The pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health

Forget cholesterol counts. Forget calories and fat grams. Forget blood pressure, blood sugar, hormone levels or any other markers of health you're used to hearing about. If you want to lose weight and prevent or reverse diseases like diabetes, heart disease and even cancer, "The pH Miracle" promises to show you how. Dr Robert Young and his wife, Shelley, reveal a diet and lifestyle programme that unlocks the secrets of pH balance and of food as a healer, restorer, balancer and life-giver. They illustrate that the single most important measurement of your health is the pH of your blood and tissues - how acidic or alkaline they are. In fact, they argue, the entire metabolic process depends on an alkaline environment and chronic over-acidity corrodes body tissue. The pH miracle shows readers simply and clearly how to get a balanced system with a programme that explains how to eat optimally for health and weight loss. You'll learn which foods to eat, which foods can be combined safely, which should be eaten alone, which should be avoided altogether and which supplements can help. The authors assert that within weeks, you'll have more energy, a stronger immune system and will shed pounds and inches. In many ways, The pH Miracle is reminiscent of an earlier generation of diet books. Much of the focus is on an intestinal cleansing program, followed by a diet that is 70 to 80 percent vegetables, coupled with a tremendous selection of supplements that authors Robert and Shelley Young recommend to everyone, no matter what their age, gender, or state of health.

The Youngs point their fingers at candida as a main culprit in the poor health of many people. Unfortunately, they back up their claims with only vague references, such as "a 1991 study" and "a leading cancer researcher." Many readers may wish for more specific evidence, but instead will have to make do with enthusiastic recommendations, alphabetized lists of vegetables, and pleasing chapters with vegetarian recipes that taste good no matter how you feel about the diet as a whole.

Sprinkled throughout the book are short testimonials of people who were able to reverse cancer, improve their digestion, and lower their cholesterol by following these recommendations, and it's hard to argue with the cholesterol-lowering results that a 70 percent vegetable diet will achieve. Still, the medical value of much else in the book remains hotly contested, and as always, it's wise to check with your doctor before starting off in search of miracles. --Jill Lightner