Quantcast
Bring your body back into balance with the Alkaline Diet – Metro US

Bring your body back into balance with the Alkaline Diet

Bring your body back into balance with the Alkaline Diet
Provided

Natasha Corrett wants to reassure you that detoxing doesn’t mean you have to do a liquid-only cleanse. “I don’t like to use juicing fasts,” says the founder of the alkaline diet resource Honestly Healthy Food.

It’s a sentiment shared by nutritionist Dr. Larry Dibo-Cohen. “Cleansing diets are usually badly unbalanced and don’t contain enough protein,” he tells us.

Honestly Healthy is a resource for living an alkaline life — that is, keeping the body’s pH levels from fluctuating. The pH in our body can vary considerably from one area to another, with the highest acidity in the stomach (1.35 to 3.5 pH) and lowest in the pancreas (8.8 pH).

Modern diets, especially those that include a lot of processed foods, are much more acidic than what we ate before the Industrial Revolution, which alkaline diet advocates say is the cause of common skin and stomach issues.

A study published in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health in 2012 established that alkaline diets had a number of health benefits, such as improving cardiovascular and bone health, memory and thinking, as well as preserving muscle mass and staving off high blood pressure and stroke.

Corrett’s diet, outlined in her book “Honestly Healthy Cleanse,” focuses on “a more gentle cleanse with delicious food, which is more likely to fit into your life.”

We asked the gourmet vegetarian cook to share one of her bulge-busting alkaline recipes.

“This nutritious dish is one of my favorite Asian-flavored salads. If you can get your hands on some mizuna leaves, you can use these in place of the arugula for a super-summery taste. As tempeh is a great source of protein, you can add a handful to any salad you like for a fantastic post-workout protein kick.”

Ingredients for the salad:

2/3 cup cashews
1.5 cups cucumber, cut into small cubes
1 large handful sprouts
2 large handfuls arugula
¼ red onion, finely sliced
2 spring onions, finely sliced at an angle
2 tbsp chopped coriander
1.5 cups tempeh, cut into small cubes
1 tsp sunflower oil

Ingredients for the dressing:

2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp agave syrup
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp tamari
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
¼ large red chilli, finely chopped
Juice of one lime and finely grated zest of half
Pinch of Himalayan pink salt

Directions:Start with the dressing. Place all the ingredients except lime juice and zest in a saucepan and heat gently for 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Toast the cashews, then transfer them to a bowl along with the cucumber, sprouts, arugula, onion, spring onions and coriander.

Return frying pan to the heat and cook the tempeh cubes in the sunflower oil until golden brown on all sides.

Add the tempeh to the bowl, then add the lime juice and zest to the dressing in the saucepan.

Toss the salad together, transfer to a platter and then drizzle with the dressing.