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Alkaline diet

Foods don’t influence our blood pH

Proponents of the alkaline diet have put forth a few different theories about how an acidic diet harms our health. The more ridiculous claim is that we can change the pH of our blood by changing the foods we eat, and that acidic blood causes disease while alkaline blood prevents it. This is not true. The body tightly regulates the pH of our blood and extracellular fluid, and we cannot influence our blood pH by changing our diet. (5, 6)

High doses of sodium bicarbonate can temporarily increase blood pH, but not without causing uncomfortable GI symptoms. (7, 8) And there are certainly circumstances in which the blood is more acidic than it should be, and this does have serious health consequences. However, this state of acidosis is caused by pathological conditions such as chronic renal insufficiency, not by whether you choose to eat a salad or a burger. In other words, regardless of what you eat or what your urine pH is, you can be pretty confident that your blood pH is hovering around a comfortable 7.4.

A more nuanced claim has been proposed specifically regarding bone health, and this hypothesis is addressed somewhat extensively in the scientific literature. It supposes that in order to keep blood pH constant, the body pulls minerals from our bones to neutralize any excess acid that is produced from our diet. Thus, net acid-forming diets (such as the typical Western diet) can cause bone demineralization and osteoporosis. This hypothesis, often referred to as the ‘acid-ash hypothesis of osteoporosis,’ is what I will discuss for the rest of this article. I’ll address some of the other health claims in part two.

Overall, the acid-ash hypothesis of osteoporosis is not supported by physiology, clinical trials, or observational data.

The Acid-Alkaline Myth: Part 2

on JUNE 28, 2013 by CHRIS KRESSER 885 comments

In Part 1 of this series, I talked about why the basic premise of the acid-alkaline theory is flawed, and I showed that the evidence doesn’t support the idea that a net acid-forming diet is harmful to bone health. Now I want to look at the effect of dietary acid load on other health conditions.

I don’t deny that many people have seen significant health improvements when switching to an alkaline diet, but there are many possible reasons for this not having to do with pH balance. Eating more fresh produce is rarely a bad idea, especially when it displaces nutrient poor processed foods. A person switching to an alkaline diet would significantly reduce their consumption of grains, which could cause dramatic health improvements for somebody with a leaky gut or gluten sensitivity. Dairy would also be minimized, which would help those with dairy sensitivities. And although pure sugar isn’t an acid-forming nutrient, many laypeople claim that it is, so alkaline diets tend to contain far less sugar than a standard Western diet.

Between the scientific evidence (or lack thereof) and the anthropological research, I think we can be confident that the acid load of our diets doesn’t negatively impact healthy people. For those with renal failure or similar conditions that affect kidney function, it’s a different story—there’s certainly room for manipulation of urine pH in the treatment of those conditions. But for someone with functioning kidneys, there should be no concern that an acid-forming diet will harm health.

Alkaline diet

But, according to Alkaline Diet supporters, if we eat foods that are more alkaline, we will be in harmony with the natural state the body seeks to maintain. This supposedly allows us to circumvent any additional stress our diet might put on the body.

Proponents of the diet would also have you test your urine regularly with pH strips, always making sure to keep yourself in the alkaline range.

There are a few problems with this theory. For one thing, we don’t “burn” energy the same way a car does. Instead, food undergoes a series of chemical reactions, and doesn’t produce “ash.”

Second, our blood pH is carefully controlled by our body, regardless of what we eat. We could add large amounts of acidic foods to our diet, such as lemon juice and vinegar, and never have a change in our blood’s acidity.

Like all other diet plans, the Alkaline Diet encourages some foods over others, and a lot of these suggestions are actually really good recommendations for the average person. The diet is almost completely vegetarian, and can be vegan friendly as it also eliminates dairy.

For more on veganism, check out my recent article on the subject.

The Alkaline diet’s website explains:

“The typical American diet is too high in acid-producing foods like meat, eggs, dairy, white flour and sugar. By following the [Alkaline Diet] instead, you will begin cleansing your body by flushing out acidic wastes caused by poor diet, environmental toxins, stress, drugs and other destructive substances”.

The most critical factor, and what everything hinges on in the Alkaline Diet is the idea that by eating the right foods, you will alter the pH levels of your blood. Put simply, this isn’t possible.

The pH of the blood simply does not change with diet. Does this render everything claimed about the efficacy of the Alkaline Diet false? Basically.

Food has virtually no effect whatsoever on changing your blood pH.

Alkaline water scam

Recently, we visited a relative abroad. He’s a retired professor who used to teach science subjects in school. I had quite a bit of a surprise when he showed me a device about 14 inches tall called a water alkalinizer or ionizer. It’s supposed to convert the “acidic water” which we usually drink into alkaline water which can cure all sorts of diseases. The device cost him $4,000 or something like P180,000 from an MLM (multilevel marketing) agent.

My jaw almost dropped. I’d probably not even buy that machine for $100. Whoever sold that plastic contraption to my scholarly relative must really be very smart to convince him about its supposed phenomenal health benefits.

But I did not want to offend my relative’s feelings so I just told him a curt “it seems to be too good to be true.” But if it worked for him and made him feel good, the exorbitant price he paid for it shouldn’t be much of an issue, I said politely. Then I immediately changed the topic so we did not have to get into an argument about the apparent scam he had just allowed himself to be a willing victim of.

The alkaline diet

BDA verdict:

The theory of the alkaline diet is that eating certain foods can help maintain the body's ideal pH balance (acidity levels) to improve overall health. But the body maintains its pH balance regardless of diet. The diet lacks evidence, and some versions that advise cutting out entire food groups should be avoided. The more balanced versions of the diet provide variety and include all the food groups. If you are going to try the alkaline diet, choose a balanced plan, stick to it to the letter, and stay clear of supplements and other diet-related gimmicks.

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Alkaline diet

Despite the fact that there are no human studies supporting alkaline diets for the prevention or treatment of cancer, the diet is popular among some who think natural cures should always be chosen over chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or surgery. Some might be persuaded of the plausibility of the alkaline diet as a cancer cure by the fact that lab studies have shown that some cancer cells grow faster in an acidic solution and some chemotherapy drugs become more effective if the area around a tumor cell is altered to be more alkaline.* The problem is that there is no guarantee that what works in vitro will work in vivo. In any case, the alkaline diet isn't going to work because it won't have a significant effect on the alkalinity or acidity of cells.

The first clue that this diet would be worthless as a cancer treatment is the general principle it advocates: dietary modification can change the acidity of the blood. It's not true that the acidity of the body can be changed significantly by diet. Whatever food you eat passes through your stomach, which is highly acidic (pH between 1.5 and 3.5), making it an ideal environment for pepsin, the main digestive enzyme, to break down food. Stomach acid pH levels can be affected by the quantity of food you eat, infection, and stress. Eating foods designated acidic or alkaline is irrelevant to affecting pH in the stomach.* Eating acidic or alkaline foods is also irrelevant to affecting the pH of blood cells, despite what Robert O. Young claims. "Homeostatic mechanisms keep the acidity of the blood stream within a narrow range."* Different foods do, however, affect the pH of urine, which is confined to the bladder.

Alkaline diet promoters divide foods into two types depending on the type of "ash" produced as a byproduct of eating the food. Some foods produce an alkaline byproduct (e.g., fresh fruit and raw vegetables) and some produce an acidic byproduct (e.g., animal products, whole grains, beans, and seeds). These byproducts have nothing to do with the pH of blood either in the veins or the arteries, which, by the way, have different pH levels (venous blood is more acidic than arterial blood*). The reason for dividing foods into alkaline and acidic is the belief that food affects the pH of blood cells and that maintaining slightly alkaline blood is essential to good health, fighting cancer, being energetic, preventing allergies, ad nauseam. This is believed despite the fact that food doesn't significantly affect the pH of either venous or arterial blood.

If this diet is based on a false principle, why is it so popular? Some idea of why the diet is attractive to some people who have been diagnosed with cancer may be revealed by reading testimonials like the following one (from another of Robert O. Young's admirers, inspired not by The Secret though, but by another New Thought acolyte, Tony Robbins):

In September, I had blood in my urine again. This time, there were large blood clots in my urine and the bleeding carried on for days. I also felt some strange, vibrating sensations in my midsection. I called my doctor, who recommended me to a urologist. He booked me in for a cystoscopy, to look inside my bladder. I was put to sleep for the procedure, which lasted less than 30 minutes. A few minutes after I woke up, my urologist came to see me and told me that he had found two small tumours in my bladder and that he thought they was cancerous. The histology report confirmed his suspicions. I had grade 3, stage 1 (G3Pt1) bladder cancer at the age of 36…

Lying in hospital, I remembered a Tony Robbins seminar I had attended years ago, in which he talked about his "Living Health" program and that living healthily will allow our bodies to heal themselves. I promised myself that I would clean up my act and start living healthily.

The day I came home, I ordered many health and nutrition books online. In reading the books, some of what I read made sense, but there were so many conflicting opinions between the equally qualified authors; I became confused and disheartened. While listening to one of Tony Robbins’ audio programs, he talked about the havoc that excess acidity causes in our bodies and how we could become and remain healthy by adopting an alkaline-rich diet and lifestyle. He mentioned Dr Robert Young as one of the experts in this field.

I immediately ordered and read all of Dr Robert Young’s books, including “The pH Miracle”. What he had to say made total sense to me. It was totally in line with my belief that nature (or God) has provided us with everything we need to stay healthy and heal ourselves. I decided there and then that I would follow the pH Miracle program and heal myself.

The man who wrote the above testimonial put it on a web journal to document his progress: www.stopdoingcancer.com. The link is now dead and the last posting recorded by the Wayback Machine is for 11 June 2008. The journal was started at the end of 2006 or early 2007. In his first post, the author says that he had been treated for bladder cancer for several years and "nothing worked," which I take to mean the cancer was still present after several years of chemo and some surgery. He says that he "allowed the doctors to cut me and inject all sorts of poisons into me." He also says that when his medical team suggested "radical, life-changing surgery," he decided to "take my health into my own hands."

Both the woman who hadn't used any scientific medicine to treat her cancer and the man who did but wasn't cured found the idea of being in control of their own health stronger than the idea of submitting passively to a treatment devised by practitioners of scientific medicine. Yet, both also submitted themselves to the speculative ideas of a dubious character, and deceived themselves into thinking they were taking action that would save their lives. I understand why the man who was not cured after several years of treatment by scientific medicine would not accept his fate but would grasp at anything that appealed to his belief system. I have a difficult time, however, understanding why an intelligent woman would reject scientific medicine altogether when her life was at stake. Understanding such behavior is beyond my pay grade, as they say, though I don't think we should assume that just because a person is intelligent, her beliefs are rational. Something about Young and his message appealed to her. In my view, there is nothing appealing about either Robert O. Young or the alkaline diet he treats cancer patients with. Maybe it was fear that motivated her. Oprah asked her if it was fear of losing her breast that led her to reject surgery and chemotherapy and Tinkham denied that that had anything to do with her decision. For now, I think we'll just have to leave it an open question as to why Kim Tinkham did what she did.

In conclusion, the alkaline diet will have no significant effect on the pH of a person's blood. So, even if the Youngs were right about blood pH being the key to health, which they aren't, the alkaline diet wouldn't be the key to health, much less of any value in treating cancer.

Alkaline diet

Far from being healthy, alkaline diets could actually be harmful, as they recommend removing certain food groups altogether rather than reducing certain types within the groups. Examples would be removing all fats and oils from the diet which provide Essential Fatty Acids, and dairy products, which are excellent sources of vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin D which is difficult to find in foods outside of dairy products.^[9].

Weight loss[edit]

As far as weight loss is concerned, a lot of patients will report a notable drop in body fat whilst following the alkaline diet. This is not, however, anything to do with the proclaimed method of action, and is instead because the diet classifies foods as either acid or alkali, and all acidic foods should be avoided. Browsing the list of acid and alkali foods, it should become instantly apparent that the foods to avoid are those classically associated with a high calorie diet (dairy products, fizzy drinks, confectionery, fast food, and just about all fats), and those marked as alkaline are generally fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds.^[10] If you avoid eating gobs of fat and sugar and otherwise keep the same lifestyle, your weight goes down - who'da thunk it?

Alkaline water[edit]

Of course, with a new fad diet comes new expensive books and gadgets. On the top of the list are water filters or ionisers which claim to alkalinate drinking water and can cost several thousand pounds.^[11] Just adding some sodium bicarbonate to tap water is not sufficiently profitable.

Real Water® is claimed to have "millions of added electrons" which makes the water alkaline and improves cell hydration.

A blog entitled Real Water Health written by a Shelley Penney (a retired nurse interested in "health, peace and abundance") publishes many articles advocating the benefits of alkaline water. A list of 17 "Peer Reviewed Articles on Alkaline Water"^[12] is given on the site but while they all discuss research on acidosis, none of them mention any benefits from actually imbibing alkaline water. Shelley is not too hot on her chemistry as she claims "because it is very alkaline, ionized water may dissolve accumulated acid waste and return the body to a balance."^[13] Very alkaline products are caustic (e.g. drain cleaner); ionized water typically has a pH of 8 which is the same as sea-water. She further claims that "keeping our body fluid pH in an alkaline state may be the first line of defense in fighting any disease," as the body naturally regulates the pH of arterial blood between 7.35 and 7.45 you are likely to be dead before your blood stops being alkaline. As noted above, blood is a buffer solution which has the property that the pH changes very little when a small amount of strong alkali is added to it.

Ray Kurzweil sells alkaline water filters on his website. His transhumanist fans tend to gloss over this really obvious left turn into blatant alternative medicine pseudoscience, preferring to concentrate on his computer pseudoscience.

Consumers need to beware of such alkaline water schemes which encourage the sale of "alkaline water filtration systems" for the above discussed health benefits. One such organization uses multi-level marketing or a pyramid scheme which in some countries like the US is not illegal but is highly frowned upon by the Federal Trade Commission due to the similarity to a Ponzi scheme. The reason is that the organization's sale structure is built upon recruiting new members with the promise of making large profits. These new members must "buy in" to the multi-level market scheme in order to sell the product or service to make these profits. With the promise of large earnings many people are tricked into buying into the marketing plan, such is the case with Kangen alkaline water.

Recruits are promised large profits yet must pay high prices to buy into the plan, they are also promised the many different health benefits of drinking the alkaline water, then after buying in they must also sell the product to new recruits in order to make the profit, the cycle then repeats. Overseas corporations like to use multi-level marketing structure because it allows them to promote their product essentially for free (having members do the promotion for them) while maintaining a low profile making it very hard for governmental organizations to regulate then. The problem is that many of these companies and their products are overvalued and can be very hard to sell. In addition the multi-level marketing plan has a tendency to collapse, just like Ponzi schemes, once the rate of new signups falls below a certain recruitment rate. Sellers of these alkaline water systems purport many health benefits yet there is a lack of scientific research to confirm the benefits. In addition the sellers are not regulated by any governmental agency which may punish them for false or misleading advertising since each agent is an independent sales agent not affiliated with the host company other than they may receive a commission payment when making a sale. Many people in the US have fallen victim to this particular alkaline water filtration company's Ponzi-like scheme.

Quack Miranda Warning[edit]

Claiming a treatment will help treat cancer without concrete evidence is illegal in the UK under The Cancer Act 1939.^[14] Most of the sites promoting the alkaline diet have a Quack Miranda Warning on them to bypass legal problems such as this.^[15]

Diet composition[edit]

According to the traditional hypothesis underlying this diet, acid ash is produced by meat, poultry, cheese, fish, eggs, and grains. Alkaline ash is produced by fruits and vegetables, except cranberries, prunes and plums. Since the acid or alkaline ash designation is based on the residue left on combustion rather than the acidity of the food, foods such as citrus fruits that are generally considered acidic are actually considered alkaline producing in this diet.^[6]

Current hypotheses[edit]

It has been suggested that diets high in "acid ash" (acid producing) elements will cause the body to try to buffer (or counteract) any additional acid load in the body by breaking down bone, leading to weaker bones and increased risk for osteoporosis. Conversely, "alkaline ash" (alkaline producing) elements will hypothetically decrease the risk of osteoporosis. This hypothesis has been advanced in a position statement of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics,^[6] in a publication of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences,^[7] as well as other scientific publications,^[8] which have stated foods high in potassium and magnesium such as fruits and vegetables may decrease the risk of osteoporosis through increased alkaline ash production. This acceptance of the acid-ash hypothesis as a major modifiable risk factor of osteoporosis by these publications, however, was largely made without significant critical review by high quality systematic analysis.^[9]

Recent systematic reviews have been published which have methodically analyzed the weight of available scientific evidence, and have found no significant evidence to support the acid-ash hypothesis in regard to prevention of osteoporosis. A meta-analysis of studies on the effect of dietary phosphate intake contradicted the expected results under the acid-ash hypothesis with respect to calcium in the urine and bone metabolism. This result suggests use of this diet to prevent calcium loss from bone is not justified.^[9]

Other meta-analyses which have investigated the effect of total dietary acid intake have also found no evidence that acid intake increases the risk for osteoporosis as would be expected under the acid-ash hypothesis.^[8]^[10] A review looked at the effects of dairy product intake, which have been hypothesized to increase the acid load of the body through phosphate and proteincomponents. This review found no significant evidence suggesting dairy product intake causes acidosis or increases risk for osteoporosis.^[11] A meta-analysis on the effects of alkaline potassium salts on calcium metabolism and bone health found that supplementation with alkaline potassium salts reduces loss of calcium in urine and reduces acid secretion.^[12]

It has also been speculated that this diet may have an effect on muscle wasting, growth hormone metabolism or back pain, though there is no conclusive evidence to confirm these hypotheses.^[13]^[2]^[3] Given an aging population, the effects of an alkaline diet on public health may offer some benefits due to its focus on an increase in fresh fruits and vegetables, but there are limited scientific studies on the topic.^[3]

Alkaline diet

Even if what you eat does change your urine's acid levels, "your diet does not affect your blood pH at all," Childress says. Both Dubost and national health authorities agree with her. "Altering the cell environment of the human body to create a less-acidic, less-cancer-friendly environment is virtually impossible," according to resources from the American Institute for Cancer Research. Research on avoiding dietary acid for healthier bones has also failed to turn up proof of pH-related benefits.

So long story short, claims about alkaline diets changing your body's pH levels are likely bogus, and at best unsubstantiated.

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Alkaline diet

Have you seen advertisements for products such as coral calcium or alkaline water that are supposed to neutralize acid in your bloodstream? Taking calcium or drinking alkaline water does not affect blood acidity. Anyone who tells you that certain foods or supplements make your stomach or blood acidic does not understand nutrition.

You should not believe that it matters whether foods are acidic or alkaline, because no foods change the acidity of anything in your body except your urine. Your stomach is so acidic that no food can change its acidity. Citrus fruits, vinegar, and vitamins such as ascorbic acid or folic acid do not change the acidity of your stomach or your bloodstream. An entire bottle of calcium pills or antacids would not change the acidity of your stomach for more than a few minutes.

All foods that leave your stomach are acidic. Then they enter your intestines where secretions from your pancreas neutralize the stomach acids. So no matter what you eat, the food in stomach is acidic and the food in the intestines is alkaline.

Dietary modification cannot change the acidity of any part of your body except your urine. Your bloodstream and organs control acidity in a very narrow range. Anything that changed acidity in your body would make you very sick and could even kill you. Promoters of these products claim that cancer cells cannot live in an alkaline environment and that is true, but neither can any of the other cells in your body.

All chemical reactions in your body are started by chemicals called enzymes. For example, if you convert chemical A to chemical B and release energy, enzymes must start these reactions. All enzymes function in a very narrow range of acidity. (The degree of acidity or alkalinity is expressed as "pH."). If your blood changes its acidity or alkalinity for any reason, it is quickly changed back to the normal pH or these enzymes would not function and the necessary chemical reactions would not proceed in your body.

For example, when you hold your breath, carbon dioxide accumulates in your bloodstream very rapidly and your blood turns acidic, and you will become uncomfortable or even pass out. This forces you to start breathing again immediately, and the pH returns to normal. If your kidneys are damaged and cannot regulate the acidity of your bloodstream, chemical reactions stop, poisons accumulate in your bloodstream, and you can die.

Certain foods can leave end-products called ash that can make your urine acid or alkaline, but urine is the only body fluid that can have its acidity changed by food or supplements. ALKALINE-ASH FOODS include fresh fruit and raw vegetables. ACID-ASH FOODS include ALL ANIMAL PRODUCTS, whole grains, beans and other seeds. These foods can change the acidity of your urine, but that's irrelevant since your urine is contained in your bladder and does not affect the pH of any other part of your body.

When you take in more protein than your body needs, your body cannot store it, so the excess amino acids are converted to organic acids that would acidify your blood. But your blood never becomes acidic because as soon as the proteins are converted to organic acids, calcium leaves your bones to neutralize the acid and prevent any change in pH. Because of this, many scientists think that taking in too much protein may weaken bones to cause osteoporosis.

Cranberries have been shown to help prevent recurrent urinary tract infections, but not because of their acidity. They contain chemicals that prevent bacteria from sticking to urinary tract cells.

Taking calcium supplements or drinking alkaline water will not change the pH of your blood. If you hear someone say that your body is too acidic and you should use their product to make it more alkaline, you would be wise not to believe anything else the person tells you.

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Alkaline diet

Regular pH Levels in the Body

When talking about the alkaline diet, it is important to understand the meaning of the pH value.

Put simply, the pH value is a measure of how acidic or alkaline something is.

The pH value ranges from 0 to 14:

0-7 is acidic.
7 is neutral.
7-14 is alkaline (alkaline is often called basic).

Many proponents of this diet suggest that people monitor the pH value of their urine using test strips, making sure that it is alkaline (pH over 7) and not acidic (below 7).

However... it's important to note that the pH value varies greatly within the body. Some parts are acidic, others are alkaline. There is no set level.

The stomach is loaded with hydrochloric acid, giving it a pH value between 2 and 3.5 (highly acidic). This is necessary to break down food.

On the other hand, human blood is always slightly alkaline, with a pH between 7.35 and 7.45.

The blood pH value falling out of the normal range is very serious and can be fatal if untreated. However... this only happens during certain disease states, and has absolutely nothing to do with the foods you eat from day to day.

BOTTOM LINE:The pH value is a measure of how acidic or alkaline something is. Stomach acid is highly acidic, while blood is slightly alkaline with a pH value between 7.35 and 7.45.

Food Affects the pH of Your Urine, But Not Your Blood

It is critical for health that the pH of your blood remains constant.

If it were to fall outside of the normal range, your cells would stop working and you would die very quickly if left untreated.

For this reason, the body has many effective mechanisms to closely regulate the pH balance in your body. This is known as Acid-Base Homeostasis.

Fortunately for us, these mechanisms make it near impossible for outside influences to change the pH value of the blood. If that wasn't true, we would surely be in trouble.

The fact is... food simply can not change your blood pH. Period.

However, food can definitely change the pH value of the urine, although the effect is somewhat unreliable (3, 4).

This is actually one of the main ways your body regulates blood pH... by excreting acids in your urine.

Eat a large steak and several hours later your urine will be more acidic as the body removes it from your system.

That being said, urine pH is actually a very poor indicator of overall body pH and general health. It can be influenced by many factors other than diet.

Therefore, even if you're using test strips and seeing that your urine has become alkaline, this has very little (if any) relevance to the alkalinity of your blood, or your overall health.

BOTTOM LINE:The body tightly regulates blood pH levels and it is not possible to affect it via diet. However, diet can change the pH value of urine.

Unlike many other strange diets, the alkaline diet is actually quite healthy.

It encourages a high consumption of fruits, vegetables and healthy plant foods, while restricting processed junk foods.

However, the claims about the mechanism behind the diet are NOT supported by evolutionary evidence, human physiology or any reliable study in humans.

Acids are actually some of the most important building blocks of life... including amino acids, fatty acids and your DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).

The alkaline diet is healthy because it is based on real and unprocessed foods. It has absolutely nothing to do with being acidic or alkaline. Period.

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Alkaline diet

What Dr. Melinda Ratini Says:

Does It Work?

Maybe, but not for the reasons it claims.

First, a little chemistry: A pH level measures how acid or alkaline something is. A pH of 0 is totally acidic, while a pH of 14 is completely alkaline. A pH of 7 is neutral. Those levels vary throughout your body. Your blood is slightly alkaline, with a pH between 7.35 and 7.45. Your stomach is very acidic, with a pH of 3.5 or below, so it can break down food. And your urine changes, depending on what you eat -- that's how your body keeps the level in your blood steady.

The alkaline diet claims to help your body maintain its blood pH level. In fact, nothing you eat is going to substantially change the pH of your blood. Your body works to keep that level constant.

But the foods you're supposed to eat on the alkaline diet are good for you and will support a healthy weight loss: lots of fruits and vegetables, and lots of water. Avoiding sugar, alcohol, and processed foods is healthy weight-loss advice, too.

As to the other health claims, there's some early evidence that a diet low in acid-producing foods like animal protein (such as meat and cheese) and bread and high in fruits and veggies could help prevent kidney stones, keep bones and muscles strong, improve heart health and brain function, reduce low back pain, and lower risk for type 2 diabetes. But researchers aren't sure of some of these claims yet.

People who believe in the alkaline diet say that though acid-producing foods shift our pH balance for only a little while, if you keep shifting your blood pH over and over, you can cause long-lasting acidity.

Is It Good for Certain Conditions?’

Following an alkaline diet means choosing fruits and vegetables over higher-calorie, higher-fat choices. You will also shun prepared foods, which often have a lot of sodium.

That’s great news for heart health because these steps help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, which are big risk factors for heart disease.

Getting to a healthy weight is also important in preventing and treating diabetes and osteoarthritis.

Some studies have found that an alkaline environment may make certain chemotherapy drugs more effective or less toxic. But it has not been shown that an alkaline diet can do this or help prevent cancer. If you have cancer, talk to your doctor or dietitian about your nutritional needs before starting any type of diet.

The Final Word

The emphasis on fruits and vegetables that is at the core of alkaline diets offers the promise of healthy weight loss. No special gear or supplementsare required.

You’ll have the best success with it if you like to choose and experiment with new foods and love to cook.

Alkaline diet scam

Fred,

A few years back my mom was following pretty much Dr Robert Young alkalarian diet – with NO fruit at all, where he considers fruits – high sugar content ones specially – to be acidic, as a perfect and only greatest discovery diet ever.

I would like you to say something about this ‘insanity’ of not eating any fruits. What do you think about high content sugar fruits to be acidic to the body?

To be more specific, I have been eating much more fruits than greens nowadays, and my family is pretty much concerned about my eating choices, so I want to be able to show them a consistent answer about this choice and why it has nothing to do with Dr Young’s Alkalarian diet.

Hope to hearing from you soon.

ANSWER BY FREDERIC:

I’m familiar with Dr. Young’s approach, and as I’ve always said, every diet has something to offer usually because of the bad things they *remove* rather than what they add in. The Alkalarian diet by Dr. Young does a good job at removing some of the most unhealthy foods most people eat, but is completely misguided when it comes to its recommendation on avoiding fruit.

First of all, Dr. Young is wrong in implying that what you eat or drink has any effect on your body’s PH. It’s actually pretty embarrassing that he would even say something like that, given that he pretends to be a scientist.

Your body and your blood maintain a stable PH that *never changes significantly* no matter what you eat or drink! Therefore you cannot make your body “acidic” or “alkaline” by eating a certain food or avoiding certain foods. In fact, if your blood’s PH changed significantly it would mean *very bad news* for your health, it would mean your body did not have enough mineral reserves to buffer the change and bring yourself back to neutral.

The body always wants to be at homeostasis, if it changed constantly one way or the other you would likely not be alive, the body is very intelligent and has evolved in a way that it can handle almost anything you drink or eat and yet remain at the same PH.

That being said, the foods you eat can become acidic or alkaline *after they are digested.* This means that certain foods, after they are digested, will produce acidity in the digestive tract, and others will produce alkaline base materials. But remember that technically speaking, the digestive system is *outside* the human body! F

rom your mouth to your colon is a complete system that is not actually part of the rest of your body, nothing goes directly into your blood without being processed, and filtered. Picture a date and its stone pit, the stone being the digestive track and the date itself being the body. One is inside and one is outside.

Some people test the PH of their urine and think it means anything, but it doesn’t since urine, again, is outside of the body and bloodstream. The only way to test the PH of your body would be to test the blood.

Your digestive system and organs only use what it needs and not everything you eat or drink “hits” your bloodstream. You cannot make your blood acidic or alkaline, it always stays the same PH. The body uses what it needs from the digestive tract and discards what it doesn’t through waste products and those never “enter” the body or affect your PH.

Whether a food produces an alkaline or acidic reaction after digestion is measured by a chart known in medical science as the “Renal Acid Load Chart.”

If you study this chart, you’ll discover that *all* fruits and *all* vegetables are alkaline-forming. On the other hand, animal products are quite acid-forming while grains and beans are slightly acid forming.

The acidity created from the digestion of certain “acid-forming foods” must be buffered by the alkaline mineral reserves of the body. That’s why it’s important to eat diet composed mainly of alkaline foods such as fruits and vegetables.

What this means to you, is that you need to eat more fruits and vegetables to have more alkaline mineral reserves generally in your bones. If you eat only meat and grains, your body will take alkaline minerals from your bones to buffer any extra acid produced in digestion and that can lead to problems like osteoporosis where you have weak or brittle bones from a lack of certain minerals like calcium which is alkaline.

Please note that I said it’s important to eat “fruits and vegetables” and not just “vegetables.”

Also keep in mind that the body and the blood themselves are not getting more alkaline or acidic by the foods you eat. Anyone who says the contrary is just making stuff up, and claiming that fruits are acid-forming because of their fruit “acids” and somehow harm the body is even more ludicrous.

Ask any medical practitioner or even med student and they will tell you that it’s impossible and that the blood or body cannot change PH based on what you eat. It just doesn’t work that way.

This also goes for alkaline or acidic water, water is buffered by the body just like food, so don’t be duped into thinking the PH of your drinking water means anything, especially when you’re eating a high mineral diet of fruits and vegetables. Your body is getting more than enough to maintain it’s reserves to buffer any slight change from what is produced by digestion.

Eat your fruits, eat your vegetables, and you’ll be healthy!