Mama Was Right When She Said 'Eat Your Veggies!'

Food is nourishment. Food is pleasure. Food can also be medicine or poison to your body.

Audrey Ham was in her 60s when she started working as the receptionist. She suffered from arthritis and osteoporosis. Dr. Eric Klos remembers that Audrey “definitely walked like an old lady” back then.

Fourteen years later, at age 82, Audrey’s hands are healed and her bone density is 2.9 points higher than an average 24-year-old person. What made the difference? According to her and Klos, it was following a diet that limits acid-forming foods like grain, animal products and sugar.

Klos, a certified clinical nutritionist and doctor of chiropractics at Moss Bay Health Center, grew up in nearby Maltby. His German immigrant parents cooked typical European fare that was heavy on vegetables, featured whole -grain bread and avoided fast-food and soft drinks.

“There were no Froot Loops in our house,” he says. “I grew up eating fairly healthy.”

By age 19, he was in college and experiencing migraines, hay fever and some stomach issues. Then, when he was working in a warehouse, a heavy marble table fell over. He tried to catch it and ended up seriously injuring his back.

“I went to the hospital and they put a rod in my spine. When I asked them how long I would be there, they said, ‘The rest of your life,’” Klos remembers. “‘Well, can I ski?’ I asked, to which they said, ‘Absolutely not.’”

The doctors told him that he was basically going to have to live with it.

He asked them, “What else can you do?” When they said there was nothing to be done, Klos told himself, “Well, I’m not doing that.”

Instead, he visited his mother’s chiropractor, a man instrumental in teaching her how to eat properly.

“Long story short,” says Klos, “Never had a back problem since. Never had a migraine since. And when I learned about some of the things I needed to avoid, like meat, and got alkaline, no more stomach problems, no more hay fever. It was a big eye opener, so I actually changed my major, got into pre-med and got into chiropractics. It changed my life, really.”

Several decades ago, Dr. M. T. Mortar, a pioneer in explaining the alkaline diet, wrote a book called “Your Health, Your Choice” that influenced Dr. Klos’ first chiropractor.

“This is not new information, though it’s recently gotten press. It’s actually been around for millenia. It’s how we are designed to eat ... what nature actually provides us. We just understand, now, why it works.”

What is the alkaline diet? Let’s hear it directly from the doctor.

“It’s difficult to explain, but easy to implement. Our bodies are alkaline by design, acid by function. We run on a pH scale from zero to 14. Zero is pure acid, seven is neutral like pure water, 14 is pure alkaline. Our blood has a pH that is 7.4, slightly alkaline. It is very critical ... you have to be there," he says.

"What keeps us alkaline are three things: calcium, sodium and potassium. These are minerals and the only source is our diet. Certain foods that we eat will give us a positive mineral balance that is alkalizing—or anti-inflammatory; other foods we eat are are acid-forming—or pro-inflammatory."

Klos maintains that inflammation is a major killer of Americans, causing heart disease, dementia, arthritis and other serous ailments. He says it's best to find a balance between acid-forming foods and alkaline foods—about 75 percent alkaline and 25 percent acid.

Caution is advised, he insists, when consuming bread, cereals, pasta and dairy. You don’t find coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, pop or chemicals in the diet he urges. What you do find are around 30,000 choices. Fruits, vegetables, roots, water, eggs sometimes, nuts.

So in a nutshell, alkaline foods are all fruits, all vegetables, all roots; water is neutral and most other foods are acid. All meat, most nuts, most grains, all dairy products are acid-forming. Almonds and Brazil nuts are actually alkaline.

A typical dinner of broiled salmon, sauteed asparagus and a salad with Brazil nuts, pear and Gorgonzola is a pretty alkaline diet.

"The alkaline diet is not just twigs and berries," he says. "It’s actually quite good. It’s colorful, beautiful and good.”

To help patients get past the information of it all, Klos made a cookbook.

“I love to cook. To me, food is one of our gifts from the planet. Taking time to cook is like a mini art project every night.”

To help busy people eat better, he attempted to create a cookbook featuring recipes that are “dairy-free, wheat-free, egg-free, gourmet, quick and easy and affordable.”

Dr. Klos eats a light breakfast with easily accessible energy. Fruit does not make your blood sugar spike, as is popularly thought, he says.

“It is virtually impossible to get diabetes on an alkaline diet,” he adds, “because there are no high-glycemic index foods in nature.”

That’s all well and good for cooking at home, but how does one deal with eating out?

“First of all, restaurants are in business to be in business, so they will actually do what you ask. They want you to come back. For example, if you go to a Thai food restaurant, ask them to cut back on the rice and add more vegetables. Japanese food is pretty clean if you stick with the stir-fries or salads. seems to be good. does a very good job. has very healthy, clean food. I only go to restaurants probably once a month, so it’s a treat and I don’t mind indulging with a little more meat than I’m used to.”

If you haven’t caught on to the theme here, let me break it down for you. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Eat less grain, bread, animal products, dairy, sugar and chemicals. It seems surprisingly intuitive, doesn’t it?

To get you on your way, here is an alkaline recipe from Dr. Klos’ cookbook.

Thai Coconut Curry Soup

In a large pot, combine:

1 can coconut milk
1 can diced tomatoes
1 bottle of Trader Joe’s Yellow Curry Sauce
1 can straw mushrooms, including the juice
1 can bamboo shoots
3 carrots, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 can diced pineapple, including juice
1 large handful bean sprouts
1 handful snow peas
1 cup diced chicken, shrimp or tofu

Bring to a boil, then simmer until carrots are slightly tender. Don’t serve with rice.