Let’s delve a little deeper!!!! With a little help from examine.com here’s what I came up with. delve a little deeper!!!! With a little help from examine.com here’s what I came up with.
The alkaline diet is also known as the acid-alkaline diet or alkaline ash diet.
It is based around the idea that the foods you eat can alter the acidity or alkalinity (the pH value) of your body.
But what does that actually mean, well let me explain in simple terms.
When you break down foods and extract the energy (calories), the body does it by ways of a chemical reaction that actually burns the foods. Once burned these foods leave an ash residue and these ashes are either acid or alkaline. The diet claims that the ash can directly effect the acidity of your body.
So what does that actually mean for us?
Acid ash is thought to make you vulnerable to illness and disease, whereas alkaline ash is considered protective. By choosing more alkaline foods, you should be able to “alkalize” your diet and apparently improve your health.
Certain food groups are considered acidic, alkaline or neutral:
Acidic: Meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, grains and alcohol.
Neutral: Natural fats, starches and sugars.
Alkaline: Fruits, nuts, legumes and vegetables.
Ok so when looking at 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).
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. Just to be clear this only happens during certain disease states, and has absolutely nothing to do with the foods you eat from day to day!!!
Now the interesting part….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. Luckily for us the body has many mechanisms to closely regulate the pH balance in our bodies, this makes it near impossible for outside influences to change the pH levels in our body!! In short… food simply can not change your blood pH.
So can it stop osteoporosis and help fight cancer….?
Osteoporosis – According to this theory, acid-forming diets such as the standard Western diet will cause a loss in bone mineral density. This theory is known as the “acid-ash hypothesis of osteoporosis.”
The problem with this is that the function of the kidneys is simply ignored. Our kidneys are fundamental to removing acids and regulating body pH. It’s one of their main roles. Looking at clinical trials (real science), many large reviews have concluded that acid-forming diets have no impact on calcium levels in the body. Guess that’s that theory out then.
Cancer – Current research shows that there is absolutely no link between an acid-forming diet and cancer. Cancer cells also grow in alkaline environments. And while tumours grow faster in acidic environments, the tumours actually create this acidity themselves. It’s not the acidic environment that creates the cancer, it is cancer that creates the acidic environment!!!
So the bottom line……
Unlike many other fad diets, the alkaline diet is actually very healthy.
It promotes a high consumption of fruits, vegetables and healthy plant foods, while restricting processed junk foods. All good so far!!
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 so don’t believe you everything you read. Get the research first behind the claims!!
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