The Acid/Alkaline Food Myth
Several people recently have come forward asking about the use of certain dietary styles such as acid diets or alkaline diets. They have "heard" some anecdotal reports about how these diets have done so much for improving their conditions. Many of these reports have come from the internet testimonials. The Internet can be a fantastic tool for those seeking knowledge on health maintenance. Its easy to access and available 24 hours a day. It can provide the latest up-to-date findings in virtually every field of medicine. Unfortunately, the Internet also provides the latest and greatest in misinformation as well. It can be a real challenge to make sense of all the confusing information - good versus bad. Sorting out which information is accurate and which information is false, can be a long and tedious process.
A good example of misleading information is the Acid/Alkaline Food Myth. This follows from the generally considered wisdom, that "you are what you eat." Some people believe that by eating certain foods, they could make their blood acid and that this would be bad for their health. Acid producing foods are thought to be dairy, wheat, sugar and animal flesh. Certain authors in the lay press and on the Internet claim that we must supply alkaline substances to our bodies to keep our cells alive. They claim the way we supply alkaline foodstuffs to our bodies is by eating certain "alkaline" foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and sea vegetation. They recommend a diet that is at least 75% alkaline, and 25 % acid for proper health.
The reality is that eating any food does not make your blood or your body more or less acid. Acid foods such as citrus fruits and vinegar contain important nutrients that you need, such as ascorbic acid or folic acid, but will have no effect of the pH of your blood. pH is a measuring scale that allows for a standard method of assessing the acidity or alkalinity of usually a liquid. Neutral substances like water have a pH of 7.0. A typical sample of blood hangs out around a pH of 7.4. There is very little variation to an individual's pH and it is confined to a very narrow range of values. To make certain of this, there is a complex system of feedback mechanisms and buffers that guard against any changes. No matter how much the pH of the food that we consume, from pop (acid) to baking soda (alkaline), these foods will not make your blood acid or alkaline. Food, after it is chewed, goes down the esophagus into the stomach. The stomach contains gastric juices with a very acidic pH to aid in digestion of the food. Your meal is then broken up into simple carbohydrates, fatty acids, amino acids, and peptides by this highly acidic gastric juice. It then enters the small intestine where secretions from the pancreas neutralize it and continue to break up the food to be utilized by our cells. The pH of our bloodstream and organs are buffered or protected to maintain the pH level within those very close limits. Any deviation from this narrow range results in severe, life-threatening illness. Another reason there is very little you can do to increase or decrease the acidity of your blood is because your body responds very rapidly to the pH changes. In effect, you cannot eat enough food, acid or alkaline fast enough to have a significant effect on your blood. It simply does not vary as a result of eating.
So now that we have completely debunked the Acid/Alkaline Food Myth, we need to mention why those diets would help someone. If one takes the diets apart and looks at what they entail, why are they pretty good diets! A typical alkaline diet would suggest 25% of our diet come from acid foods like animal flesh (protein) while 75% come from alkaline sources such as vegetables, fruits and alkaline grains. An example of a meal would be fish, salad, vegetable, baked potato. So out of the four food groups the protein represents the 25% acid, while the salad, vegetables and potato with the skin makes up the remaining 75%. Folks, this is a healthy diet, low in fat, high in fiber and essential vitamins and minerals and is very close to the boring diet that the American Dietetic Association has been encouraging us to eat for years! To make the diet even healthier, a piece of fruit and a dairy selection should be added to provide additional needed nutrients such as calcium. Remember, the secret to good nutrition and healthy eating habits is to follow the Food Guide Pyramid, eat a diet containing no more than 30 % fat, and incorporate a variety of foods into our meals. It is not the acid or alkaline "diets" that are bad, it is only the pseudoscience explanation behind the diet, that does not hold up to scientific scrutiny. Happy eating!
Maryanne Tsivitse
James A. Auberle M.D.
