Guest Post by Jeffrey S. Sorna, DiHom of Hampton Natural Therapeutics

Jeffrey and I were classmates at the Institute for Natural Health Sciences. He is passionate about the role of diet in health building. If you are in the Detroit area, I highly recommend visiting Jeffrey at his clinic.

Most people that come into my clinic have digestive issues and which lead to these imbalances:

• Allergies
• GERD
• Gout
• Arthritis
• Depression
• Insomnia
• Low Cellular Energy (voltage drop)

Much of this occurs from the lack of alkaline minerals in the foods that we eat. The element that is critical for keeping stomach acid in balance is naturally occurring sodium in its whole food state. If your internal warning light just went off, that’s good!  There are few things in any kitchen more abused than table salt. But let’s not confuse this item with organic sodium in its whole food state. In its natural state, sodium is kept in balance by all the other elements.

Table salt, on the other hand, is refined, dyed and stripped of all other elements. Once again we have taken a gift from nature and ruined it with modern processing.

Sodium in the Stomach and in Joints

There are two major storehouses for sodium in the human body:  the stomach and the joints. Without sodium stored in its walls, the stomach would be devoured by hydrochloric acid. Without sodium present in the joints, we have a condition called “calcium out of solution” which often leads to arthritis and calcium deposits.

Many practitioners use okra, celery seed, and dandelion to help with digestive issues. This works out great and is very interesting because all three of these have a lot of natural sodium and the ability to balance the stomach pH.  (Natalia’s note: I wrote about juicing celery in When Your Child Won’t Eat)

Other approaches to digestive issues involve turning off the hydrochloric acid in the stomach. This is ridiculous as it only creates a whole new set of problems. The stomach can only have too much hydrochloric acid if it doesn’t have enough natural sodium to keep it in balance.

Other things that are critical for the production of hydrochloric acid include: Vitamin B1 thiamine; zinc; iodine.

A Stomach in Balance

Without the stomach in balance, the breakdown of food cannot occur. Proteins that provide us with key amino acids and minerals are the most difficult to process and simulate. For example, without the amino acid L-Tryptophan, we cannot produce the neurotransmitter serotonin and we become depressed.

This brings me to the main offender that causes this condition, carbonated beverages. These things are a script for ill health. Carbonation destroys hydrochloric acid, sugar destroys the immune system, and phosphoric acid in soda lowers the systemic pH (cellular voltage). Then, in the final assault, the phosphoric acid further robs your body of magnesium. Magnesium is the conduit between sunlight energy and physical energy. So this robs our bodies of the ability to convert energy from the sunlight to physical energy.  As you can see, the good digestion is a must for healing in the body to occur.

How do we balance all these things?

Find a natural health practitioner, someone that does EAV or EDS testing, iridology, homeopathy or applied kinesiology, to help with the complexities of body balancing and building health and get off the sugar and pop. It’s a struggle for the first couple weeks, but you’ll feel much better once you’re free of it.