The
Hauser Diet – Acid/Alkaline – Athlete Connection
Marion Hauser, MS, RD
As you have probably read already, the Hauser
Diet consists of five different
animal diet types differing the amounts of carbohydrates, protein, and fats,
depending on the results of your Diet
Typing tests. The testing consists of glucose
tolerance testing, blood pH, and sometimes allergy profiles and insulin levels.
Figuring out whether you should eat like a Lion (high protein and fat) or a Monkey
(lower fat and higher carbs) is key to enhancing your athletic performance.
One of the key variables related to the Hauser
Diet is blood
pH – particularly for the athlete. You may recall talking about pH in chemistry
class in high school, but not too many people think about it on a regular basis.
The pH of the blood is the level of acidity or alkalinity in the venous blood.
We have done a lot of research at Caring
Medical on how pH can affect a person’s
overall well-being, as well as their athletic performance. Our physicians utilize
venous blood pH as a means of testing basic metabolic physiology in our patients.
Interestingly enough, we have found that subtle changes in blood pH can have
profound effects on your overall health, feeling of wellness, level of fatigue,
pain, weight, and yes, even athletic performance!
Why is Blood pH So Important?
Energy is required for a human being to function optimally. The production and
management of sustainable biological energy resources is of vital concern for
everyone. In most basic terms, energy comes from the breakdown of the oxygen
we breathe and the food we eat.
Energy production takes place inside each cell of our bodies. All cells must
produce energy to survive. The energy factories in our bodies are called mitochondria.
Each one is like its own power plant. Their primary function is to convert energy
found in nutrients (fat, protein, carbs) and store it in the form of ATP, the
energy-yielding molecule used by enzymes to perform a wide range of cellular
functions. We humans cannot survive even for a second without a constant supply
of ATP. Enzymes increase the efficiency of energy production.
How does this relate to pH, you may be thinking? Well, each
enzyme has an optimal temperature and pH range for its optimal activity.
The human body’s enzymes function optimally at a temperature
between 98.2-98.6 F and a venous blood pH of 7.420-7.440. When the
body temperature or blood pH moves out of this range, enzyme activity
declines. When the enzyme activity is inhibited, so is energy production,
both inside the cells and in the body as a whole.
Without optimal energy, the body will become fatigued. For many who do not eat
according to their appropriate Diet
Types, fatigue is often the first symptom
of ill health the person experiences. If eating habits do not change, chronic fatigue
results. Eventually mental fatigue develops. With this fatigue comes a slowed
metabolism which is the body’s response to decreased energy. Because the
person cannot do as much as he/she used to do, feelings of being stressed or
overwhelmed often result. Many people will then start overeating due to stress.
Excess weight appears. Athletes’ sports performances plummet. Because the
body has reduced energy, it subsequently develops an impaired immune and healing
response, consequently, illnesses can start to develop like upper respiratory
and sinus infections.
Often muscle, ligament, and tendon injuries do not heal and the person develops
various body aches. Because the body does not have enough energy, detoxification
processes are hampered. The person may develop whole body aches and feel fluish
consistent with what some doctors call “fibromyalgia.” The bowels
may become leaky and then various allergies appear.
Do you see how this vicious cycle continues? It does not take a genius to see
that the body requires optimum energy to function. Optimum energy can only occur
if the enzyme systems of the body are functioning at peak capacity if the body’s
temperature and pH levels are within the normal range. This is why pH is so vital.
Many factors can change pH and affect how you should eat. When the blood pH is
acidic (low), you should be eating a Lion
or Otter Diet because protein and fat
contained in these diets raise the blood pH, moving the blood pH into the normal
range.
When your blood pH is alkaline (high), you should be eating more vegetarian,
like the Monkey or Giraffe
Diets because the carbohydrates contained in these
diets lower the blood pH, making it more normal.
A normal pH means you should be eating more of a balanced diet, such as a Bear
Diet, which is a balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
Foods that acidify the blood: coffee,
fruit and fruit juices, grains, pastas, rice, sugar-containing foods,
alcohol, ascorbic acid supplements.
Foods that alkalinize the blood: meat, fats/oils,
nuts, seeds, dairy
Vegetables are somewhat neutral and can be eaten ad lib for all diets.
Marion’s story
As a runner, you really hate it when something stops you from doing what you
love to do – run! My running was getting better and better. I completed
three marathons and a host of other races, including duathlons. But the start
of “running season” (March/April) was starting to become something
that I dreaded, instead of anticipated. I was repeatedly getting “heat
headaches” when running during the summer months, but really in any temperatures
over 60 degrees. I had no problem running during the winter and actually loved
it!
What does pH have to do with the Weather?
With our research on pH and observing our patients (and ourselves) over the last
15 years, we came to realize the weather-pH connection. Hot weather heats up
your body, making it more alkaline. Running or any exercise also heats up your
body, which makes it again, makes it more alkaline. Cold weather has the opposite
effect – it decreases pH, therefore, making it more acidic.
Back to my story – well, as an alkaline tendency person (high blood pH),
it only makes sense that I would feel better running in the cold weather because
the cold weather lowered my alkaline blood pH; whereas the heat raised it even
higher than it already was, making me feel overheated, exhausted, and drained.
We tested our theory on five of our Ironman friends (is this what friends do
to each other?) We put each of them in a hyperthermia chamber and monitored their
blood pH levels every 15 minutes, along with their symptoms. Sure enough, along
came the nausea, exhaustion, and overheated feeling at the same time that their
blood pH levels raised. Not only were their blood pH levels elevated, but their
body temperatures heated up to over 102 degrees F.
So what? Well, the other aspect of Diet
Typing is
glucose tolerance testing. If you are a fast oxidizer of food, you
metabolize foods such as simple carbs (sugar, white bread, pasta,
rice, juices) very quickly. You will feel tired a few hours after
eating if you consume these foods. If you are balanced or a slow
oxidizer of food, you can eat carbs with good energy resulting.
If you are a fast oxidizer with acidic blood, you have to be careful about carb-loading
before an event or for training. Carbs do not give you good energy – just
short-term energy. You may actually bonk out earlier if you carb load the night
before an event and during breakfast on event morning. People like you need to
consume more protein, in addition to your carbs.
So as you can see, knowing your Diet
Type, pH, and oxidation rate can have profound
effects on your athletic performance. To sum it all up:
10 ways knowing your Diet
Type and pH Tendencies Can Help an Athlete
• Provides the optimal fuel for long races and workouts.
• Helps enhance athlete performance during different weather conditions.
• Improves endurance, preventing the “bonk.”
• Helps normalize weight.
• Maximizes energy during an event (and at home.)
• Helps accelerate post-race/training healing.
• Helps improve workout/race efficiency, thus improving race times.
• Helps minimize commonly experienced workout and race problems such as
nausea, cramping,
and exhaustion.
• Allows the athlete to individualize their food consumption according to
the conditions.
• Helps you realize your athletic and personal goals!
If you are interested in finding out your Diet
Type so that you can maximize
your performance, schedule an appointment today with Dr.
Hauser, 3-time Ironman
finisher (soon to have a 4th!) and accomplished athlete. He’ll help you
determine what fuels are best for your individual body during your events, as
well as pre- and post- race meals. As an athlete himself, he knows what it takes!
Come on in today! What are you waiting for? Because remember, if you eat great,
you’ll feel great! Here is some more food for thought about the pH-athletic
performance connection from Dr.
Hauser:
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Putting the 10 Reasons Athletes Should
Get Blood pH Testing into personal practice Ross
A. Hauser, M.D., Ironman Triathlete
1. Proper Blood pH Will Enhance
Athletic Performance During Priority “A” Races
Whether an athlete is doing a marathon for the first time
or trying to peak for an Ironman Triathlon, there are always
races that an athlete is training for. The most important
ones are called priority or “A” races. Having
the right blood pH at the beginning of a race can be the
difference between a “PR” (personal record) race
and “PD” (personal disaster) one!
If the race weather is going to be hot, then an athlete’s
blood pH needs to be a little on the acidic side at the start
of the race. This translates to a blood pH level between
7.380 and 7.419 on our Caring
Medical pH meter. As temperature
increases the blood pH, the athlete wants to achieve a lower
blood pH at the beginning of the race, so during the race
energy production is enhanced as the blood pH rises. The
longer the race, the hotter the weather, the more important
blood pH is in determining ultimate outcome. For cold weather
the opposite is true. The athlete should start out the race
slightly alkaline (higher blood pH) because cold weather
alkalinizes the blood. Of course, in both cases, you must
take into consideration your general pH tendencies.
2. Proper Blood pH Will Enhance
Training
Imagine if every time you trained you swam, biked, or ran
faster and longer than you currently do? Obviously, your
sports performance would be enhanced. If your blood pH remains
out of the normal range, you will not achieve optimum energy
production. Remember that the enzymes that control energy
production are sensitive to temperature and blood pH. If
the temperature of the blood or the pH of the blood fall
too high or too low, your energy plummets. If energy plummets,
so does sports performance, even in training. By having a
proper blood pH level during training, an athlete is able
to swim, bike, run farther and faster. Strength is also enhanced.
Something that all athletes want to achieve!
3. Proper Blood pH Will Enhance
Recovery
If an athlete can recover quickly even after very difficult
workouts, training is maximized. How many workouts do you
miss or cut short because you don’t feel like working
out? Are your muscles sore for a long time after workouts?
Do you wake up stiff? Do you need to take time off every
so often because you feel burnt out? All of these are signs
of poor recovery. Notice I said poor recovery not overtraining.
I feel most of these symptoms can be totally eliminated by
optimizing blood pH and nutritional/diet supplementation
without any decrease in sports training. Thus, the issue
is not an overtraining problem, but an under recovery problem!
One of the main reasons athletes don’t perform as well
as they should is because they don’t maximize recovery.
Athletes tend to emphasize training, but not recovery. When
an athlete has an optimum blood pH level, recovery is enhanced.
If an athlete feels refreshed and energized at the beginning
of the majority of their workouts, training will be enhanced.
If training is enhanced, you get be sure that great races
or competitions are soon to follow!!!
4. Athletes Need Maximum Energy
to Live the Rest of their Lives
You thought this whole article was going to be about maximizing
sports performance didn’t you? Well, what happens when
you are wiped out from workouts and work and then are not
able to be totally there for your family? Correct, stress!
Your spouse gets mad because you just sit on the couch and
watch T.V.! The additional stress just makes you more and
more tired and obviously this will decrease your training
intensity, distance, or time. All of which will cause sports
performance to plummet! Do you want to know a better way?
I thought you would.
The easiest way I know of to give you more energy to maximize
all areas of your life, is to keep your blood pH optimized.
The only way to do that is to know your level. It is a simple
blood test. Normal or optimum blood pH using the pH meter
at Caring Medical is 7.420 to 7.440. pH levels outside of
these levels will cause energy to plummet. Yes, you need
energy for athletics, but also for the rest of your life!
5. So Do You Really Know What
To Eat?
If we athletes were really honest, we would say we really
don’t know what to eat! You try to eat healthy, but
if you have acid blood you should not be eating all those
carbs that you think will help you. Conversely, if your blood
pH is alkaline (blood pH over 7.440) you should not be eating
all that protein that you think is helping your muscles.
Your muscles are hurting because your blood pH is too high!
By routinely checking your blood pH levels, Caring
Medical can teach you how you need to eat to optimize sports performance,
training, and recovery. If you follow these guidelines, it
has been our experience with ourselves and our clients that
your sports performances will be enhanced.
6. So You Really Know How To
Eat and Drink During Training and Events
Number 5 above relates to how to eat outside of athletics.
But do you really know how to eat and drink during training
and events? You see if you are a Lion
or Otter Diet Type (have acid blood pH), you need much more protein than the
typical athlete. That means more protein and fat in the morning
and more protein/fat during the athletic event. Yes, there
are athletes that need to make a concerted effort to get
more protein and fat in their diets and during training and
events.
Take me, for example. I am an Otter
Diet Type. During the
Ironman I will get most of my calories for the day from protein
and fat, not from carbohydrates! How have the results been?
I have dropped my Ironman triathlon time from 14 hours to
12 hours, though I have another Ironman race in one month!
Yikes! Why am I writing this article? I should be training!
Don’t fret, I ran 18 miles in 2 hours 35 minutes up
and down hills that were filled with ice today! I thought
that speed wasn’t too bad considering the conditions
and the temperature outside was 28 degrees. But then again,
I know about blood pH and how to manipulate it for workouts
and performance. But I digress…I hope this is making
sense to you…
7. So Your Future Sports Performance
Will Not Be Affected By the Weather
Everyone has an optimum temperature outside where they typically
perform their best. Most of us would love to perform our
best – irregardless of the weather conditions, right?
If you knew your baseline fasting blood pH at a certain time
of year, it would be possible to know how to eat at various
times to optimize sports performance for all weather conditions.
Then you would know what to do – in every situation!
Optimizing sports performance for a specific weather condition
is now under your control. If you hate the heat, blood pH
can help you love the heat! Hate cold weather? No worries,
knowing your blood pH can give you that “bring it on
25 degree” mental edge! Don’t let your hard work
go to waste by a bad weather day for your “A” race.
Blood pH holds the key!
8. To Get Rid of Sports Performance
Limiters
You know what they are! You get nauseated in hot weather.
Perhaps your muscles cramp at mile 18. You just can’t
finish races well. What if you could have the edge over your
competition and your energy got better as the event went
on? Would that help you? What if your muscles didn’t
cramp anymore? What if your heat intolerance wasn’t
a factor? What would happen to your training or your “A” race
sports performances? You would be in “PR city” wouldn’t
you? I am telling you, blood pH is the key!
9. So the Rest of Your Health
is Optimized
Got a scratchy throat, but have a lot of workouts planned
this weekend? That is how I was a few days ago. So what did
I do? Because of my knowledge of blood pH and access to getting
it tested, I tested my blood pH while I was feeling that
scratchy throat come on. My blood pH had gone from acid to
alkaline. To optimize my immunity, I needed to acidify my
blood, which I did. I did a few natural medicine treatments
and altered my supplements and in two days I was ready to
cycle like a mad man. You know how I ran today. Let’s
see 18 miles in 2 hours 35 minutes, lower than 9 minute miles.
Remember, 28 degrees and running on ice and hills, not bad.
It is now about 2 hours after my run and I am writing this.
How can I do it? Let’s recap. Sickish feeling on Thursday,
biked 2 ½ hours Saturday, and ran 18 miles today in
freezing cold conditions and then have enough energy to write
this article. How is it possible? It is blood pH, baby. It
is the secret.
You may have hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic
fatigue, stomach aches, terrible energy, muscle aching, poor
concentration, or a host of other health conditions bringing
you down. For many of these, the one key to feeling better
is knowing your baseline blood pH. If it is out of the normal
range, getting it back into the optimal range has got to
help you feel better. In our experience, it sure has. Imagine
if you had 25% more energy for your body to repair itself?
You just might feel good, right? Maybe your immune system
would be enhanced? Healing should be enhanced right? Well,
what are you waiting for? Go ahead and get your blood pH
tested!
10. So the Athlete Has Fun!
Most of us forget sometimes that the reason we do athletics
is to have fun. Having a balanced blood pH will give the
athlete tons of fun. How will it do this? Well, sports training
will be enhanced. You will swim, bike, run, compete, and
perform with more energy, vitality, and intensity - won’t
that be fun? You won’t get injured and that will keep
the fun going! You will PR at your “A” race.
That will be a blast! You will recover great, so you can
workout the next day. That will be good for your friends
you workout with. So let’s not forget their fun! Your
stomach won’t become queasy while exercising, so that
will be fun. Those stupid side stitches or muscle cramps
will stop. That will be great! After workouts you will be
awake for your family and then you can have some fun with
your kids and your spouse! That will be tons of fun! You
may get a promotion at work because you’ll be able
to concentrate better and give 110%. Your boss will be so
impressed. That will be great! But mostly, you’ll just
be able to continue to exercise. You need it! It is your
outlet! Your time! Your psychotherapy! It is what you do
with your free time! It is how you and your friends have
fun together! Ultimately, it makes you the type of person
you desire to be and that kind of person is a lot of fun
to be around! |
