Looking at the global picture, there are three major categories of diseases. The first is contagious diseases caused by the invasion of foreign live substances. Today's medical science is effective in isolating these invaders and finding the killer agents or developing immune shots. I believe that it is only a matter of time when medical science will find a cure for AIDS. We already know that the HIV virus cannot survive in an acidic environment; it cannot be transmitted through skin contact because skin surface is acidic.

The second category is degenerative adult diseases caused by the accumulation of non-disposed acidic wastes within our body. Whether the wastes are distributed evenly throughout the body or concentrated in some specific area, they can cause different diseases such as diabetes, digestive problems, constipation, arthritis, gout, cancer, osteoporosis, wrinkles, etc. There are various means by which concentrated wastes are distributed, such as massages, vibrators, magnetic devices, hot baths, sauna, etc. With the exception of perspiration, these methods simply redistribute wastes from concentration. The best way to get rid of acidic wastes through urine is to drink alkaline water.

The third category is mysterious diseases caused by nutritional deficiency. I say "mysterious" because these diseases are rather new and doctors cannot yet figure out what they are. This category is more common among those so-called health-conscious people. They eat exclusively "healthy foods" and exclude all "unhealthy" ones. After an extended time, they develop nutritional deficiency. Since they eat only healthy food but still do not feel well, they suspect that some substances in their drinking water make them sick. They, therefore, insist on drinking distilled water or reverse osmosis filtered water, believing that pure water is the best water. What these people don't realize is that distilled water leaches valuable minerals from the human body, further depleting the body of needed minerals and nutrients.

Nutritional deficiency could be the result of special diets, which exclude some food or over-indulge in others. Over-indulgence in one kind of food could cause nutritional deficiency/imbalance. Our body needs all kinds of nutrients; certain nutrients are need to maintain proper ratios with other nutrients. For example, we must maintain the proper ratio of potassium and sodium in our body; taking in sodium salt without a sufficient amount of potassium can cause health problems, and taking no sodium can also cause problem, as we recently learned.

Mr. Hofgren, a health food store owner from Sweden, visited me after reading my book and told me an interesting phenomenon. When people start a vegetarian diet, they definitely feel health improvement. After a few years, their health deteriorates due to nutritional deficiency. However, their memory of health improvement is so vivid that they think they should eat more vegetables, thus making the situation worse.

With all due respect to nutritionists, there are more nutrients in natural food that we don't know than what we know. It makes me cringe when I hear some nutritionist advising people not to eat certain food because it contains no useful nutrients. Such advice may be doing more harm than help. I have seen many so-called nutritionists disagreeing with one another as to what food is good and what is bad.

When it comes to health and diet, there are two schools of thought. Professional hospital dieticians advocate a balanced diet for their patients, making sure that the needed carbohydrate, protein, fat, and fiber are supplied. They are not necessarily concerned with the types of waste products that these foods produce. On the other hand, health food specialists are more concerned with waste products that the foods produce; they recommend certain kinds of food while excluding others. They are not necessarily knowledgeable about our body's minimum daily requirements of certain nutrients.

When I was developing AlkaLife, I made 10 different ratios of potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide combinations and had them tested on 200 people over a period of two months. The doctor who conducted the test didn't know what was in each bottle. The test results showed that the ratio of 75% potassium to 25% sodium to be the most optimal for the majority of people. There were two persons who showed a completely different result - 20% potassium to 80% sodium was better for them. I told the doctor the contents of the bottles and the peculiarity of the two persons, she consulted her charts and found that they were on an "absolutely-no-sodium" diet. Their body needs more sodium but their head rejects it, for whatever reason. Animals eat and drink what is good for them, instinctively, but we human beings eat and drink what TV ads tell us to. We also reject any food or drink that TV ads tell us not to.

My personal recommendation is to enjoy the food that we like, but do not over eat or exclude any food. Eat in moderation following professional dieticians' balanced diet concept, and let alkaline water do the job of cleansing acidic wastes. Do not use food to cleanse the wastes, thus running the risk of creating nutritional deficiency and/or imbalance.