Balance Your Body: All You Need to Know About the Alkaline Diet

A review by Chinmaya Dunster of Diana Herrington (Ma Prem Dagdha)’s recently published book

Balance Your Body

All You Need to Know About the Alkaline Diet

by Diana Herrington (Ma Prem Dagdha) – realfoodforlife.com

Independently published, December 2023, 54 pages

Paperback and Kindle

ISBN-13: ‎ 979-8872810872

PP ASIN: ‎ B0CR5FZGR4

Kindle ASIN: ‎ B0CR64RT6X

amazon.com – amazon.co.uk

I first met Diana in December 1978. She was stopping over in England on her way to the Rajneesh Ashram in Poona, travelling from her home in British Columbia. She opened her suitcase in front of me to reveal a cornucopia of food items that I’d never even heard of before: umeboshi plums, goldenseal, wild rice…

As a barely-educated English country boy hippy I was stunned by just how far behind the West Coast we were and by how much care Diana was taking for her health.

We fell in love and Diana spent most of the next two decades living in England, where her health gradually began to suffer in the damp climate. By 1996, in her own words, she was down to 94 pounds and living with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. She visited Dr Scott’s Natural Health Institute in Ohio where she learned the science behind acid/alkaline balance and by 2001 was fully healthy again and living in Canada.

Since then, Diana’s passion for helping others with their diet has resulted in several books and a website. Newly published by Amazon Balance Your Body is an invaluable resource for understanding the principles and practice of eating a balanced diet of 20% acid and 80% alkaline-forming foods.

She lists symptoms that may result from the body being too acidic, and provides tips and recipes as well as comprehensive lists of alkaline and acid foods.

So many of us consume far too much acid-forming foods like sugar, coffee, white flours, meat and alcohol. I’ve been starting my day with highly alkaline warm lemon water for many years now, and while I can’t claim I’m never sick (Covid hit me hard) I rarely am. I also feel that this start to my day boosts my generally alkaline diet (lots of veggies!) and allows me to indulge occasionally in some of those fun but naughty acid-formers.

I like some of her tips. Who’d have guessed that chewing grains well makes them more alkaline? Or that to balance a glass of coke (pH2.5) you’d need to drink 32 glasses of pure water (pH7)!

I’ll leave the last words to Diana. “I believe the day will come when we will look back and say: Remember when people used to eat stuff that came out of packages that was filled with chemicals?… Out with the Junk Food and in with the Real Food!”