The impact of food on the acid-alkali balance in your body

 

The impact of food on the acid-alkali balance in your body

In this article, the main focus is on the impact of food on the acid-alkali balance in your body, factors affecting the acid-alkali balance of the body, acid-ash hypothesis, food items that leave alkaline ashes, food items that leave acidic ashes, and Acid-Alkaline Diet’ or ‘Alkaline-Ash Diet’.

The impact of food on the acid-alkali balance in your body

Is the human body acidic or alkaline?

What would you think your body pH is?

We know that the pH values less than 7 are technically acidic, and the pH values greater than 7 are technically alkaline or basic, whereas pH 7 is considered neutral.

The fluids of different body parts tend to show different pH values.

Example

•       The pH of the bloodstream is kept in a range between 7.35 – 7.45 so that it’s alkaline.
•       The gastric juice is highly acidic.

But the fact is that; a healthy human body is normally maintained in a weak alkaline state.

The ideal pH is maintained by a complex buffering system. When excess acidity or alkalinity gets accumulated in your body, the buffering system manages to neutralize the fluctuations of pH back to the healthy range.

When this thing happens over a long period of time, the buffering system goes through a stress condition, making efforts to bring the pH back to its normal state.

So now the body gets into a state of acidic, or more alkaline, in the long run. The chronic conditions of them are acidosis and alkalosis, respectively. Both the above conditions are away from the normal state that is meant to be.

Factors affecting the acid-alkali balance of the body

This can happen over a range of factors.

Food is not the only thing responsible for this. But obviously, the eating pattern counts as a principal element.

It can also be caused by someone’s lifestyle, among which alcoholism, smoking, and lack of sleep are significant. Then the negative emotions like anger, stress, anxiety, depression, etc. And even the air you inhale can have an impact on it. Simply any condition or disease that affects the lungs, renal system, metabolism, or breathing has the potential of causing acidosis or alkalosis.

So maintaining the acid-base balance is extremely important for well-being.

When foods are metabolized and processed in the body, they leave behind an ash residue that is either acidic, alkaline, or neutral. Here the main focus is on the acidic and alkaline ashes.

The term ash is nothing but the residues left after metabolism. It has nothing to do with the acidic or alkaline nature of the food before it’s eaten!

Example

Citrus fruits are rich in citric acid, which means they are acidic before consumption, but they leave behind an alkaline residue after digestion. Hence their effect on the body is alkalizing.

So the pH of the ash residue is what matters after all!

Acid-Ash Hypothesis

But according to the ‘Acid-Ash Hypothesis’, acidic ash is thought to make you vulnerable to illnesses and diseases, whereas alkaline ash is considered protective. Since this philosophy is still not supported by much research work, you might find it a bit confusing to understand the exact food items that truly leave acid and alkaline ashes particularly.

Food items that leave alkaline ash

Few Food items that give alkaline ashes are -

• Avocado

• Tomato

• Citrus fruits like Lime, Lemon, Grapefruit

• Coconut

• Broccoli

• Kale

• Pumpkin

• Seaweeds like Wakame, Kelp

• Beetroot greens

• Cucumber

• Chia seeds 

• Quinoa seeds

• Flax seeds

• Pumpkin seeds

• Sesame seeds

• Coconut oil

• Avocado oil

• Flax oils

• Tofu

Click here to view food items that leave alkaline ashes.

Food items that leave acid ash

The acid ash leaving food are,

• Meat

• Shellfish

• Eggs

• Alcohol

• Tea

• Coffee

• Dairy Products

• Cranberries

• Prunes

• Cooked Oils

• Energy Drinks, Sports Drinks

• Carbonated Beverages

Click here to view food items that leave acidic ashes.

But going too much alkaline is again problematic. So maintaining a balance between foods that give acid ashes and alkaline ashes is the solution now.

The priority should be given to the alkaline ash leaving food. By choosing more foods leaving alkaline ash, you are able to maintain the slight alkaline condition in your body and improve your health.

It doesn’t mean to exclude the food giving acid ash, but to limit. Keeping a ratio of 1:4 between foods leaving acid ash to foods leaving alkaline ash is what declared. Cutting down the foods giving acid ash is not a necessity here. Allocate 20% of your diet to foods leaving acid ash and 80% of your diet to foods leaving alkaline ash.

 Acid-Alkaline Diet or Alkaline-Ash Diet

So what we can see now is that acid-base balance is critical to your well-being, and even a tiny alteration that occurs in it can lead to consequences and illnesses. This concept is termed ‘Acid-Alkaline Diet’ or ‘Alkaline-Ash Diet’.

Unlike some other diets, the alkaline diet does not eliminate entire food groups. People can still consume acid ash-forming foods, yet they simply eat less of them. As mentioned, the claims about how this diet works are not supported by much reliable scientific evidence. But this is something we just cannot simply leave behind.

Let’s make this a reminder to rethink ‘how our food intake should be?’ Hence what we eat is what we are!

Conclusion

In this article, the main focus was on the impact of food on the acid-alkali balance in your body, factors affecting the acid-alkali balance of the body, acid-ash hypothesis, food items that leave alkaline ashes, food items that leave acidic ashes, and Acid-Alkaline Diet’ or ‘Alkaline-Ash Diet’.