The Acidic American Diet

The foods you eat can have an effect on the body's acid-base balance. The body likes to keep it's blood slightly alkaline and is very good at keeping it within a small range.

Most proteins, grains and some fruits elicit an acidic effect on the body while foods such as almonds, vegetables and the mineral potassium seem to be alkalizing.

Also, it seems that most people don't get nearly enough potassium compared to their intake of salt. If you recorded your diet for a day, I'm willing to bet that the majority that do it will find that they fall short of the RDA (which is a minimum).

And while the body is excellent at compensating for a poor diet in terms of it's acid-base balance, it seems that optimal health is achieved with the intake of more alkaline foods for most people.

So what are some good sources of potassium? Bananas?

Bananas are an OK source but most vegetables would be much better. There is also a significant amount of potassium in beans and nuts.

But these aren't common foods in the American diet.

So for optimal health, this is just another reason to increase your intake of vegetables - especially the green kind. You might also consider supplementing your diet with potassium as it is very hard to get an adequate intake. Taking some potassium with meals that don't have veggies would be a good way to keep things alkaline.

I actually got into some health trouble due to low intake of potassium on my first contest diet.

If that's not incentive for you enough, an increase in potassium intake has been shown to lower blood pressure in some studies.