May 2003

A matter of leftovers

by Dr. Ted Morter

Your body's internal environment is affected both by what you eat and by what's left over in your internal system after what you've eaten has been digested.

Most foods leave post‑digestion leftovers. Foods such as hamburgers, broccoli, ice cream, pizza, peanuts, or grapes leave an "after‑flow" called ash. A few foods, such as refined sugar, honey, and corn syrup leave little, if any, ash.

Ash is the leftovers of "oxidized food fuel." The ash in your body is similar to the ash left from logs -- the fuel -- burned in your fireplace. But since internal ash is in a fluid environment, the ash isn't dry. It isn't stacked in neat piles. However, it can "blow" around your body anyway. It didn't result from dancing flames. It's the part your body can't "burn" to produce energy -- it's incombustible.

Ash is the part of food that's left after your body has used the good stuff -- vitamins, minerals, enzymes. Ash is part of the useless stuff that must be eliminated -- roughage and other undigested food remnants.

Ash from foods is either acid or alkaline. The ash of high‑protein foods is a fairly strong acid. Strong acid burns. The ash of most vegetables and fruit is the opposite of acid; it's alkaline. Very strong alkali can burn, too. But slight alkalinity, the strength best for your body, is soothing. For now, think of acid as being like vinegar -- harsh and burning, and think of alkaline as being like bicarbonate of soda, or baking soda -- mild and soothing.

Your body must handle ash leftovers as best it can. Most fruit, including citrus, and most vegetables leave alkaline leftovers, minerals that can assist in handling dietary acid. Foods that leave alkaline ash are called "alkaline ash‑producing" foods. Remember, it's the leftovers we're talking about. The foods themselves aren't necessarily alkaline.

You might think that lemons or grapefruit would be strong acid producers. Actually, even though lemons and grapefruit themselves are very acid in their natural state, they leave an alkaline ash, not acid ash. It's meats, grains, and most nuts that leave acid ash. We call these "acid ash‑producing" foods. The ash of acid ash‑producing foods contains fairly strong acid, especially for inside your body.

Your body was designed to handle little skirmishes with an occasional invasion of acid ash‑producing foods. The acid can be eliminated. But first, it must be neutralized -- toned down, buffered, made weaker. And, that's no problem. You come equipped with neutralizing minerals that take care of the situation nicely. These minerals are part of your alkaline reserve. And as long as you don't abuse your neutralizing system, your internal environment chugs along rather smoothly. That's the way you were designed.

The crunch comes if you abuse the system. Every time you eat foods that leave an acid ash that must be neutralized, you lose precious minerals. That's no big deal for a six‑year‑old who still has a generous neutralizing mineral supply. But, eat mostly acid ash‑producing foods at meals and snacks, day‑after‑day, month‑after‑month and eventually the built‑in supply of neutralizing minerals will fall to crisis level.

But the body was designed to survive. So what does it do when its standard store of neutralizing minerals runs low?

It handles the emergency by finding other neutralizing minerals from around the body to do the job. If your neutralizing mineral supply is low, too much strong acid is an even more serious threat to survival. When you eat too much high‑protein, acid ash‑producing food, more strong acid is left than your body can handle without calling on backups.

But, backup systems are short‑term, handle‑the-crisis systems. They're not meant to handle day‑to‑day operations. Backup systems are like your local fire department -- available for emergencies. Take care of the situation, get things out of crisis mode and back on an even keel, then rest until the next emergency. But, despite our internal backup systems, most of us go through our days with much more acid in our bodies than is good for us. Our bodies are toxic -- they are being "poisoned" by too much acid.

If you're serious about giving your body the best chance for the best future possible, you won't overburden it with acid ash‑producing foods. Only you can make food choices that will lead to a healthful future. Your body merely works with what you give it. And it doesn't care a bit about the future. It deals only with "the now." Your body doesn't think. It responds. It responds by adjusting the way it's functioning to have the best crack at survival of the moment.

(Dr. M.T. Morter, Jr. is the founder of the revolutionary Morter HealthSystem, based on his Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique -- B.E.S.T. For information on B.E.S.T. seminars offered all over the country in 2003, call 800/874-1478, or visit the Morter HealthSystem website at www.morter.com.)