Whatever diet you choose to live by, the food you eat has to provide your body with the nourishment to properly balance your body's chemistry. If you have health challenges, are overweight or obese, chances are you are not in balance at all. The typical North American diet is woefully out of balance. Even what are commonly considered as healthy diets, such as low fat, vegetarien and vegan diets can be improperly balanced.

The good news is you can forget counting ... cholesterol, calories, fat grams, carbohydrates, etc, if you eat a properly balanced diet. But, just what does a properly balanced diet consist of?

At this time, it is important to remember a quick lesson in chemistry. Many people know about acids. We used to often hear about acid rain and almost everyone knows that acids are dangerous. The opposite of acids are bases, or alkaloids. These alkaline substances will neutralize acids. In fact, if you mix an acid and a base of equal strength, you will get a new liquid that is close to being neutral. The way of measuring how acidic or alkaline a substance is a scale called pH.

It turns out that the body has a set level of pH that it likes to function in. Just as we all have a normal body temperature, we also have a normal pH for our tissues. Different tissues have different pH levels. One of the most important ones is the pH of your blood. The pH of your blood is slightly alkaline. The body will go to great lengths to keep that pH level fixed. It will do this at the expense of other tissues or systems.

The goal of any healthy eating regimen is to provide the body with the necessary building blocks in the proper pH such that the pH balance can be maintained easily. When this happens, the body will detoxify itself naturally. In addition, weight loss is a side effect of being properly balanced. When one is out of balance, or overly acidic, weight gain, chronic illness, allergies, cancer, heart disease and even diabetes can result. This chronic overacidity of the blood corrodes the tissues of the body. It can also be said that the main cause of all sickness and disease is the disruption of the balance in the body.

With that in mind, how does one get in balance?

In order to get in balance, one needs to consume about 80 percent of your diet as alkaline foods. Green leafy vegetables are a great example of alkaline foods. So are sprouts, broccoli and many other green vegetables. A great way to get started on this new way of life is to pick up a copy of "The pH Miracle" from your local or online bookstore. Inside you will learn how to jumpstart your way into a lifestyle of balanced eating that promotes long term health. In addition you will discover all the foods you should avoid and the ones that you can eat as much as you like. This book is written by Dr. Robert O. Young and his wife Shelley provides recipes in the book too. All in all, an alkaline way of life is both healthy and safe when done properly.