The Alkaline Diet: An Evidence-Based Review

Healthline Diet Score: 2.13 out of 5

The alkaline diet is based on the idea that replacing acid-forming foods with alkaline foods can improve your health. Proponents of this diet even claim that it can help crusade serious diseases like cancer. This article examines the skill behind the alkaline diet.

DIET REVIEW SCORECARD

• Overall score: 2.13
• Weight loss: 2.5
• Healthy eating: 1.75
• Sustainability: 2.5
• Whole body health: 0.5
• Nutrition quality: 3.5
• Evidence based: 2

bottom LINE : The Alkaline Diet is said to fight disease and cancer, but its claims aren ’ metric ton backed by science. Although it may aid your health by restricting trash foods and promoting more implant foods, this has nothing to do with your body ’ mho ph levels .

What is the alkaline diet?

parcel on Pinterest The alkaline diet is besides known as the acid-alkaline diet or alkaline ash diet. Its premise is that your diet can alter the ph value — the measurement of acidity or alkalinity — of your body. Your metamorphosis — the conversion of food into energy — is sometimes compared to fire. Both involve a chemical chemical reaction that breaks down a solid mass. however, the chemical reactions in your body happen in a slow and operate manner. When things burn, an ash remainder is left behind. similarly, the foods you eat leave an “ ash ” remainder known as metabolic thriftlessness. This metabolic waste can be alkaline, neutral, or acidic. Proponents of this diet claim that metabolic waste can directly affect your torso ’ mho acidity. In other words, if you eat foods that leave acidic ash, it makes your rake more acidic. If you eat foods that leave alkaline ash, it makes your lineage more alkaline. According to the acid-ash hypothesis, acidic ash is thought to make you vulnerable to illness and disease, whereas alkaline ash is considered protective. By choosing more alkaline foods, you should be able to “ alkalize ” your consistency and improve your health. food components that leave an acidic ash include protein, phosphate, and sulphur, while alkaline components include calcium, magnesium, and potassium ( 1, 2 ). Certain food groups are considered acidic, alkaline, or neutral :

• Acidic: meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, grains, alcohol
• Neutral: natural fats, starches, and sugars
• Alkaline: fruits, nuts, legumes, and vegetables

Summary According to proponents of the alkaline diet, the metabolic consume — or ash — left from the burn of foods can directly affect the sourness or alkalinity of your body .

Regular pH levels in your body

When discussing the alkaline diet, it ’ randomness significant to understand ph. Put simply, ph is a measurement of how acidic or alkaline something is. The ph value ranges from 0–14 :

• Acidic: 0.0–6.9
• Neutral: 7.0
• Alkaline (or basic): 7.1–14.0

many proponents of this diet suggest that people monitor the ph of their urine to ensure that it is alkaline ( over 7 ) and not acidic ( below 7 ). however, it ’ randomness authoritative to note that ph varies greatly within your body. While some parts are acidic, others are alkaline — there is no hardening level. Your stomach is loaded with hydrochloric acid, giving it a ph of 2–3.5, which is highly acidic. This acidity is necessity to break down food. On the early hand, homo blood is always slightly alkaline, with a ph of 7.36–7.44 ( 3 ). When your blood ph falls out of the normal rate, it can be fatal if left untreated ( 4 ). however, this merely happens during certain disease states, such as ketoacidosis caused by diabetes, starvation, or alcohol intake ( 5, 6, 7 ) .

Summary The ph value measures a kernel ’ s acidity or alkalinity. For example, stomach acid is highly acidic, while blood is slenderly alkaline .

Food affects the pH of your urine, but not your blood

It ’ s critical for your health that the ph of your blood remains changeless. If it were to fall outside of the normal image, your cells would stop work and you would die very cursorily if untreated. For this rationality, your body has many effective ways to closely regulate its ph balance. This is known as acid-base homeostasis. In fact, it ’ mho closely impossible for food to change the ph respect of blood in goodly people, although bantam fluctuations can occur within the normal range. however, food can change the ph value of your urine — though the effect is reasonably variable ( 1, 8 ). Excreting acids in your urine is one of the independent ways your body regulates its blood ph. If you eat a large steak, your urine will be more acidic several hours subsequently as your body removes the metabolic waste from your arrangement. therefore, urine ph is a poor indicator of overall body ph and general health. It can besides be influenced by factors other than your diet .

Summary Your body tightly regulates blood ph levels. In healthy people, diet doesn ’ t importantly affect rake ph, but it can change urine ph .

Acid-forming foods and osteoporosis

osteoporosis is a progressive bone disease characterized by a decrease in bone mineral message. It ’ mho particularly park among postmenopausal women and can drastically increase your risk of fractures. many alkaline-diet proponents believe that to maintain a constant lineage ph, your body takes alkaline minerals, such as calcium from your bones, to buffer the acids from the acid-forming foods you eat. According to this theory, acid-forming diets, such as the standard Western diet, will cause a loss in bone mineral density. This theory is known as the “ acid-ash hypothesis of osteoporosis. ” however, this theory ignores the officiate of your kidneys, which are fundamental to removing acids and regulating body ph. The kidneys produce bicarbonate ions that neutralize acids in your rake, enabling your consistency to close manage blood ph ( 9 ). Your respiratory system is besides involved in controlling lineage ph. When bicarbonate ions from your kidneys bind to acids in your lineage, they form carbon dioxide, which you breathe out, and water, which you pee out. The acid-ash hypothesis besides ignores one of the main drivers of osteoporosis — a personnel casualty in the protein collagen from cram ( 10, 11 ). ironically, this loss of collagen is strongly linked to first gear levels of two acids — orthosilicic acid and ascorbic acid, or vitamin C — in your diet ( 12 ). Keep in mind that scientific testify linking dietary acid to bone concentration or fracture risk is desegregate. While many experimental studies have found no association, others have detected a significant connection ( 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 ). clinical trials, which tend to be more accurate, have concluded that acid-forming diets have no impact on calcium levels in your body ( 9, 18, 19 ). If anything, these diets improve bone health by increasing calcium retention and activating the IGF-1 hormone, which stimulates the rectify of muscle and cram ( 20, 21 ). As such, a high-protein, acid-forming diet is probably linked to better bone health — not worse .

Summary Although attest is interracial, most research does not support the theory that acid-forming diets harm your bones. Protein, an acidic food, even seems to be beneficial .

Acidity and cancer

many people argue that cancer entirely grows in an acidic environment and can be treated oreven cured with an alkaline diet. however, comprehensive reviews on the relationship between diet-induced acidosis — or increased lineage acidity caused by diet — and cancer concluded that there is no direct connect ( 22, 23 ). first, food doesn ’ t significantly influence lineage ph ( 8, 24 ). Second, even if you assume that food could dramatically alter the ph value of blood or other tissues, cancer cells are not restricted to acidic environments. In fact, cancer grows in normal body tissue, which has a slenderly alkaline ph of 7.4. many experiments have successfully grown cancer cells in an alkaline environment ( 25 ). And while tumors grow faster in acidic environments, tumors create this sourness themselves. It is not the acidic environment that creates cancer cells, but cancer cells that create the acidic environment ( 26 ) .

Summary There is no link between an acid-forming diet and cancer. Cancer cells besides grow in alkaline environments .

Ancestral diets and acidity

Examining the acid-alkaline theory from both an evolutionary and scientific position reveals discrepancies. One learn estimated that 87 % of pre-agricultural humans ate alkaline diets and formed the central argument behind the advanced alkaline diet ( 27 ). More recent research approximates that half of pre-agricultural humans consume web alkaline-forming diets, while the other half feed net acid-forming diets ( 28 ). Keep in mind that our outback ancestors lived in vastly different climates with access to diverse foods. In fact, acid-forming diets were more coarse as people moved further north of the equator, away from the tropics ( 29 ). Although around half of hunter-gatherers were eating a net acid-forming diet, advanced diseases are believed to have been much less common ( 30 ) .

Summary current studies suggest that about half of ancestral diets were acid-forming, specially among people who lived far from the equator .

The bottom line

The alkaline diet is quite healthy, encouraging a high consumption of fruits, vegetables, and healthy plant foods while restricting processed debris foods. however, the notion that the diet boosts health because of its alkalize effects is suspect. These claims haven ’ triiodothyronine been proven by any authentic human studies.

Some studies suggest positive effects in a very humble subset of the population. specifically, a low-protein alkalize diet may benefit people with chronic kidney disease ( 31 ). In general, the alkaline diet is healthy because it ’ s based on wholly and unrefined foods. No reliable evidence suggests it has anything to do with ph levels .