The 'pH' Dilemma

Warm Greetings!

I know this topic sounds quite chemical, but it has a crucial link to our bodily fluids. We’ve all been through certain digestive problems like a Heartburn, production of Gas and most commonly Indigestion. And what do we all say in unison? ACIDITY!

Now we clearly have been taught this and our brain automatically presents the word Acidity. So without giving it much thought, we start taking Anti-acids which are really common nowadays. As the name suggests, Anti- acid medication will reduce the acid in the stomach and we feel accomplished thinking acid was the culprit. But little do we know, such an approach is making us extremely deficient nutritionally.

Before I explain the nutrition part, let me give a brief explanation about what pH actually means.

‘p’ stands for Potenz or Concentration.

‘H’ stands for Hydrogen Ion (H⁺)

Therefore pH is the concentration of H⁺ ions in a fluid. It is given by the logarithmic equation,

pH = -log₁₀[H⁺]                       …….. (I)

pH has a scale of 0-14 with 7 as the midpoint for dividing two classes of pH:

So if the pH of any given fluid is between 0-6, it would be considered an ‘Acidic’ fluid. If the pH of any fluid ranges from 8-14, it would be considered an ‘Alkaline’ fluid. A pH of 7 is considered Neutral!

What are Acids and Bases? And why Acid gets to be on the Top? Do Acids have good networks in the pH scale?

All these important questions are answered by equation (I). An acid would have maximum concentration of Hydrogen ions (H⁺) and are capable of donating them.

A Base / Alkali has maximum concentration of Hydroxyl ions (OH^-) which are capable of accepting these donated H⁺ ions.    

SOLUTION	IONS	pH RANGE
ACID	H+	0-6
BASE	OH-	8-14

So when acids and bases are present in equilibrium, the H⁺ ions gets balanced by his brother OH^- ions and we have a Neutral fluid.

H⁺ + OH^- → H₂O
ACID + BASE → WATER

In our body, every fluid in different organs has its own pH thus belonging to either of the three categories. Every food we consume has a pH value which needs to be specific with our organelle pH. Let us consider a few examples,

FLUID	pH RANGE	TYPE
Blood	7.35-7.45	Alkaline
Stomach	1-3	Extremely Acidic
Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) in Brain	7.5	Alkaline
Lemon Juice	2-3	Extremely Acidic
Vinegar	2	Extremely Acidic
Urine, Sweat, Adrenal Glands, Colon (Large Intestine)	0-6	Acidic
Fluid Inside and Outside of Cells, Tears, Bile	8-14	Alkaline
Water	7	Neutral

You might think what’s the big deal with pH? If we consume some acidic foods, we can push in some alkaline foods to neutralize it. No dear, it doesn’t work that way. Look at Equation [I] again,

Do you see the number 10? It is there for a reason, not just to look good. pH values are divided exponentially i.e. A pH value of 5 is 10x times more acidic than 6, but a pH value of 4 is 100x more acidic than 6 and so on.

Let us consider our Blood pH which is Alkaline in nature in a very specific range of 7.35 - 7.45. If the blood pH drops by 1 whole number, a person would go into a diabetic coma. That’s how serious the concept of pH is!

Maintaining a specific pH in a specific body fluid is of utmost importance. If we closely look at our stomach pH, it ranges from 1-3 which is extremely acidic. This strong pH is mainly due to Hydrochloric acid (HCl) that helps in closing the valve in the oesophagus to prevent regurgitation of stomach contents. Apart from this, acids also help digest protein in our stomach, helps to absorb minerals and kill any pathogenic bacteria which cannot survive in such a strong pH.

But the moment we take an Anti-acid, we deplete the stomach acids that worsen the situation. Depletion of stomach acids leads to partial digestion of food.

Thus Chest pain, Heart burn or GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux disorder), Bloating, Belching, Burping, indigestion are all symptoms of Low stomach acids. You haven’t gained a lot of acid, you have lost it which is causing all these effects.

You do not have acidity, you have Alkalinity! I know this might come as a surprise, but I’ll help you get through it! Don’t worry!

Apart from all the refined carbohydrates that we consume (Which is Alkaline of course), Chronic stress, Vomiting, Diarrhoea, Dehydration, Anti-acids are the chief causes of low stomach acids. This increases the stomach pH towards the alkaline side. This leads to a series of problems like decreased Calcium and Potassium, Twitching, hyperventilation, Arthritis, Allergies, Bone spurs and Calcium deposits in the wrong places.

You can also create an extremely acidic condition but not in the Stomach, in other parts of the body. This can be caused either by Diabetes, Hypoglycemia, Junk foods and low vegetables. This could cause symptoms like coughing, coma, arrthymias, nausea, weakness in muscles and many more.

Thus an alkaline stomach can be corrected by consuming Apple Cider vinegar, Beets rich in Betaine hydrochloride and Lemon juice which could really build that strong pH of 1-3. Green leafy vegetables should be consumed in ample amounts as they are rich in chlorophyll – Blood of Plants. Chlorophyll helps in curing stomach ulcers.

I hope this clears most of your doubts regarding Digestive problems. Stomach acids also lose as part of the ageing process, so we really need to start building up that acid.

Fun - Fact: Stomach acids help in absorption of Proteins, vitamins and minerals, thus aiding in tightening of loose skin.

Fable of Reading Labels!

Warm Greetings!

In this blog, I would primarily focus on ‘Nutrition Labels’ on all the foodstuff that most of the people don’t bother to look. I won’t be blabbering much with the details but try my best to guide you to focus only on specific ingredients.

Before we begin analyzing these secret ingredients, I would like to clear some basic ideology of our macro nutrients.

MACRO NUTRIENTS	CALORIES/GRAM
CARBOHYDRATES	4 C/gm
PROTEINS	4 C/gm
FATS	9 C/gm

Now, let me tell you the purport of the word ‘Essential’ & ‘Non-Essential’. Essential is something that our body needs and it is not able to produce on its whim. Non-Essential is something that our body can produce, no sweat at all! I know I sound like a kindergarten Professor, but there is a harsh fact preceding this basic idea.

We eat food to satisfy our Essential Amino Acids (Building blocks of Proteins), Essential Fatty Acids (Omega-3: Omega-6). Oh wait, aren’t we missing something?

No dear, we don’t have Essential Carbohydrates which means that our body can maintain Blood Sugars even if we don’t consume Carbs. Our body can undergo a process known as Gluconeogenesis. Wait, I’ll break it down for ya!

Gluco – Glucose

Neo – New

Genesis – Synthesis

Thus the word means synthesizing new glucose from a non- carbohydrate source which reflects to Proteins and Fats.

Now let us see the effects of such macro nutrients on the infamous hormone Insulin. Why only Insulin? Because insulin is a dominating hormone which starts storing carbohydrates into fat and cholesterol. So the table below gives you an overall idea of which macros have a direct role in spiking insulin.

MACRO NUTRIENTS	INSULIN SPIKE
CARBOHYDRATES	Definitely as Insulin stores Sugar
PROTEINS	Only when High Protein is consumed, it gets converted to Sugar thus spiking it.
FATS	Negligible

So every time you eat Carbohydrate rich food, you trigger Insulin. Insulin stores sugar into the Liver and Muscles as Glycogen (Stored sugar) and if you keep eating like a Beast, you store it as Fat especially around your Belly. Why only Belly? Because most of the vital organs are situated around the gut and the body stores fat there mainly as a defence mechanism.

So now, we know where to focus on the labels while we are out shopping for food items. Let’s take an example here of a ‘Jam’ product.

Point of Focus [I]: SUGARS

Since it is clear we do not want any Sugars, the number you should be looking for is 0gm. You can also choose food having a Sugar value of 1gm but the reason I am telling you to keep it 0gm is mainly because all these values are referring to a Single serving of the product.

P.S – Total Carbohydrates give you an addition of Sugars, Starches and Fibre. Vegetables have a lot of Sugars but the high fibre content allows slow release of the sugars, thus increasing blood glucose gradually.  

The above photo gives an indication very aptly. The total carbohydrates are 14.3gm but the total sugar content is 14.2gm. Which means maximum part is pure Sugars. Such food stuff raises blood sugar way too quickly thus spiking Insulin which brings the blood glucose low. This makes you feel hungry and you eat again thus continuing the cycle of Fat storage in a never ending fashion.

Point of Focus [II]: SERVING SIZE AND NUMBER OF SERVINGS

The above product has a serving size of 1 tablespoon (tsp) which accounts for 20gm. So all the nutrition details are for 20gm of Jam. Now, the entire product is of 320gm, thus increasing the number of servings to 16. Hence, all the values of the nutrition label gets multiplied by 16 for the entire bottle.

Hence Sugars amount to 14.2g x 16 = 227.2gm. Now it looks bigger, right?

I know you won’t be gulping the entire bottle but trust me, Jams are addictive. Beware!

Point of Focus [III]: FATS

It is fine if you consume Saturated or unsaturated fats because you need Essential Fatty Acids, remember? Avoid Trans fats which include the hydrogenated vegetable oils like Soy, Canola, Sunflower etc. because they are synthetically prepared.

P.S – Fat doesn’t make you Fat, Fat doesn’t make you susceptible to Strokes. It is the Sugar that gets converted to Fat and Cholesterol, not the other way round.

Point of Focus [IV]: INGREDIENTS

Finally, special attention needs to be kept on the Ingredients. Mostly the first ingredient makes up the entire product. In this case, if you look closely, first ingredient is SUGAR! That did not surprise me at all!

Apart from this, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, artificial colors are things that one needs to be away from. Many hidden sugars like MSG (Monosodium glutamate) and High fructose corn syrup (Alternative sugar source) etc. find a major place in foods just to improve the flavor.

Soy, Corn, Canola are 90% Genetically modified (GM). These GM foods are capable of mimicking the female hormone Estrogen, thus identified as Endocrine Disruptors!

So these 4 points need to be vitally checked just to keep your vitality in check!

Fun Fact – Human Body requires only a Teaspoon of Sugar to maintain the Blood glucose levels per day. An average person consume 30 teaspoons of Sugar per day!

Inspired by – Dr. Eric Berg, DC!

Is Health Really Treated As Wealth?

Is Health Really Treated As Wealth?

Health is a topic that doesn’t get the importance it deserves. We speak about all the big places to reach, but we never speak about the vehicle (Body) without which, we will go nowhere.

Maintaining health is the most important activity of our daily lives. But I’ve seen that a majority of people don’t even care for their body, let alone be maintaining it.

I’ve observed a general pattern in the respective lifestyles of people here,

Eating Foods with No idea of Nutrition – Getting ILL – Going to a Doctor - Getting a PILL – Repeating this all their life!

No one is keen on asking simpler questions about the cause of their illnesses. Everyone is craving for medication which would lead to temporary good health; but no one is trying for permanent solutions. We have Doctors treating the symptoms instead of aiming the root cause of the Problem. Even some doctors do not know about all the details, they just use high-end terms to confuse us and due to lack of knowledge, we fall prey to them quite easily.

Apart from that, we consume a lot of pleasure foods that we crave but there are minimum nutrients in them. Let’s just use the term ‘Negligible Nutrition’. For example, our body needs an adequate amount of Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats, but we consume carbohydrates in an extreme amount. Sugar is an inflammatory substance, which when consumed in excess, leads to a lot of health problems.

We require a huge amount of Potassium (Approximately 4700mg) each day for relaxing our body. Potassium is obtained from green leafy vegetables which people generally tend to consume in quite limited amounts. Apart from this, we require tons of Vitamins and Minerals which help in stabilizing our body and creating health within it.

Now excess of sugar tends to deplete B-vitamins and other essential minerals which further make us susceptible to illnesses. Each and every food item has either a positive or an adverse effect on the body. Our food choices would result in a cascade of events thus improving or degrading our health.

People think that they remain thin even if they eat anything. This is quite a myth because being thin is associated with a good metabolism. As we age, metabolism slows down and all the junk food will soon catch up. Currently we are so obsessed with eating the wrong foods, the repercussions would be fatal. 

Restaurants are a big fashion nowadays but it’s not really fashion when it comes to your health. Most of them use MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) which makes the foods taste good as well as enhance the fat storing hormone ‘Insulin’. In addition to this, even vegetables have a lot of pesticides, herbicides, etc. which are able to mimic hormones. They are also termed as ‘Endocrine disruptors’.

People think they’ll eat junk but workout to nullify it. Our body does not work this way in the long run. Initially when we’re young we might lose weight but it won’t be the similar case in the future. Workouts are great if we have the ability to recover from them. But people, who keep eating junk and less nutritious foods, exhaust their vital organs and further exercise would wear them.

Taking pills would further increase our medicine bills as it is a never ending process. Our body stops producing the substance that we provide externally. For example, medicinal corticosteroids given in Asthma would stop the synthesis of corticosteroids in our body. So instead of directly taking steroids, one must work in improving the adrenal function of producing adequate corticosteroids.

Topical applications would further put load on the Liver as the liver has to detoxify every chemical that we put inside our body.

The most deadly cause of all our health problems is Stress. Stress would result in High cortisol which would further enhance Insulin action. Apart from all this, people tend to have addiction to Smoking, Drinking, and Drugs. This makes an already bad situation to worse.

Thus it all comes down to creating health inside our body instead of working on the external looks. Identify each symptom and keep pulling the string until you get the root cause. The sooner we get informed in the field of nutrition, the faster we would be rejuvenated and healthy.

P.S. – Even a simple ‘Burp’ means a Gall bladder issue. I’ve seen people think of it as some achievement but for your information, it isn’t!

SMOKING to SMOKILL

SMOKING to SMOKILL

Warm Greetings!!

Nowadays with increasing complexities in life, people are constantly in the mode of stress. No doubt stress is a troublemaker but the path for its extraction used by the people, is deadly!

Generally stress is extracted by performing Yoga or some low/high intensity exercises. But this seems to be a time consuming process as well as old school. People have thus resorted to a much faster process for relaxation - ‘CIGARETTE SMOKING’. Yes you read it correctly!

Cigarette smoking has become the most common activity for people. Call it a pastime or an instant stress reliever. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are around 120 million active smokers in India. Also India consists of 12% of the total smokers in the world. But due to smoking cigarettes, 9 lakh people die every year. This number is extremely painful and it’s on the inclination.

Let’s analyze this grave situation more closely. Apart from adults, I’ve also seen many teens smoking on a regular basis. This has gone way beyond of just relieving oneself from stress. It has become a status quo for many people. I read a lot of literature with respect to the effects of cigarette smoking and found quite interesting facts which I would like to share with you all.

Cigarette is made up of Tobacco leaves which consist of Nicotine and a variety of other compounds. When these compounds burn, they are known to release thousands of chemicals over many of which are known to cause cancer. All different forms of Tobacco like Pipes, Cigars, Hookahs and Smokeless Tobacco are dangerous. Cigarette smoke consists of poisonous gases like Carbon Monoxide (CO) & Nitrogen Oxide (NO) as well as many cancer causing radioactive particles.

So when you smoke a cigarette and inhale the tobacco smoke, nicotine enters the brain within seconds. It’s a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant which induces a pleasurable feeling as well as it’ll make you energetic for a short period of time. It induces relaxation and a mild feeling of euphoria too. Basically you feel like a KING! All of these benefits with a single puff of Cigarette? Cigarette lovers would be like “WOW, This was so fulfilling!”

But this filling is fully gone after a certain while.  After the effect of the nicotine subsides, you feel tired and crave more and more. With increasing doses, the brain gets desensitized and there is moment when you can’t stay away from a cigarette. Apart from the above mentioned symptoms, Bad breath, decreased appetite and dizziness are the other symptoms of low to moderate doses of tobacco.

But no one actually sticks to low doses of tobacco. People always try to reach the higher level. A higher dose of tobacco for a long term has some serious implications on our health.

A] SENSES: Smoking increases the risk of macular degeneration (Vision Loss/ Blurred Vision), cataracts, and poor eyesight. It can also weaken your sense of taste and sense of smell, so food may become less enjoyable (Decreased Appetite).

B] CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES:

i) When nicotine flows through your Adrenal Glands (One above each kidney), it stimulates the release of epinephrine which increases your Blood pressure.

ii) In addition, Nicotine and CO can damage the lining of the inner wall of your arteries. Fatty deposits can build up at these damaged sites and become large enough to narrow down the arteries. This would severely decrease the blood flow through the arteries, a condition called as Atherosclerosis.

iii) Smoking also causes Coronary Heart Disease. In coronary heart disease, these atherosclerotic plaques narrow the arteries supplying blood to the heart. This reduces the blood flow extremely and thus less oxygen reaches your heart muscle, increasing the risk for Heart attack.

iv) Smoking also increases your risk for blood clots as it causes the platelets in your blood to clump together.

v) Smoking increases your risk for Peripheral vascular disease as atherosclerotic plaques block the large arteries in your arms and legs.

vi) Smoking can also cause Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm which is the swelling of the Aorta (the major blood vessel that supplies blood to the body)

C] LUNG DISEASES: When we inhale Air through nasal passage, it gets moistened, warmed and filtered before it reaches the lungs. Air then passes through the trachea (Wind pipe) and then into the respective left and right bronchi. It further enters the smaller network of bronchioles. This entire network is called as a Bronchial Tree. The bronchioles terminate into smaller air exchange globules called as Alveoli.

From these thousands of alveoli, oxygen from the air moves into the blood stream and carbon dioxide (CO₂) moves out of the blood stream (Exhalation).

i) The hair-like projections in the bronchial tubes (Cilia) push the harmful chemicals out of the lungs. Cigarette smoke irritates the lining of the bronchial tubes causing them to swell and develop mucus. It also slows down the movement of cilia thus retaining some of the chemicals and mucus in your lungs.

While sleeping, some of the cilia start recovering and push more pollutants and mucus out of the lungs. When you wake up, your body tries to expel these materials by coughing repeatedly.

This is termed as smoker’s cough. Over time it develops into Chronic Bronchitis (Inflammation of the Bronchial tubes). The cilia stop working and the airways become blocked by mucus and scar tissue. Breathing becomes more difficult and the lungs are more vulnerable to further diseases.

ii) Cigarette smoke may also damage your alveoli making it harder for O₂ and CO₂ to exchange with your blood. Over time so little oxygen can reach your blood that you may develop Emphysema, a condition in which you have to gasp for every breath.

iii) Chronic bronchitis and Emphysema are collectively termed as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). It’s the gradual loss of ability to breathe for which there is no cure.

C] CANCER: Cigarette smoke consists of carcinogens for example, Cyanide, Formaldehyde, Benzene, Ammonia and many more. Such toxic chemicals can damage the DNA in your healthy cells. As a result, these damaged cells create new unhealthy cells which may spread to other parts of the body. Smoking can cause Cancer of the Lungs, Blood and Marrow, Mouth, Larynx, Throat, Esophagus, Stomach, Pancreas, Kidneys, Bladder, Uterus and Cervix.

D] INFERTILITY: Both men and women who smoke are at higher risk of Infertility. Women who smoke may experience menopause at an earlier age than nonsmoking women. Smoking increases a woman’s risk of cervical cancer.

E] PREGNANCY: If a pregnant woman smokes, she exposes the baby to the toxic chemicals and increases the risk of Low birth weight, miscarriage, pre-term delivery, infant death, stillbirth and Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Nicotine may also pass to the baby through breast milk and may cause more complications.

F] DIGESTIVE SYSTEM: Smokers are at great risk of developing oral problems. Tobacco use can cause gum inflammation (gingivitis) or infection (periodontitis). These problems can lead to tooth decay, tooth loss, and bad breath.

G] INTEGUMENTARY SYSTEM (SKIN, HAIR & NAILS): Smoking causes skin discoloration, wrinkles, and premature aging. Your fingernails and the skin on your fingers may have yellow staining from holding cigarettes. Smokers usually develop yellow or brown stains on their teeth. Hair holds on to the smell of tobacco long after you put your cigarette out. It even clings to nonsmokers.

After reading so many fatal health effects of Smoking, I had a simple solution – Just BAN it! And this leads me to think, why it’s not banned yet? I read a few articles as well as some reviews on Quora. I was really shocked to read that Cigarette Industry is the largest commercial sector and they provide direct or indirect employment for lakhs of people for its farming and processing. So people say it should not be banned.

People are looking at the Employment side. No one is looking at the Mortality rate.

I rarely recovered from the above stats and then I read someone saying – You cannot tell anyone to stop smoking. It’s their ‘Wish’. I had a good laugh on this. Don’t stop smoking for ‘Your’ betterment; stop smoking for ‘Our’ betterment.

Second hand smoke (Passive Smoking) has a similar kind of effect on Non – smokers. But guess what, People don’t think about their own self, why would they think about others? It’s high time for people to understand the dangerous health issues related to smoking.

Nicotine withdrawal being difficult is another reason why people aren’t quitting. It’s a slow procedure where you bring the nicotine levels down gradually. This would bring more symptoms like irritability, anxiety, insomnia, difficulty in concentrating and many more. But to prevent premature death, quitting this habit is one of the many ways out.

I’ve seen Teachers who teach Biology on one end, who smoke on the other end! This is the classic example of Educated Illiterates. We need to understand the consequences of cigarette smoking and spread more awareness amongst people.

Fact for the Day: One Cigarette reduces your life by 11 minutes.