For the optimal alkalinizing diet, watch for these myths:

Myth: Losing weight makes you healthier.
Truth: Losing pounds the wrong way, on high-protein diets like South Beach and Atkins, sends your acid levels off the chart, causing new health problems.

Myth: Eating salad after meals aids digestion.
Truth: Salad greens are alkalinizing, which slows down digestion. Eat salad on an empty stomach, before the meal, for optimal digestion.

Myth: Eating fruit on an empty stomach causes acid indigestion.
Truth: When you eat fruit on a full stomach, the fruit digests more quickly than the other food, starts to ferment, and creates more acidic waste and gas.

Myth: Pasta is a low-nutrition food and should be avoided.
Truth: Most pasta is acid forming. Exceptions are brands such as Barilla-Plus, made from durum wheat, oats, spelt, barley, lentils, chickpeas, and flaxseed.

Myth: Tea is great for you.
Truth: Black and green teas are acid forming. Choose tea made from alkalinizing herbs such as chicory, rose hips, hibiscus flowers, lemon peel, and fruit.

Myth: People with acid reflux and indigestion should avoid lemons.
Truth: Although lemons are acid, in the body they have an alkalinizing effect. Sipping lemon juice and water between meals helps balance acid-alkaline levels.

Myth: Potatoes are starchy and aren't that good for you.
Truth: A medium potato provides 610 mg potassium and other nutrients, 3-9 grams of protein, and 2.3 grams of fiber. When eaten slightly raw or juiced raw, potatoes have amazing healing powers, especially for digestive problems.

Myth: If you're on a diet, avoid fattening avocados.
Truth: Avocados are super alkalinizing, which helps in weight loss by balancing acid levels. They contain four times the nutrition of other fruits and vegetables.

Myth: Eating lots of nuts will make you healthier.
Truth: Nuts such as cashews and peanuts are acid forming and not great to consume in quantity. Better are Brazil nuts and almonds, which are more alkaline.

In his new book, An Undetected Acid-Alkaline Imbalance (Vision Publishing, www.acid-imbalance.com), Ossipinsky provides the first comprehensive look at how being overly acidic can damage the lymph system, a "sewage treatment plant" for the body, and cause a variety of health conditions.