The Diet/Fitness Thread

[Sancho]

If you're eating healthy foods; fresh fruits and vegetables, more soy protein and less red meat protein, less dairy products, stay away from caffeine, less processed sugar, eat certain types of seafood, drink fresh water (not tap water!), and exercise daily... you will automatically keep a proper PH balance.

General Jack D. Ripper (from Dr Strangelove) certainly agrees with your assessment of tap water, Iain.

Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face.
...
God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural... fluids.

I agree with everything you said, Iain, but I am badly hooked on caffeine. As for red meat, it's not a player for me. About 17 years ago I contracted an autoimmune disease from a tick bite that precludes me from ever eating mammalian meat again ( if it's been hatched it's okay). No big whoop, I never liked eating animal carcasses anyway.

[Pompey Bum]

And then he hung up.

[Iain Sparrow]

I drink four to eight litres of water a day, I would go bankrupt drinking bottled water I had to pay for!

There is absolutely no need to drink that much water in a day... unless you're walking across a desert.
Three liters of water, plus I mix fruit/veggie juice in with my water, a glass of milk a day is plenty. Where I live, one gallon of spring water is a $1. Seems a reasonable price to avoid tap water?

[Sancho]

We're still trying to figure out the meaning of that last phrase, sir.

[Iain Sparrow]

Which phrase might that be?

[Sancho]

Sorry Iain, me n Pompey were doing movie quotes. That was General Buck Turgidson 'splaining to President Merkin Muffley what General Jack D. Ripper had in mind with his precious-bodily-fluids comment.

[Iain Sparrow]

ah, I get it.

[YesNo]

I've got a coworker who beat cancer and swears that maintaining his body's natural PH through the food he eats was instrumental. He told me his diet before his diagnosis was way too acidic and may have opened the door to cancer, something about his body always fighting to bring the PH back up to 7.4 and thereby taxing the immune system.

That's what I've been reading also. Here's a guy who increases the alkalinity of water using baking soda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grtrm8tk4d4 I tried it and perhaps I put too much molasses in it, but the taste is a bit strange.

Sounded plausible to me. Anyway he only drinks Evian water now. Most bottled water is a little acidic and hence quenches the thirst better but Evian is at 7.4 PH (I think) and prints it right there on the nutrition label.

I didn't know they put that on labels of bottled water. Some sources I've seen recently don't recommend bottled water if the tap water is the right pH.

There might be something to it. Donno. I'm a tap-water guy.

Oh yeah, it was some sort of stomach cancer.

We tested our tap water with the paper strips and it had a pH of about 7, so I figure it is OK. Of course, if I wanted to be ultra sure, I'd run it through an osmosis machine and/or ionizer to increase the alkalinity, but that might cost a few thousand dollars to set up.

[Sancho]

Most bottled water doesn't advertise their PH. There's no FDA requirement to, as far as I know, but some of the European brands do. Ever since I heard my friend's cancer-survival story (and theory), I've been checking. I also seem to remember him telling me that the human body will strive to adjust itself to the PH of the ocean. And it might be my imagination but swimming in the ocean feels good, somehow regenerative. Especially if I happen to be swimming at a southern beach with lotsa scantily-clad women, sporting large, valupous, natural life preservers.

Not sure about Lake Michigan

[Calidore]

Most bottled water doesn't advertise their PH. There's no FDA requirement to, as far as I know, but some of the European brands do. Ever since I heard my friend's cancer-survival story (and theory), I've been checking. I also seem to remember him telling me that the human body will strive to adjust itself to the PH of the ocean. And it might be my imagination but swimming in the ocean feels good, somehow regenerative. Especially if I happen to be swimming at a southern beach with lotsa scantily-clad women, sporting large, valupous, natural life preservers.

Not sure about Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan has the same, um, scenery, plus no sharks.

[YesNo]

I wonder if one adjusts one's pH by swimming in the ocean? I normally don't like to swim and I'd rather walk through the woods than walk on a beach since after you've seen one wave you've seen them all, but Lake Michigan beaches do have sufficient scenery on nice days if one is not looking at the water as Calidore remarks.

I have heard stories of rare sightings of bull sharks in Lake Michigan: http://wgntv.com/2014/08/14/is-that-...lake-michigan/

Iain Sparrow is probably right that one can get the appropriate pH from a proper diet which would probably be closer to a vegan diet than the one I currently have. We checked some bottled water we bought and the indicator says it was more acid than the tap water.

[Tyrion Cheddar]

Sorry Iain, me n Pompey were doing movie quotes. That was General Buck Turgidson 'splaining to President Merkin Muffley what General Jack D. Ripper had in mind with his precious-bodily-fluids comment.

You said 'splaining! It's love at first sight! Or at least phonologic inphatuation.

[Clopin]

I'm of the opinion that red meat is healthy and I think the "science" on that will change as it has for eggs and as it does for dairy every few years.

[YesNo]

The views of the health value of drinking coffee seem to flip-flop also. It is on the bad side for the alkaline pH diet like meat is. I wonder if drinking an espresso is more or less damaging than a 20-oz drip coffee?

We tried the baking soda with water and molasses and the indicator tests show an increase in the alkalinity of urine overnight. That was a faster change than I thought would occur. What may be more important is it seemed coincidental with less allergy symptoms and I think I can see better. So, now it has my interest. I don't have good data to support any of this, but I'm flip-flopping myself between letting diet take care of pH or giving it a boost with the baking soda.

Another thing I've run across is fasting one day a week to detox the body. You only drink water on that day. I don't know what benefits I should be seeing with the detoxing process.

[Calidore]

Another thing I've run across is fasting one day a week to detox the body. You only drink water on that day. I don't know what benefits I should be seeing with the detoxing process.

Probably nothing to match the issues caused by not eating for a day, which isn't good for your body in any way. I'd also question whether the supposed benefits of ingesting baking soda are worth the very real and well-documented problems caused by excessive sodium intake.

My unsolicited advice: Don't focus so hard on little tweaks that you miss the big picture, especially when you're "fixing" what ain't broke in the first place.