This is a picture of what I would typically put on the breakfast table for my children, it's boiled eggs, cucumber, tomatoes, pickled vegetables (in apple cider vinegar, made at home), olives (made at home) and almonds that have been soaked in water overnight (we have activated almonds in the fridge almost always as a snack).
It's not always the same, sometimes there are different vegetables (avocados or mushrooms), sometimes tomatoes and eggs are fried or we include fetta or haloumi cheese and sometimes cut up fruit. This is the diet my parents grew up on and I grew up on and my children see this as just a typical very average meal.
The reason I am posting this is because what we eat is subject to a lot of social media, media and published discussions and all with very good reason - THE DIET INDUSTRY IS A BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY
It is a major business and simple just does not sell so we have to complicate it, make it sound like a new discovery - wow look real food!!! and off course, give it a scientific or profound sounding label. The alkaline diet, the paleo diet, the gluten free diet, the keto diet, the I forgot how to eat and need to be reminded, diet - OK I made that one up.
The bottom line is that all of these diets have merit because the good ones are based on real food so where does the problem lie? The problem lies in causing a confusion and commercialisation which causes more confusion.
Let's look at a couple of them.
The paleo diet - Without getting into all the criticisms and worship of this diet (opposite ends that people tend to focus on), let's look at the simplicity of it. The basic rationale behind a paleo diet is that you can only stomach so much food in a day so given that there is only a limited qauntity you can eat then pack it with the highest quality food that you can get. Processed white bread and pasta are low nutritional fillers that take up space for nothing so toss them out and pack your stomach with vegetables that have a high nutritional value. This diet involves the old hunter gatherer meat and vegetables - living off the land type thing.
The longest living beings on earth are basically "paleo" - live on game meat and vegetables that are local. My own grandfather lived to 106 years old on basically game meat and vegetables (as well as wine and cheese :))
Everything shown in my breakfast picture above can be labelled as "paleo" for those who like to label things.
I love the paleo diet but the one thing I dislike again is the commercialisation of it, the simplicity of it is gone once companies set in to fill supermarket shelves with "paleo bars", paleo pasta, paleo cereal and so many other items taking away the simplification of just living off the land and adding to confusing the market. Does this mean that those products are bad? Not at all, but they do enforce a label and a division to a very simple subject - food.
Let's look at the alkaline diet.
OK so again, look at my breakfast picture - everything except the eggs can be labelled as "alkaline" and everything except the eggs can be labelled as "vegan"
This diet goes out of it's way to be scientific using pH scales but the scientific explanations are both confusing and oversimplified in attempting to explain a very complex biochemical metabolism of food and blood homeostasis. The basic claim is that if you eat alkaline or alkalizing foods, it contributes to a higher blood pH (alkaline blood pH) which is associated with lower disease rates and foods that are acidic or acid causing will lead to a decreased or acidic blood pH.
Now the confusing bit is that the food itself does not need to be alkaline to be alkalising, a lemon is acidic and if you stick a pH meter in a lemon it will measure a low pH (around 2) BUT if you eat an acidic lemon, it will be alkalizing to your blood.
The other confusing thing is that blood homeostais is very intricate with little room for wild variations, you blood is always slightly alkaline and that is what is needed to carry out all the complex blood biochemistry that contributes to life. Anything you eat will be mixed with strong acid at the gastric level (stomach) and then alkaline in the small intestines before it gets to your blood - it's how our bodies are designed. This really has nothing to do with the pH of the food that we eat.
So why are people so focused on acid and alkaline when the pH level of the food really makes no difference? The basis underlying this diet is that some food and especially processed food will produce more uric acid at the kidney level when metabolised, while whole food (irrespective of whether they are acid or alkaline) have a more straight forward metabolism and breakdown resulting in less uric acid formation. Note that lots of water are promoted with this diet which makes sense in keeping the acid down.
So - no we don't need to litmus test everything we eat or carry around a portable pH meter because the actual pH of the food does not matter (given that most fruit is acidic anyway), this diet states (in an extremely complex and confusing way) that eating whole plant based foods and drinking water is better than eating processed food and drinking sugary drinks and I and the entire world wholeheartedly agree.
I may have to agree to disagree with the alkaline people on eggs however as they still are a natural food, but that is all perfect because we live in a world where people can eat what they want and coexist together in harmony.
With the confusion off course comes commercialisation - companies adding base to drinks to make them "alkaline" because alkaline is the new rage. This off course is unnatural and like the paleo bars does not contribute to more health but more confusion.
So back to my gluten free, alkaline (if you remove the eggs), paleo, keto diet and my final word here is just keep it simple, if you remove the labels you also remove the confusion and the commercialisation.
About Xenia
Xenia is the Principal and CEO of Alexa Real Estate www.alexarealestate.com.au. Xenia developed alexa real estate from concept in 2006 and it has now expanded to a rent roll of over 300 properties and 10 staff members and the company enjoys massive growth every year due to a strong focus on specialisation and solving difficult, specialised property management problems
See Xenia’s real estate blog here: http://blog.alexarealestate.com.au/
Xenia is also an entrepreneur, has developed several businesses in the areas of real estate and self development and is married with 3 children. Xenia loves to share her passion through writing and has written books on in the areas of millionaire mindset, emotional resilience and human consciousness. She has appeared as a keynote speaker on many stages around Australia and overseas including sharing a stage with Bob Proctor at a wealth creation conference in Europe.
Xenia’s books:
Don’t believe everything you think or feel: https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Believe-Everything-THINK-Feel/dp/1507594895
Your Inner Journey to Wealth:
https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/books/your-inner-journey-to-wealth-xenia-ioannou/p/9781456854294?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3oeky-qN2gIVGiUrCh0l1woWEAYYASABEgLaLfD_BwE
Prior to discovering her gift in developing businesses Xenia was a medical research scientist obtaining a PhD from Flinders medical centre followed by a 3 year post doctoral fellowship at the university of Saskatchewan, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organisation in Canada. During her post doctoral years Xenia published 8 medical research papers in top medical journals and travelled around Canada and the USA speaking at scientific conferences about her, now patented, vaccines and research.
Other social media pages:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/xenia.ioannou.33
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xenia-ioannou-290898143/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/XeniaIoannou
Blog: http://blog.alexarealestate.com.au/