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| Fruits and vegetables help neutralize acidity...so? |
I have a reputation at my gym for being a myth-buster. Not a
week goes by that a client doesn’t ask me whether a particular
“muscle-enhancing” supplement is legit (usually not) or how many studies
support creatine’s efficacy (a good many, actually).
I admit: sometimes I have to research these queries. Such
was the case when a long-time client recently showed me her alkaline water.
A few months before, this client had begun one of those
pH-balanced diets. You know, the ones that emphasize alkaline-forming foods and
frequently include charts to differentiate alkaline and acidic foods. To boost
her body’s alkalinity, my client was downing four or five bottle of alkaline
water daily.
I was intrigued (though admittedly a little skeptical too)
but also determined to get to the bottom of whether this so-called miracle
water – and pH-balanced diets themselves – are legit or just the latest hype.
What I found surprised and even disturbed me.
What is a pH-Balanced
Diet Anyway?
If you weren’t sleeping in high school biochem, you’ll
perhaps recall pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity (alkalinity) of a
solution. If said solution is less than 7, its pH is acidic; over 7, 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.
Here’s where
things get confusing. Proponents of pH-balanced diets believe every food leaves an
acid or alkaline ash or residue in your body. A food can be acidic but leave an
alkaline residue, or vice versa. Lemons, for example, have a pH of about 2 – 3
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 stuff can
occur like cancer, osteoporosis, and sprouting devil’s horns. Okay, maybe not
that last one.
That’s
where my friend’s chart comes in. Without much research to substantiate them,
“experts” categorize foods as alkaline-forming and acidic-forming. As I quickly
discovered, many of those lists contradict each other and offer no scientific
validation.
Busting The pH-Balanced Diet
Myths
You spend your Saturday night at a friend’s house or maybe a
movie or club. I spend mine reading studies and consulting critics about
pH-balanced diets.
All for you, dear reader: I want to bust some myths so the
next time your smarmy vegan sister reprimands you for eating “acidic” meat or
your mother warns you certain foods create osteoporosis, you’ll be able to
intelligently reply.
Myth #1: You Want
Your Body to Be Alkaline.
False. Body tissues have different pH levels. Your vagina, for instance, should
be acidic, since yeast infections can fester if vaginal tissue becomes too
alkaline. (Sorry, guys, if that’s too much information.) And your stomach is incredibly acidic: about 2.0, in fact.
Trust me, you wouldn’t be alive if you had an alkaline stomach!
Myth #2: Meat Comprises Most of the Acidic
Food in our Diet.
False. According to my friend Dr. Jade Teta, 70% of the acidic foods in our
diet come from grains and dairy. Yes, meat is acidic, which is why you eat lots
of veggies with your steak.
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 about as much sense as worrying about the dirt in your trash,”
says Monica Reinagel, the Nutrition Diva.
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.
Sorry folks, that’s just not true. At about 7.4, your blood’s pH is already
alkaline, and like I said earlier, 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: very little
evidence supports these theories.
Is the Fountain of
Youth Alkaline?
If there’s a diet trend, leave it to Los Angeles to hop all
over it. Such is the case with alkaline water, which is basically overpriced designer water with a higher pH level
than regular water. Extra electrons in this special water, the story goes, can
“clean up” free radical damage in your body.
Advocates claim
among its benefits, alkaline water neutralizes acid in your bloodstream,
prevents disease, increases nutrient absorption, and slows the aging process. That’s
why my client was gulping this exorbitant stuff like we were suffering a
drought tomorrow.
Dr. Joseph
Mercola calls alkaline water “snake oil on tap” with little to substantiate it.
“The reality is, most of the
circulating information is distributed by clever marketers, with very little
scientific validity to back up their claims,” he says.
Wait: that sounds a
lot like pH-balanced diets!
More
than just wasting money, alkaline water could also wreck your health. According
to Dr. Mercola, “If you fall
for this ‘water fad’ you could do some major damage.” Not to mention those
nasty phthalates you’re putting
in your body from plastic bottles!
Focus less on your
water’s pH and more on quality. Always
use pure filtered water and drink liberally. I use a liter-sized canteen and
fill it three or four times a day. Many gyms have filtered water, and I have a
purifier on my kitchen tap.
If you’ve got such a
huge bank account to buy useless stuff like alkaline water – yeah, me neither –
consider switching to pure filtered water and giving that extra money to a
charity that funds clean water in impoverished countries.
Beyond the Hoopla: My Take-Away
If you haven’t
guessed, I’m not crazy about pH-balanced diets, and neither were the highly
credentialed experts I consulted. I didn’t find much science to support their
validity. Besides, for most people they’re too confusing and contradictory.
That said, I do
advocate a balance of acid and alkaline foods, which mimic what your
Paleolithic ancestors ate. So if you eat a grass-fed sirloin, you want to load
about half your plate with leafy and cruciferous veggies. If you have a few
slices of cheese, throw them on an apple or salad to balance the acidity.
Your mother or
maybe even grandmother taught you this stuff decades ago. As usual, they were
on to something.
Got a trend you’d like to see busted? Post in my
comment section below or on my Facebook fan page and I’ll consider it for a future blog
idea.
References
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| Fitness expert and strength coach Jini Cicero, CSCS, teaches intermediate exercisers how to blast through plateaus to create incredible transformations. Are you ready to take your fitness to a whole new level? Find out now! Take Jini's "Are you Ready?" Quiz at www.Jinifit.com. © 2011 Jinifit, Inc. |
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