Alkaline Diet

With the multitude of alkaline diet food charts available online I have found it very confusing trying to determine what exactly is and isn’t a base (alkali) forming food. Rather than create yet another list that you may or may not have faith in, my brother created this handy online alkaline diet calculator. It is based on the formula in the paper Dietary potential renal acid load and renal net acid excretion in healthy, free-living children and adolescents.

According to the science, the PRAL value allows you to know whether the food you are eating is acid or alkaline ash forming.

To discover the PRAL (Potential Renal Acid Load) of a foodstuff requires that we know the amounts of protein, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and calcium to be know. Fortunately the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) maintain a website that has the nutritional values of a wide variety of food and drink.

Using the data from the USDA National Nutrient Database and inputting the appropriate values into the fields below, you are able to discover the acid or alkaline forming potential of whatever foodstuff you choose. For anyone interested in the alkaline acid diet this may prove useful.

Positive values are indicative of acid foods while negative values tell us a food is alkaline forming.