Follow this diet plan to protect yourself during coronavirus outbreak
Maintaining an acid-alkaline balance can help you to maintain the right pH and reduce the chances of infection. Follow these few tips from our nutritionist to protect yourself from coronavirus infection.
Is there a way we can eat to protect ourselves from pathogenic bacteria and viruses? Maintaining an acid-alkaline balance can help you to maintain the right pH and reduce the chances of infection. While many believe an alkaline diet is the most ideal, is it true?
Well, it is true, but only partially. There is much more depth to the acid-alkaline balance than simply eating only alkaline foods. There are also other aspects to this whole idea.
YS Weekender is going to break down this topic deeply, in a way that you get the right understanding to protect from COVID-19 infection.
Different body parts - different pH
The first thing one should know is that different parts of your body are meant to have different pH. The thought that everything acidic is bad for you is simply not true. It’s all about balance.
You might have been worried about increased susceptibility to COVID-19 through the oral cavity. However, the answer may not always be as simple as wearing a mask. The salivary pH is critical to why some people have increased susceptibility to cold, cough, infections, and frequent tooth decay, which is meant to be between 6.8-7.4.
In our body, the pH 0 stands for completely acidic, pH 14 for fully alkaline, and pH 7 for neutral.
While the salivary pH is meant to be neutral, most people tip towards acidic, increasing the risk for pathogens and tooth decay.
You do not need to test this, but if you are someone who has frequent teeth problems, you probably have a more acidic pH, which might increase the risk of infections. To make this more neutral and tipping towards alkaline, one of the ways is to gargle with baking soda or oil pulling with coconut oil.
The acid-alkaline aspect of your stomach
Here’s where it gets complex. There is a misconception that you need to make your stomach alkaline with alkaline foods all the time. Let me take you through some of the key aspects of this:
1. Your stomach is meant to be incredibly acidic for multiple reasons. Firstly, it is the first line of defense against pathogens, and the stomach acid destroys any invader that comes through. If you have frequent stomach infections and fungal infections, you probably might have a lowered stomach acid.
2. An amply acidic stomach is required if your brain has to tell your liver and gallbladder to secrete bile to digest fatty foods. There is a feedback loop that allows bile flow to happen at the small intestine if the food that reaches the intestines contains adequate HCL. Without this happening, your liver can get congested, making it hard to protect yourself against invaders.
3. One of the ways that you could have increased risk for infections is if you frequently use or have used antacids to acid blockers. The stomach needs to have a pH of 1.5, which is incredibly acidic, to breakdown complex proteins, to absorb iron, and B12 from foods.
4. If your stomach is acidic enough, and if your whole digestive process is efficient from top to bottom, then your blood pH will be 7.35-7.45, which is more alkaline. When you hear the phrase alkaline, remember that for your blood to be amply alkaline, your stomach needs to be amply acidic.
5. You do not have to stop eating every acidic food if you have been told that. It’s just not true. What you do need to do is find balance. There are some ways you can keep different parts of your body at the right acid-alkaline level.
Maintaining appropriate pH to protect yourself from COVID-19
The first thing that one needs to do is to see that the stomach is amply acidic. If you have used antacids or if you have been a vegan for a long time, your stomach would have down-regulated the acid, as it thinks that you do not need that acid.
Even if you are a vegan, keeping stomach acid ample will help you protect yourself from pathogens. If you are an omnivore, then you need that stomach acid to breakdown animal protein. You can support yourself by drinking some lemon water before your meals.
If you are an , you need to balance the acidic nature of animal proteins with ample plant produces from non-starchy vegetables. Animal foods are more acidic, and plant produces overall, can be more alkaline, varying within the category. You do not need to complicate this with specific food charts, but just with an overall focus on balance, rather than tipping to any one side.
If you are prone to frequent tooth decay and stomach infections, that can be the clue that you need to eat more alkaline for some time. However, you also need to address the low stomach acid with lemon water before meals.
If you have taken antacids for a very long time, you probably need to look deeply at your food, and gradually restore that balance and wean yourself off of them.
When you eat animal protein, ensure the portion size is more of a condiment size, with the vegetables taking up most of the space on your plate. Doing that, and having lemon water before your meals, can be very helpful to restore the right pH.
Viruses are everywhere, and multiple reasons are responsible for their outbreaks. Yet, there is a saying that the terrain matters. The terrain of individual bodies can be a factor why some people are more or less prone to COVID-19. You can support your terrain in multiple ways to reduce risk, and one of the ways is by understanding the acid-alkaline aspects of your body.
(Edited by Suman Singh)