Yesterday, I took my two oldest children to their well visit. As part of the exam, the pediatrician has them each pee in a cup to test for diabetes, urethritis and kidney health. After reading the stick from Lila’s urine, the pediatrician comes back and asks me if I have Lila drinking alkaline water, to which I reply no. Fifteen minutes later the pediatrician looks at Liam’s urine stick and asks, “you guys really don’t drink alkaline water?” NOPE. Apparently most everyone she sees has acidic urine. She has no idea if alkaline water actually works for alkalizing the body, but it was her first guess, not knowing what else would be doing it. This leaves the question, WHY is my kids’ urine alkaline?

What it Means for a Body to Be in an Alkaline State

pH stands for “potential of hydrogen.” The concentration of hydrogen atoms in a solution determines its pH value, measured on a scale of 0 to 14, with lower numbers indicating higher acidity. Water, which is neutral (neither acidic nor alkaline), has a pH of 7.

The body’s pH is a key factor in overall health and wellness. The ideal pH for a body in optimal health is 7.3.  Below 7 is acidic and above 7 is alkaline.  The more acidic the body is, the more inclined it is to disease.

“The body’s pH balance strongly influences the risk for osteoporosis, sarcopenia (muscle loss), fractures and kidney stone formation—and possibly diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, thyroid problems, cancer and other insidious conditions.

When the body’s fluids become too acidic, minerals are pulled out of bones and tissues to compensate—leading, in the long term, to thinner bones and lower muscle mass. Overly acidic tissues also make one susceptible to inflammation (a known risk for many chronic diseases), impair enzymatic reactions in cells and overload the lymphatic system, impeding the body’s natural detoxification process”(Stengler).

WHAT is NOT Making My Kids Urine Alkaline

My pediatrician is pretty crunchy. Natural minded moms seek her out. So, most of her patients eat rather well, yet still have urine more on the acidic side. My kids do eat a lot of fruits and veggies sometimes, but we certainly go through periods where things are crazy, they are picky and they don’t get the amount of vegetables that they should. At the time of the visit, we weren’t at our best.

This is the FIRST visit where my kids had alkaline urine, so what changed?

What Made the Difference for Us

Last school year my kids were sick ALL of the time. We really had a horrible year, with one child in the hospital with pneumonia, kids having stomach viruses, strep, respiratory illnesses, etc. By May I was DONE. I had been doing the standard supplements like elderberry, probiotics, vitamins D and C, etc. I QUIT it all AND I started giving my kids a greens drink with lemon at least once a day, more so twice a day. This way I know that no matter what comes of the day, they have started it with a ton of nutrients, including vitamins and minerals that are also detoxifying.

While I am a fan of periodically juicing greens using fresh veggies, these juices don’t give the benefits of sea greens (there are a TON of benefits to sea algaes), you aren’t getting much of the essential nutrients if you aren’t also drinking the pulp AND not all of the vegetables juiced are bio-available. For instance, in order to break down the phytic acid of kale, it needs to be cooked first.

What We Use

I like using prepared greens that are made from both sea and earth greens. Each have their own amazing health benefits. Green Spectrum is a great product by Purium, a company that processes on low heat to maintain nutrients and sprouts and/or ferments ingredients that need to be in order to make the nutrients available to the body. I love Purium’s range of products so much that I signed on as a consultant. If you’d like to try their Green Spectrum, you can use code RaisingNaturalKids for $50 off your first order of $75 or more.

As I mentioned above, overly acidic tissues can lead to inflammation. Inflammation creates illness. Since being on their greens, my kids have NOT been sick! We went from my daughter missing 30 days of school last year to zero from illness this year!

It All Comes Down to Nutrition

I’d love to say that my kids are awesome eaters, only eating healthy foods and eating every vegetable that I cook. They’re not. They do eat pretty well. They probably eat much better than a majority of kids. We don’t do fast food ever. We eat almost all homemade. We don’t do much gluten – almost none. My kids don’t eat enough vegetables, no matter how hard I try. They eat too many grains. That being said, it’s certainly worth trying to alkalize the body through a diet of whole foods. Here’s a good list of foods (property of energise for life) that help maintain alkalinity and those that promote acidity.

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