I love to take a typical topic or claim and either find out the truth behind it or debunk the theory. My sole purpose is to bring you real facts so you have the absolute truth.
I have to admit, a lot of times I have to do extensive research on a query before I have substantial reinforcement to my claim or conclusion. But that’s part of my job ‘not to mention my passion’.
First let’s start with a little brush-up in high school biochem. If you weren’t sleeping in class you’ll perhaps recall pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity (alkalinity) of a solution.
If a solution is 7, it’s considered neutral, less than 7, its pH is acidic; over 7, and it becomes basic or alkaline. For the record, pure water has a pH of nearly 7.
Based on those measures, some foods fall into the acidic camp while others are alkaline. Acid and alkaline foods are easy to classify. Fruits and veggies are alkaline, for instance, while meat, dairy, and grain are acidic.
But here’s where things get confusing. Advocates of pH-balanced diets believe every food leaves either an acid or alkaline residue in your body depending on its residual type. The true fact is, foods can be acidic yet still leave an alkaline residue, or vice versa.
Lemons, for example, have a pH of about 2 but leave an alkaline residue. According to a pH-balanced diet, then, if we eat too many foods that form an acid residue – again, not the same thing as an acidic food – your blood can become acidic and all kinds of bad diseases can occur.
Let’s dive in and take a look at 7 pH Balanced Body Myths
Myth #1: You Want Your Body to Be Alkaline
False – Different body tissue has different pH levels. For instance your stomach is incredibly acidic: measuring about 2.0, but trust me when I say that if your stomach were in an alkaline state you wouldn’t be alive.
Myth #2: Meat Consists Highest of all the Acidic Food in our Diet
False – According to many studies nearly 70% of the acidic foods in our diet actually come from grains and dairy. Yes, meat is acidic but on a lower scale. If you are concerned just eat your steak with lots of veggies.
Myth #3: Sugar is Acidic
False – Fat, sugar, and starches have a neutral pH because they don’t contain minerals, sulfur, or protein. Now, combining these foods with other ingredients can shift the balance to acidic or alkaline.
Myth #4: You Can Test Your Urine to Determine Whether You’re Acidic
False – Yes, food can change the pH of your urine, but measuring that pH is fairly useless because that’s no indication about your blood pH or much of anything else for that matter. Worrying about the pH of your urine makes really no sense at all.
Myth #5: Food Can Change the pH of your Blood
False – Blood pH is tightly regulated by your kidneys and other organs, which keep it at 7.4. Even slight deviations in blood pH can create serious and even fatal consequences, so your body has numerous checks and balances to keep that from happening.
Myth #6: Cancer Can Only Occur in an Acidic Environment
False – I hear this all the time: cancer can never occur in an alkaline environment, which becomes a legitimate reason to eat predominantly alkaline foods. Well I hate to break this to you but that’s simply not true. At about 7.4, your blood’s pH is already alkaline, and again like I’ve outlined, you can load up on alkaline-forming foods but it won’t affect blood pH.
Myth #7: Studies Show Acidic Foods can Trigger Osteoporosis, Muscle Wear, and Kidney Damage
False – While these are all legitimate fears, do a PubMed search and you’ll find very little evidence supports these theories.
Conclusion:
There is no true hard evidence or for that matter any scientific research that links eating an alkaline diet or drinking alkaline water to disease prevention or better health any more than just drinking regular filtered water or eating a well balance diet “bottom line”.
