Should I try alkaline diet?
Sep 12, 2018
The body's bloodstream maintains a stable PH no matter what we eat, and there is no way that you can affect your blood PH by eating acidic foods.
The body's bloodstream maintains a stable PH no matter what we eat, and there is no way that you can affect your blood PH by eating acidic foods. We now know that acidic food does not affect bone health. A recent systematic review of the literature looking for evidence supporting the alkaline diet for bone health found that the relationship between dietary acid with the risk of osteoporosis is not confirmed. And, there is no scientific literature establishing the benefit of an alkaline diet for the prevention of cancer at this time.
Even though a high sugar, high-protein diet can increase the acid load of the body, there is very little change in blood pH. What high acid load diet does to the body is to r change the urinary chemistry. Food that produces more acid in the urine, and higher "Potential renal acid loads" (PRALs) The more acid you eat, the more acid is in the urine and urine has a lower PH.
Medical research shows do show that the potential benefit of alkaline diet or reduced acidic diet:
Lower acid load in the diet allows enough intracellular magnesium to activate the body's vitamin D. This, in turn, has been shown to improve back pain.
2. Improve muscle mass in the elderly
The elderly with the poor renal release of acid, accumulate acid from protein and grain in the food, which reduces muscle mass. Research shows that supplementation of potassium bicarbonate reverses the muscle wasting in obese patients who tried weight loss diet high in acid load.
3. Increase in growth hormone in children
The research did show that those children suffering from metabolic acidosis (acid in the blood) stunt their growth and researcher adding alkaline to their diet actually helped them grow. There is some deduction from this research that since lower acidity can increase growth hormone, and increase growth hormone would improve memory. There is no research comparing the memory of people eating high acid vs lower acid load food, though.
In conclusion,
You don't need to micromanage your acid/alkaline intake. This PRALs table serves as a guide. Balanced nutrition is more important than calculating your acid load. But, here it is... Potential renal acid loads (PRALs) of selected foods
