acid diet

As I progress with my alkaline acid diet it is becoming clear that eating more alkaline foods while at the same time reducing my acid food consumption is going to involve giving up meat. Possibly to the point of becoming a vegetarian. Even though meat is an acid food I love it too much to exclude it completely from my diet at the moment. One tactic that I am employing right now is improving the quality of the food I eat regardless of the alkaline/acid divide. As far as meat is concerned, this simply means eating better quality cuts while at the same time eating it less frequently. Substituting fish for meat is another tactic that may slightly reduce the acidity of my diet. There are other health benefits associated with fish consumption so their acid status doesn’t overly concern me.

Eating more alkaline foods is displacing the majority of the junk in my diet (high sugar snacks and fizzy drinks). I’ve also found that reducing my bread consumption to a couple of servings a week was fairly easy. My alkaline food consumption comes primarily from fruit and vegetable juices that I make. Some advocates of the alkaline acid diet suggest that only a select few fruits are alkalizing. However as discussed in my acid or alkaline food article I believe the scientific evidence shows clearly that vegetables and fruits are all alkalizing. There may be exceptions however I have not found any scientific evidence of this yet.

While living in Japan, it would be a shame if I don’t take advantage of the widely available healthy foods. Currently I am looking to soy products to satisfy an ever increasing portion of my protein needs. I believe that soy products are alkaline foods. My current diet includes soy milk, tofu, natto and miso soup. Apart from their slight alkalizing effects, Wikipedia states soy contains significant amounts of all the essential amino acids for humans, and so is a good source of protein. Oriental products can be used to alkalize in the West too. Chinese supermarkets usually carry a wide variety of soy products.

Finally drinking more water is another step I am taking to improve my pH balance. Some mineral waters are even classed as alkaline foods. Regular tap water is pH neutral. Replacing sodas with tap water is another option that may be worth considering to improve overall acid/alkaline balance.

The alkaline acid diet has really captured my attention. I currently enjoy eating an alkaline diet breakfast every morning. At its most basic level it simply advocates eating plenty of fruit and vegetables (alkaline foods) to improve the pH balance of our bodies. It is common knowledge that fruit and vegetables are good for us. The alkaline acid diet offers one explanation as to why that is the case.

References: Wikipedia, see also previous articles.

The conflicting information available online about the alkaline acid diet means that you might have difficulty determining whether coffee is an alkaline food or an acid food. Despite the fact that I originally believed it was an acid food and actually decided to stop drinking coffee based on various alkaline acid food charts I had seen, I now believe that rather than having an acidifying effect upon our bodies, it actually has a mildly alkalizing effect.

But is coffee acid or alkaline? The alkaline acid diet has much to teach us about the effects various foods have upon our bodies. However my opinion is that it is rather absolute to base your dietary decisions solely on whether a particular food is an acid or alkaline food. For example, other than their alkalizing effect upon our bodies, there are many other reasons why we should eat sufficient fruit and vegetables. Conversely, even though egg yolks have a strongly acidifying effect upon our bodies, they are full of nutrients. So eating acid foods isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The premise of the alkaline acid diet, that eating alkaline and acid foods in a ratio between 70:30 to 80:20 alkaline to acid allows our bodies to remain in the best pH balance is appealing. However it acan be frustrating when you see a food appear on the acid foods side on some charts while being on the alkaline foods side of others. Which is it? Is coffee acid or alkaline?

The reason I now consider coffee to be an acid food is  because of the charts that list it as such. While many of the “popular” charts suggest it is acidic, or even highly acidic, the charts that actually provide scientific references for their data, as well as the seminal research by Remer and Manz say that it has a mildly alkalizing effect. However most pop food charts don’t provide any reference as to where their data is from.

There are other arguements both for and against drinking coffee. Looking into green coffee beans may be an option for the health conscious to consider. From the available research I feel confident that as far as the alkaline acid diet is concerned, coffee is actually an alkaline food.

Reference: Remer T, Manz F. Potential renal acid load of foods and its influence on urine pH. J Am Diet Assoc 1995;95:791

To move away from an acid diet and improve pH balance it is necessary to know which foods are acid foods. A scientific paper by Remer and Manz published in 1995 provides details of foods and food groups and how they affect pH balance. Reading their report is an excellent way to find out about acid diet foods.

They discovered that in general the most acidifying effects come from cheeses with higher protein content. Followed by meat and meat products, cheeses with lower protein content, fish, flour, noodles and pasta then grain products. Foods that have an alkalising effect are vegetables as well as fruits and fruit juices.

The alkaline acid diet is not specifically a weight loss diet, although it can be used as part of a weight loss plan. This diet is much more about overall well being and improving health.

acid drinks

A study published in 2007 of 88 different research papers concluded that the avaiable science strongly supports a reduction in our soft drink consumption. They leave an acid ash that our bodies have to find a way to deal with. The authors reported clear associations between increased caloritic intake and body weight with levels of soft drink consumption. Higher soft drink consumption was further associated with lower levels of milk, calcium and intake of other nutrients. Soft drink consumption also increases your risk of a variety of medical concerns, e.g. obesity and diabetes. Their work clearly supports alkalizing our diets and moving away from the acidifying effects of fizzy drink consumption.

The paper also noted that there appears to be a difference in the reported significance of soft drinks in the diet depending on who finances the study. Industry funded studies suggest less adverse health effects. However, adverse all the same. So an array of studies appear to agree that they are indeed acid foods although to what extent is where there is disagreement.

acid foods can cause bone loss

I had often heard that drinking colas and other carbonated drinks was bad for your bones. However other than the high sugar content having a potential negative effect on teeth, thought this was nothing more than an old wives’ tale. Then when I continued researching the topic found out that it does appear that these kinds of drinks, if their effect is not negated, do have an adverse effect upon our bones due to the nature of their acidic ash.

A separate study points out that carbonated soft drinks have a strongly acidifying effect on our bodies. Drinks containing phosphoric acid, used for acidifying and flavoring, often have a very low pH of around 3. Our bodies cannot simply get rid of this excess acid without it first being diluted. This is where it can effect our bones negatively. If we do not consume enough alkaline foods to balance the acidifying effect of carbonated soft drinks, we neutralize the acid from the acidic diet food (or drink) by using calcium salts which comes from our bones!

This shows the damage that we can do to our own bodies by consuming an acid diet. But it also demonstrates that eating some acid foods is not necessarily bad. We simply have to make sure that we eat enough alkaline foods to balance our acid intake and keep us healthy.

While some may disagree with the science regarding the alkaline acid diet, the main ideas behind the diet are simple: as a proportion of our total food intake, increase the amount of fruit and vegetables we eat while at the same time aiming to reduce the amount of low quality acid diet foods we consume. What are poor acid foods? These are foodstuffs that have poor nutritional value. The worst kind being high in calories and low or completely lacking in any beneficial nutritional content. Eating acidic foods is not necessarily the problem. Not eating enough alkaline foods and eating bad acid foods may have a more detrimental effect upon our health.

References: Uriel S. Barzel and Linda K. Massey Excess Dietary Protein Can Adversely Affect Bone – The Journal of Nutrition Vol. 128 No. 6 June 1998, pp. 1051-1053

Remer T., Manz F. Potential renal acid load of foods and its influence on urine pH – J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 1995; 95:791-797

Lenny R. Vartanian, PhD, Marlene B. Schwartz, PhD and Kelly D. Brownell, PhD Effects of Soft Drink Consumption on Nutrition and Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis – American Journal of Public Health April 2007, Vol 97, No. 4 pp667-675