind Daily Minerals. These crucial mineral salts – calcium, potassium, sodium bicarbonate, and the most bioavailable form of magnesium – neutralize the acids and prevent future damage to these areas of your body. Alkamind Daily Minerals is a game changer for any digestive issues you might have because it neutralizes all of the acid causing the problem in the first place.
