alkaline/acidity

hi shelley, i am wondering if you can explain some things to me about acidity and alkalinity. i have done some reading on this topic but it is very confusing to me. okay first of all i did one of those tests with litmus paper a while back and it showed that i was a bit acidic. i have a book called prescription for nutritional healing and in this book it is saying that an acidic person should eat alkaline forming foods and vice versa. okay now here is the confusion: the foods that supposedly according to this book cause alkaline are things like citrus fruits and some other things that i know from experience will make me really very sick with horrible gas pains, and the acid forming foods listed are: oatmeal, milk, flour products and various other foods that i actually can eat and do eat to feel better if my stomach is acting up. so according to this book if the foods that form acid make me feel better does this mean i am too alkaline, even though the litmus paper says i am too acidic? also the papaya digestive enzyme works for me, and from what i have read having not enough acid in the stomach causes digestive problems, since from what i understand it is the stomach acid that digests food. does papaya create more acid when taken or less? what exactly does the papaya enzyme do in the body? if it is creating acid to aid digestion, that would suggest i do not have enough acid, which would be contrary to the litmus paper results. that is confusing because i dont see how the litmus paper could be false unless there are reasons for false readings i dont know about which is entirely possible since i dont really know a lot about this. i dont want to do any flushes at this time simply because i am afraid to. i also will not go to a doctor. i am simply searching the internet and trying to look up as much info. as i can and use natural remedies. if the litmus paper result is accurate and i am too acidic, why do alkaline forming foods help me? when you respond to this, please bear in my mind that i really know almost nothing about this and use laymens terms. as you can tell from reading this i am confused. any enlightenment on this subject would be greatly appreciated. i am only interested in natural remedies. thank you, moonstar1313.