The blood pH test shows if your blood is balanced, alkaline, or acidic. If your blood pH is high you have alkaline blood. If your blood pH is low you have acidic blood. Blood pH is affected by numerous factors, including weather and foods you eat. Warm weather makes blood more alkaline, while cold weather makes blood more acidic. Protein and fat make the blood more alkaline, while carbohydrates make the blood more acidic. As you can see, this can become a balancing act. It is best to visit with a nutrition coach who can explain what this means for YOU! Once we know your blood pH, we will want to try to make your blood pH balanced by having you eat certain foods. This can affect how well you perform.

A recent study conducted by Caring Medical tested five Ironman athletes to determine how heat effects blood pH in athletes. As their body temperatures increased, their blood pH levels increased. They also experienced symptoms of nausea, cramping, and pain. This can drastically affect the performance of athletes, as overheating, nausea, and cramping are very common in long distance and hot weather races. To counter this effect of rising blood pH and keep optimal performance, an athlete needs more carbohydrates during a race to balance the blood pH.

Athletes will perform their best in warm areas if their blood pH is low (acidic blood), this is because the warm weather will help to balance their blood pH. Athletes whose blood pH is high (alkaline blood) will perform their best in colder weather, because the cold weather will help balance their blood pH. However, since we cannot control the weather, we can adjust our diet to help us keep our pH in balance. Being in pH balance, will help increase an athlete’s performance.

Foods for Alkaline blood or high pH levels
If you have alkaline blood you will want to eat more carbohydrates in order to perform greater and build energy levels. This would be for people who are on our Hauser diets #4 the monkey and #5 the giraffe diets.