Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life

important for ensuring the body’s constant cell regeneration and improving oxygen transport in the body and therefore energy levels. Optimizing the body’s regeneration of blood cells will also contribute to peak athletic performance.
     
    Although some foods test as acidic, they produce an alkalizing effect once digested. Citrus fruit and balsamic and apple cider vinegar are all acidic, but when consumed, they become highly alkaline-forming. Here’s a list of the effect certain foods have on the body once digested.
     
    pH EFFECT OF SELECTED THRIVE DIET FOODS
     

     

     

     
    FOODS COMMON IN THE TYPICAL NORTH AMERICAN DIET
     

     

     
    While I realize that most people who eat a typical North American diet do eat some alkalizing foods, such as fruit and vegetables, the amounts are rarely large enough to offset the acidity formed by the base of the diet. Even many so-called healthy diets, particularly those based heavily on cooked grains, keep the body in an overly acidic state, resulting is slowed cellular regeneration. Not all foods you eat need to be highly alkaline-forming; however, for optimal health, it is important that most of them are alkalizing.
     
    As you can seen in the table on page 49, the acid-forming foods that are standard in the Thrive Diet register only as slightly acid-forming or less so. This is in opposition to the base ingredients of many common diets, which are usually highly acid-forming. Take pizza, for example. Compare the ingredients of a traditional pizza with the ones in a Thrive Diet pizza (the recipes begin on page 234). A conventional pizza is made from white flour, cheese, and processed meat—all cooked at a high temperature. These highly acid-forming ingredients combined with high-temperature cooking makes for a biologically taxing meal. A Thrive Diet pizza crust, on the other hand, is made from lentils and beets, and topped with fresh sun-dried tomato sauce and vegetables, then low-temperature baked.
     
    Most modern diets are based on acid-forming foods, resulting in a stress response.
     
     

proteins
     
    As you will also notice in the table on page 49, alkaline-forming foods are foods that are in their most natural state—they have not been refined, chemically altered, or fortified. In contrast, many of the most acid-forming foods are manufactured and heavily processed. Protein-rich foods are made up of amino acids and are, as you might expect, more acid-forming. However, there are three questions you can ask in order to select the ones with the highest pH. First, has the food been processed? This is the greatest single determinant of its pH. If, for example, the food has had its fiber removed, thus raising its protein ratio, it will be more acid-forming. (The removal of nutrients has also, of course, made it less healthy.) The most common processing of a protein involves isolating it. This is done by removing the carbohydrate and fat, thereby creating protein isolates. Whey and soy protein powders are two types of protein isolates. You have likely seen these isolates in, ironically, health food stores. Popular with bodybuilders, isolates have been well marketed using the “more is better” rationale. But it’s not exactly rational. The isolation process involves high temperatures and usually chemicals. The resulting protein will have a significantly lower pH than it did before processing and will be acid-forming.
     
    The second question to ask is, is the protein raw? Cooking protein can make it more acid-forming. Since pasteurization is a form of cooking, it is best to select unpasteurized sources. Raw is best, but if the protein needs to be pasteurized to kill bacteria, be sure that it is flash pasteurized only. Flash pasteurization is a process by which the protein is heated just long enough to reduce the proliferation of harmful bacteria—but not long enough to significantly affect protein quality. So, the first two questions consider the food’s manufacturing. The less altered by processing and cooking, the better.
     
    The third question is, does the protein source contain chlorophyll? Since chlorophyll is very alkalizing, a protein containing it will have a high pH. An easy way to determine chlorophyll content is to look at its color. Is it green? Hemp, many types of peas, legumes, dark green leafy vegetables, and seaweeds, although high in amino acids and therefore protein, are also high in chlorophyll, balancing the pH.
     
    Natural proteins with a