5 More Benefits of the Alkaline Diet

Mais 5 Benefícios da dieta alcalina

1. Promover a saúde óssea - Quando o seu corpo se torna muito ácido, ele reage eliminando o cálcio e outros minerais dos seus ossos. Uma vez que esses minerais alcalinos foram usados para combater o excesso de ácido, são excretados com a urina. A curto prazo, esse mecanismo protege os tecidos de serem prejudicados por ácidos poderosos. No entanto, este benefício vem às custas da desmineralização óssea, que pode levar à osteoporose. Alimentar-se em uma dieta alcalina pode ajudá-lo a preservar a sua saúde óssea.

2. Combate a Dor e Inflamação  - Um dos minerais alcalinos que seu corpo utiliza para combater excesso de ácido é magnésio. Infelizmente, o processo de ácidos neutralizando deixa você com menos deste mineral essencial para outras funções. Porque o magnésio desempenha muitos papéis dentro do corpo, uma deficiência pode levar a muitos problemas, incluindo um aumento da susceptibilidade à dor e inflamação.

3. Reduz a pressão arterial - Os seres humanos modernos são os únicos mamíferos que consomem mais sódio que o potássio. Esta proporção de sódio-potássio invertido é uma das causas de pressão arterial elevada. Por sua vez, a pressão arterial elevada é um fator de risco para ataques cardíacos e derrames. A dieta alcalina enfatiza frutas e legumes ricas em potássio, em vez de alimentos processados que são ricos em sódio. O resultado é um equilíbrio mais otimizado de sódio-potássio, e uma redução do risco de pressão alta.

4.Manter a força muscular - Seu corpo utiliza uma variedade de substâncias alcalinas para neutralizar o ácido em excesso, incluindo glutamina, um aminoácido encontrado no tecido muscular. Quando seu corpo se torna muito ácido, ele pode realmente quebrar o tecido muscular para a glutamina livre. A longo prazo, a força muscular, como resultado pode diminuir. Seguindo uma dieta alcalina, você pode ajudar a manter os músculos fortes.

5. Prevenir problemas do trato urinário - Seu corpo depende de seus rins para remover excesso de ácido. Esta função é essencial para preservar a saúde, mas há um inconveniente: Quando sua urina é mais ácida, ela pode irritar a bexiga e o canal urinário, ocasionando dores ao urinar. Mais uma vez, uma dieta rica em alimentos alcalinos pode ajudar a reduzir o excesso de ácido, ajudando assim a prevenir a inflamação do canal urinário.

5 More Benefits of the Alkaline Diet 

1. Promote Bone Health  - When your body becomes too acidic, it reacts by removing calcium and other minerals from your bones. Once these alkaline minerals have been used to counteract the excess acid, they are excreted with your urine. In the short term, this mechanism protects your tissues from being harmed by powerful acids. However, this short-term benefit comes at the expense of bone demineralization, which can lead to osteoporosis. Eating an alkaline diet can help you to preserve your bone health.
2. Fight Pain and Inflammation  - One of the alkaline minerals that your body uses to fight excess acid is magnesium. Unfortunately, the process of neutralizing acids leaves you with less of this essential mineral for other functions. Because magnesium performs many roles within the body, a deficiency can lead to many problems, including an increased susceptibility to pain and inflammation.
3. Reduce Blood Pressure  - Modern humans are the only mammals who consume more sodium that potassium. This inverted sodium-potassium ratio is one of the causes of high blood pressure. In turn, high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. The alkaline diet emphasizes potassium-rich fruits and vegetables, rather than processed foods that are high in sodium. The result is a more optimal sodium-potassium balance, and a reduced risk of high blood pressure.
4. Maintain Muscle Strength  - Your body uses a variety of alkaline substances to neutralize excess acid, including glutamine, an amino acid found in muscle tissue. When your body becomes too acidic, it may actually break down muscle tissue to free glutamine. In the long term, the result can be reduced muscle strength. By following an alkaline diet, you can help to maintain strong muscles.
5. Prevent Urinary Tract Problems  - Your body depends on your kidneys to remove excess acid. This function is essential for preserving health, but there is a drawback: When your urine is more acidic, it can irritate the bladder and urinary tract, leading to painful urination. Again, a diet rich in alkalizing foods can help to reduce excess acid, thereby helping to prevent urinary tract inflammation.

Five Alkaline Diet Benefits/Cinco Beneficios da Dieta Alkalina

Cinco Beneficios da Dieta Alcalina

!. Melhora a Digestão  - Embora os problemas digestivos sejam comuns, muitas pessoas relutam falar sobre eles. Muitos descobriram que a dieta alcalina é útil para problemas como constipação, síndrome do intestino irritável, e diverticulite.

2. Desintoxicação  - Desintoxicação nunca foi tão popular. Alguns programas de desintoxicação como  o da dieta da limonada  envolvem um jejum de líquidos. Outros baseiam-se em fibras e ervas. Se você estiver interessado em experimentar os benefícios de uma desintoxicação, saiba que uma dieta rica em fibras alcalinas proporciona um efeito de limpeza suave, sem os efeitos colaterais severos de laxantes.

3. Menos Artrite e dores nas juntas - Existem várias razões para que uma dieta acidificante pode agravar a dor nas articulações. Quando seu corpo se torna muito ácido, ele perde minerais alcalinos, incluindo cálcio e potássio, que ajudam a manter a inflamação em controle. Além disso, a acidez leva ao aumento da produção de radicais livres. Os radicais livres promovem a oxidação, aumentando ainda mais a inflamação.

4. Mais Energia  - Quem não quer mais energia? Muitos de nós adotamos o café e bebidas cafeinadas para um impulso de energia, mas estas soluções rápidas não pode mudar o problema subjacente. Na verdade, eles podem piorar as coisas, tornando seu corpo mais ácido. Por sua vez, um corpo acido é mais propenso à fadiga. Aumentar o seu pH pode ajudá-lo a se sentir mais enérgico. Uma dieta alcalina também fornece abundância de hidratos de carbono complexos e fibras alimentares, ajudando a manter os níveis de energia estáveis durante todo o dia.

5. Ajuda a Perder Peso  - A palavra "dieta" também pode significar uma forma de se alimentar que uma pessoa adota a fim de promover a saúde ao longo da vida. No entanto, muitas pessoas perderam peso em uma dieta alcalina, então não há nenhuma razão que você não pode emagrecer e melhorar sua saúde geral, ao mesmo tempo. E alem disso, você não precisa ter a preocupação constante de ler um livro de dieta alcalina. Na verdade, muitas pessoas que adotam uma dieta alcalina não o fazem porque querem perder peso ou superar qualquer problema de saúde específico. Em vez disso, eles só querem melhorar a sua saúde geral e se sentir mais jovem.

Five Alkaline Diet Benefits

1. Improved Digestion  -  Although digestive problems are common but many people are reluctant to talk about them. Many people have found that the alkaline diet is helpful for such problems as constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, and diverticulitis.

2. Natural Cleansing  -  Cleansing has never been more popular. Some cleanses, such as the master cleanse or lemonade diet, involve a liquid fast. Others are based upon special cleansing powders that contain fiber and herbs. If you are interested in experiencing the benefits of cleansing, it may interest you to know that the fiber-rich alkaline diet provides a gentle cleansing effect, without the harsh side-effects of laxatives.

3. Less Arthritis and Joint Pain  -  There are several reasons that an acid-forming diet can worsen joint pain. When your body becomes too acidic, it loses alkaline minerals, including calcium and potassium, which help to keep inflammation in check. In addition, acidity leads to increased free radical production. Free radicals promote oxidation, further increasing inflammation.

4. More Energy  -  Who doesn’t want more energy? Many of us turn to coffee and caffeinated soft drinks for an energy boost, but these quick fixes can’t change the underlying problem. In fact, they can make things worse by making your body more acidic. In turn, an acidic body is more prone to fatigue. Increasing your pH can help you feel more energetic. An alkaline diet also provides plenty of complex carbohydrates and dietary fiber, helping to keep energy levels stable throughout the day.

5. Improved Weight Loss  - The word “diet” can also mean a way of eating that a person adopts in order to promote lifelong health. Nonetheless, many people have lost weight on an alkaline diet, so there’s no reason you can’t slim down and improve your overall health at the same time.

Of course, you don’t have to have one of the concerns listed to read an alkaline diet book. In fact, many people who adopt an alkaline diet don’t do so because they want to lose weight or overcome any specific health problem. Instead, they just want to improve their overall health and feel younger.

Antioxidants are entering a new era of product performance.

By Ronald Prior, PhD, & Boxin Ou, PhD, David Bell, MBA, Qiuyan Zhao, MD, MBA, & HuiLin Wei, MD, PhD, Brunswick Laboratories


Antioxidants are growing up. They have emerged from their adolescence into the prime of maturity. In doing so, they have proven themselves to be versatile performers. In fact, these natural product compounds traditionally referred to as “antioxidants” may deserve a new name—”antiAGEnts.”

In the past decade, antioxidants have captured the consumer imagination—for the most part, for the better. They have become a part of the consumer vocabulary and have helped shape the landscape of nutrition products, from conventional supplements to specialty foods to cosmetics. During this time, antioxidant research has been robust. Central to the findings are: (1) that phyto-compounds traditionally called “antioxidants” demonstrate diverse characteristics; and (2) that “antioxidants” are implicated in a complex array of interconnected mechanisms in vivo.

The diversification of antioxidants’ role has important implications for natural products and the varied forms they take in the anti-aging marketplace.

The New Science of Antioxidants

There is continued interest in and questions regarding the antioxidant capacity of the diet and in vivo antioxidant status and effects on health outcomes. There is increasing evidence that the postprandial (after meal) state is an important contributing factor to chronic disease. A decrease in plasma antioxidant capacity has been observed following a meal containing macronutrients but no sources of antioxidants. The role of fruit and vegetable phenolic compounds to protect health and lower disease risk through their actions in mitigating fed-state metabolic and oxidative stressors is of interest.

Berries such as blueberries, grapes and strawberries have been shown to reduce postprandial oxidative stress. More research is needed in this area, but data from several studies

summarized by Dr. Burton-Freeman suggest that consuming phenolic-rich fruits increases the antioxidant capacity of the blood. And when they are consumed with high fat and carbohydrate “pro-oxidant and pro-inflammatory” meals, they may counterbalance their negative effects. Given the content and availability of fat and carbohydrates in the Western diet, regular consumption of phenolic-rich foods, particularly in conjunction with meals, appears to be a prudent strategy to maintain oxidative balance and health.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that phenolic-rich foods may impact health outcomes through other mechanisms in addition to strictly antioxidant effects. Studies suggest that oxidative stress and systemic inflammation are involved in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke and consuming a diet with a high total antioxidant capacity has been related to reduced inflammation, along with increased circulating antioxidants. In a cross-sectional and randomized intervention study of 41,620 men and women, a diet rich in total antioxidant capacity was associated with a reduction in incidence of ischemic stroke and to a lesser extent in all types of stroke. In another study, positive associations were observed between dietary antioxidant capacity and adiponectin concentration and a negative relationship with inflammatory markers. As a result, an adiponectin-mediated route through which antioxidant-rich foods exert beneficial effects against inflammation and cardiovascular diseases can be hypothesized.

Consumption of a Mediterranean diet, especially rich in virgin olive oil, has also been associated with higher levels of plasma antioxidant capacity. In addition, plasma total antioxidant capacity may lead to a reduction in body weight after three years of intervention in a high cardiovascular risk population.

In another study, a group of patients with Type 2 diabetes was given a polyphenol-rich antioxidant supplement, and a decrease in LDL and an increase in HDL was observed. In addition, a byproduct of lipid peroxidation (plasma MDA) was decreased in the study group compared to the placebo group, and an increase in antioxidant defense was observed based upon increases in total plasma GSH and antioxidant capacity. These observations indicated that the polyphenol-rich antioxidant supplement may have been important in antagonizing effects on oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation in patients with Type 2 diabetes and might be beneficial in preventing cardiovascular complications.

Based on positive associations observed for total fruit and vegetable intakes and what was termed total antioxidant performance, Talegawkar et. al. suggested that it might be prudent to focus on increasing consumption of fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds to increase total antioxidant capacity.

In this vein, accurately testing the antioxidant level in natural products and ex vivo samples remains an important task, which is why the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) method remains relevant. And here’s why: (1) ORAC is an established standard that already plays a valuable role in the dietary supplement and functional food industries; (2) significant improvements have been made to the method; and (3) there appears to be a vital link between ORAC level and bioassay efficacy markers.

The ORAC Method Today

Briefly, ORAC was developed as an analytical tool for estimating the antioxidant capacity of substances, with an obvious application to natural products. It was an important advancement in commercially available analysis and has become a de facto standard in the natural products industry. Let’s consider some important facts:

• From the beginning, the ORAC method was considered a starting spot—not a definitive endpoint—for comprehensive antioxidant analysis.

• The original ORAC method is not a universal standard—it favors certain antioxidant substances over others (e.g., anthocyanins over carotenoids) due to the use of only one free radical source (peroxyl radical), which was chosen initially because it is the most common radical source found in the human body.

• There now exists a complementary suite of assays based on a unified ORAC chemistry that broadens the analytical scope of antioxidant testing.

This evolution process has resulted in the Total ORAC suite. It expands the ORAC platform to measure antioxidant capacity against five primary reactive oxygen species (commonly referred to as radicals)—peroxyl, hydroxyl, peroxynitrite, superoxide anion and singlet oxygen.

While Total ORAC is subject to some of the same limitations as the original ORAC method, it substantially improves broad-spectrum antioxidant analysis. It also gives evidence of the diverse antioxidant potential of natural products against radicals other than peroxyl. In some instances this potential may be specialized (e.g., carotenoids vs. singlet oxygen); in other cases, there is balanced antioxidant performance against multiple radicals. Compounds such as resveratrol and standardized ingredients such as green tea extract exhibit significant broad-spectrum antioxidant capacity.

The significance of Total ORAC is that while these primary radicals may all broadly contribute to the same outcomes—oxidative damage and corresponding disease states—they have unique characteristics that need to be addressed. Like position players on a sports team, antioxidant substances have different skill sets. And it is meaningful and valuable to know how antioxidants will perform against different opponents.