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When making the transition to an alkaline diet, you want ease into it, if necessary, with a series of small victories, rather than trying to master the whole thing at once. Don't discourage yourself by trying too change too much too quickly. Make changes gradually. That is generally best for the body anyway, and increases the chances that you'll succeed in the first place and the chances that you'll stick with it for the long haul. Moving toward an alkaline lifestyle is a process - not a single event or an overnight transformation. As you make your way "home,", enjoy your journey. Work through one transition at a time, allowing at least a week, and up to two to three weeks if you need to, to get acclimated at each step. Or take on a few together if that feels comfortable. Move on when you feel at home with them. You'll be building a solid foundation, and then with layer upon sturdy layer on top - it'll be built to last.

The twelve transitioning steps are:

Transition 1: Breakfast
Probably the single biggest change you will make on this new program is in what you have for breakfast. Americans need to have a change of heart and mind concerning breakfast. Almost all of the conventional choices - eggs, pancakes, syrup, hot or cold cereals, fruit, juice, coffee, yogurt, bread products, sausage, bacon - make your body acidic or promote (or contain!) yeast or fungus or other microforms. Many contain huge amounts of sugars and simple carbohydrates, which acidify the blood and tissues, creating the environment that promotes the microforms. Others are dense sources of protein (and, almost always, fat), which, in addition to being high in parasite activity, also promote microform overgrowth. All of these acidic foods are also low in water content - and extremely constipating. It's no wonder laxatives are on of the best-selling over-the-counter remedies. On top of all that, we eat them in dreadful combinations (eggs and home fries, cereal and milk, toast and jam). What a way to start the day! Your body deserves to be replenished much more gently and wholesomely after a night fast.

So don't let the first meal of your day slow you down. This basically means making the same choices at breakfast that you would at any other time of the day. It may seem strange at first, but you'll be doing yourself a big favor by switching over to soup, say, a veggie wrap, or salad. Or how about a big plate of steamed broccoli? Try switching to buckwheat as the cereal grain of choice. The American way - tremendous doses of sugar and protein, not to mention a big dollop of caffeine - might give you a short shot of energy initially, but over the long term the negative impact is drastic.

So begin with this new breakfast strategy, starting your day with a low-carbohydrate, high fiber, high-water-content - and delicious - meal. Try it even just for a couple of weeks if you don't feel ready to sign on forever. If you're like most people, you'll find your new breakfast provides a great amount of energy and burns longer into the midday without the drop in blood sugar that so commonly occurs with a starchy, sugary breakfast. Once you experience how good you feel, I think it will be the junk food breakfast that seems strange.

Transition 2: 70/30
This is another giant step: build each meal to be at least 70 percent alkaline (and thus 30 percent acid). Better yet is 80/20, which may be necessary if you are ill. If you're already doing this at breakfast, lunch and dinner will be simple by comparison. This is a visual measurement, not a measurement by weight or calories. Just give the vegetables the starring role on your plate. The earth is 70 percent water. Our bodies are 70 percent water. Make your plate match: 70 percent high-water-content, alkaline food.

Transition 3: Raw
Cooking your food literally takes the life right out of it, and makes it take longer to digest, so the more food you eat raw, the better. Raw foods are alkalizing, and so fit in that 70 to 80 percent we were just talking about. Ideally, all of that three-quarters of your plate is covered with raw, high-water-content food - like having a huge raw salad with a side of brown rice or beans or pasta or tofu. And at least half that portion should be raw. (The other half should still be vegetarian and alkalizing, like cooked soup, or steamed veggies, or stir fry.) Start with that and as you get comfortable with the progress work up to the ideal.

Transition 4: Dessert
Phase out sugary desserts. One sugary dessert can ruin even the best alkaline meal. Now that you're fully alkalized, for the most part, you don't eat dessert as you know it. For a treat, try slices of vegetables, a handful of raw almonds, or some fresh fruit. Taste buds that may now be dulled by the effects of extreme sugars and salt will come to appreciate the humbler sweetness of vegetables. A cookie or candy bar will seem much too sweet, even intolerable. You will see.

You may have some cravings until your sugar addiction wears off and you blood sugar levels stabilize. Understanding why you get such cravings may help you ride them out. Find other things that will take the edge off, so you won't give in to early temptations. "Cheating" just makes the cravings last longer. However, if you eat something not on your plan, waste no time beating yourself up over it. Just get right back to your plan.

Transition 5: Meat
Getting meat out of your diet is painless when you go gradually. Cut back on and then get rid of the red meat first - beef, pork, lamb, and anything else you have. Make chicken the next to go, then turkey. Then comes ocean fish. (You might want to include, as we do, the occasional fish on your menus. If you do want to have some animal protein occasionally, we recommend trout or salmon, as they are relatively safe, and are rich in omega-3 oils, which are essential fatty acids.)

Start with an alkalizing vegetarian meal once a day, then twice, as you work your way to full time. At the same time, experiment with building in more tofu, as well as raw nuts and seeds, including almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans and sunflower, pumpkin, flax, and sesame seeds. Almonds are especially good - substantially alkalizing and high in protein and calcium.

Transition 6: Dairy
This step may actually be key to the first (breakfast), if you're one of the many, many people who can't think what to eat in the morning - or give to the kids - if not a bowl of cereal with milk. The first thing to do is work on milk. Switch to soy milk (though it is hard to find one that isn't full of added sugars in the form of rice syrup) or rice milk (also sugary). Move on to nut or seed "milks." They are good sources of protein and calcium, and have that richness and creaminess that is so pleasing. You can dilute them to taste. They are good for adding texture in salad dressings or soups, or just to drink. After you've eliminated milk, other dairy products, such as cheese, yogurt, and ice cream, will be easy to cut out, finding transitional substitutes at first and eventually going without. For an interesting look at other reasons why you shouldn't have dairy products, please go to our "Got Milk?" page of this site.

Transition 7: Yeast
Bread is another tough one for a lot of families, but you must get rid of the yeast. At our house, we first went to yeast-free bread (your health food store or health food section of your local supermarket will have some choices), then to rice crackers, then sprouted whole wheat tortillas. In addition to simple substitutions, you must also open up your thinking to meals that don't include bread or other yeast products. If you are one of those people who wouldn't know what to have for lunch if it didn't involve a sandwich, or breakfast if it didn't include toast, this may actually be the biggest challenge for you. Focus on what you can have, what is good for you, rather than what you can't have. The Menus and Tips section gives plenty of meal ideas to help you on your way. Get rid of mushrooms too - they are fungi, just like yeast.

Transition 8: White Flour
If you've eliminated yeast breads and baked deserts, you've most likely gotten rid of of the major source of white flour in your diet. The other big hurdle is usually pastas. Most recipes will work well if you substitute cooked whole grains such as millet, spelt, rice, and buckwheat. For noodles, soba noodles, which are buckwheat, are a favorite, and satisfy the need for a chewy, warm food, especially in winter. If we use pasta other than soba noodles, we try to make sure it is made with vegetables (or wheat) and without eggs - and serve it as a side dish, never a main course.

Transition 9: White Rice
Here's a simple one for you: Switch to brown rice. Or alternate, as we do, with white jasmine or basmati rice, which are natural white rices, or wild rice (or combinations). What we're really after here is all refined grains. You need to give the boot to anything that isn't whole grain. Best, as always, are sprouted grains. And remember, cooked grains belong in that 20 to 30 percent of your meal that is acid (except buckwheat and spelt, which are not acidifying). The one starch you should abandon altogether, because of the high sugar and fungal content, is corn.

Transition 10: Added Sugar
Eliminating dessert might have taken care of a lot of this, but now it is time to scrub out the rest of the unnecessary sugars. Check your cereal, bread, and anything you bought prepared. Don't rely on artificial sweeteners, because they all convert to highly toxic acids that can harm the brain. If you need a sweetener to help you transition while your taste buds adjust, try something natural like chicory root powder or stevia (made from a plant), which you can find at the health food store.

Transition 11: Fruit
With the exception of the low-sugar fruits we keep mentioning - tomato, avocado, lemon, lime - fruits are intense sources of sugar, and must be eliminated if you are ill or have troublesome symptoms. Once you are in balance, you may still want to use it rarely and with care (and properly combined), as a treat. Fruit has nutritional value, but most have just too much sugar to use freely.

Transition 12: Condiments
Most condiments are full of sugar, salt, or both. Or they contain fermented or acidifying ingredients. Experiment to find your favorite alternatives to ketchup, mustard, vinegar, mayonnaise, barbeque sauce, soy sauce, and so forth. Your best allies are healthy oils, lemons, garlic, onion, ginger, and spices. The oils we suggest are grape seed oil, flax seed oil, pumpkin oil, and olive oils. All oils should be added to food that has already been cooked, since heating oil destroys its vital components. Better yet, use it to make salad dressings. Rather than cooking in oil, steam your food and add oil as you are serving it.

Lemon and lime add freshness and zest to just about any dish, and because of the low sugar content are alkalizing to boot.. It also helps stop sugar cravings. They are another key ingredient for many salad dressings. Garlic, onion, and ginger are all natural antifungal and antiparasitic, not to mention their nice strong flavors, so include plenty of them, as well. Getting creative with spices is going to be the key to making delicious meals that appeal to your taste buds. Remember, experiment!

Completing Your Transition Once your transition is complete, and your symptoms (if any) are gone, and you are stable, natural, healthy weight, your body will be in appropriate alkaline/acid balance. Although you've done all this work because you are adopting a new way of life, not some short-term diet plan, we do want to note that a healthy, balance body can withstand a certain degree of "cheating." Not that we're recommending it, mind you, but we don't want you to think that the occasional sensational, acidifying indulgence will undo all you've accomplished. Though you'll have to be stricter in the beginning, that kind of treat here and there may no problem at all for a balanced system. Once you've gone through all these steps, and transformed the way you eat, you'll have gotten well. Now, to stay well, of course you've got to continue on the path you've set so far. It's time to go on a Cleanse.