– by Alexis Bonari
It’s no secret that you can’t be much healthier than what you eat. This is a sad truth in an age wherein McDonald’s has over 32,000 restaurants and everyday Americans are together spending hundreds of billions of dollars on them annually, literally killing themselves slowly.
Whether you eat fast food or the raw diet, unlocking whatever potential nutrition within those apples or burgers going down the pipes depends on an oft-overlooked fluid: hydrochloric acid.
What is Hydrochloric Acid (HCl)?
In short, HCl is what we call stomach or gastric acid. It allows what we consume to be digested, absorbed, and utilized to nourish our cells, tissues, and organs.
Its primary functions are as follows:
1. It breaks down proteins and prepares them for absorption.
2. It protects our bodies from harmful microorganisms found in our food.
3. When we consume acid forming foods or partake in acid forming activities, HCl uses up much of the acid forming material (hydrogen ions) and helps remove excessive tissue acidity.
Americans and citizens of many developed countries eat a lot of meat and fat. Meat and fat take more stomach acid to properly digest as opposed to vegetables and fruits. In fact, raw diets are rich in digestive enzymes, which help break down food particles to be used for our bodies. Hydrochloric acid, which is already present in our stomachs, is the leader of this process.
Other Factors in HCl Levels
Food, however, is not the only variable in stomach acid production. Emotions, stress level, and endocrine and nervous systems balance affect digestive health, too. Chronic stress can cause HCl production to increase acutely, but over time actually leads to a significant decrease in production. This makes digestion more difficult in both the short and long term! Meanwhile, an unhealthy digestive tract can compromise our immune systems, so our entire bodies are affected by what we eat and how we feel.
Many practitioners attribute the problem to demineralized, devitalized diets so rampant in developed western countries. We assume that any indigestion, gas, heartburn, and reflux are caused by overproduction of stomach acid caused by our heavily meat- and fat-based diets. Although many physicians are quick to diagnose anybody with those symptoms with HCl overproduction, the symptoms of overproduction and underproduction are actually the same!
The Right Balance on the Raw Food Diet
While seeking the assistance of a natural health practitioner will be your most efficient means of determining if you have the proper balance of hydrochloric acid to promote healthy digestion, there is at least one element you can experiment with on your own to see if your digestion improves.
Most of us are (rightfully) more concerned about lowering our salt intake rather than making sure we’re getting enough. That’s generally because most people consume processed foods that use salt to preserve the food and make up for lack of flavor.
Green and beauty enthusiasts who embrace raw, vegan, or otherwise healthier lifestyles sometimes do not consume enough sodium to promote healthy digestion. While there is a great deal of argument about consuming salt, the body still needs sodium (NaCl), along with other complimentary minerals like potassium, calcium, and magnesium, to produce adequate amounts of HCl.
As only trace amounts are needed, including small amounts of raw celery or seaweed in a raw food diet may make a healthy difference. Make sure that you’re getting your daily recommended intake of every nutrient and that your body’s pH is balanced, whether you’re eating raw or not.
Digestive health often comes back to finding balance. I think everyone here would agree, of course, that balance with raw is beautiful (and more likely to be heart-burn free!)!
About the Author: Alexis Bonari is currently a resident blogger at College Scholarships, where recently she’s been researching deaf student scholarships and writing a guide on deferring student loans. Whenever she gets some free time, she enjoys reading a good book or experimenting in the kitchen with a food processor, soaked nuts, and some spices.
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TODAY’S “GREEN BUZZ” TOPICS
- What are your tips for improving digestion?
- What are your favourite sea greens or veggies and how do you work them into your diet?
- How do you deal with digestive difficulties like gas, bloating, or indigestion?