The pH Nutrition Guide to
Acid / Alkaline Balance
A NaturalNews Special
Report by Jack Challem
The basic chemistry of pH balance
Back in high school
chemistry, we learned about pH: acids had low numbers, alkalines had
high numbers, and a pH of 7.0 was neutral. And it all meant
absolutely nothing in terms of day-to-day life.
It now turns
out that we have a better shot at long-term health if our body's pH
is neutral or slightly alkaline. When we tilt toward greater acidity,
which can be measured easily, we have a greater risk of developing
osteoporosis, weak muscles, heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease,
and a host of other health problems.
The solution, according
to scientists who have researched "chronic low-grade metabolic
acidosis," is eating a diet that yields more alkaline and less
acid. Just what kind of diet is that? One that's high in fruits and
vegetables. That might not seem like a big surprise, except for a few
unexpected twists and turns.
Acid-yielding foods deplete minerals
If the idea of
balancing acid and alkaline foods seems a bit off the wall, it does
have a somewhat checkered past. Most people, including physicians,
aren't familiar with the dangers of acidosis, except in the most
extreme situations. Those include lactic acidosis, from overexercise;
ketoacidosis, when diabetes start burning their own fat; and renal
acidosis, which can be a sign of kidney failure.
The original
scientific research on acid-yielding and alkaline-yielding foods
dates back to 1914 and was remarkably accurate, according to Loren
Cordain, Ph.D., a professor and researcher in the department of
health and exercise science at Colorado State University, Fort
Collins. Then, in the 1930s and 1940s, the acid-alkaline concept was
hijacked by early health food "nuts." Among them, William
Hay, M.D., proposed an almost ritualistic eating habit based on food
acidity or alkalinity. Since then, most doctors have viewed any
discussion of acid and alkaline diets with a skeptical eye.
But
the problem with acid-producing eating habits is very real, contends
Cordain, a leading expert on the Paleolithic, or Stone Age diet.
"After digestion, all foods report to the kidneys as being
either acidic or alkaline," he says. "The kidneys are
responsible for fluid balance and maintaining a relatively neutral pH
in the body."
That's where things get interesting. When
acid-yielding foods lower the body's pH, the kidneys coordinate
efforts to buffer that acidity. Bones release calcium and magnesium
to reestablish alkalinity, and muscles are broken down to produce
ammonia, which is strongly alkaline. By the time the response is all
over, your bone minerals and broken down muscle get excreted in
urine.
Long term, excess acidity leads to thinner bones and
lower muscle mass, points out Anthony Sebastian, M.D., of the
University of California, San Francisco. These problems are
compounded by normal aging, which increases acidosis, bone loss, and
muscle wasting. Along the way, calcium and magnesium losses can
equate to deficiencies, with many ramifications. Both minerals play
essential roles in bone formation and normal heart rhythm. Low
magnesium levels can cause muscle cramps, arrhythmias, and anxiety.
The four cases of dietary acidosis
Sebastian, regarded at
the top researcher in the field of diet-related acidosis, admits that
some of the science, at first glance, appears counter-intuitive. For
example, acidic and alkaline foods don't usually translate into acid-
and alkaline-yielding foods. The distinction is subtle but
significant. An acid-yielding food is one that creates a lower, or
more acidic, pH. Citrus fruits and tomatoes are acidic, but they have
a net alkaline yield once their constituents get to the kidneys.
So
if acid foods don't necessarily make for an acid pH, what then
happens? Sebastian points to four big issues.
• First,
fruits and vegetables are rich in potassium salts, a natural buffer.
Eating few of these foods deprives us of potassium, a mineral that
protects against hypertension and stroke. According to Cordain's
research, humans evolved eating a 10:1 ratio of potassium to sodium,
and he regards this ratio as our biological baseline. Today, because
of heavily salted processed and fast foods, combined with a low
intake of fruits and vegetables, the ratio is now 3:1 in favor of
sodium. That reversal, he says, wreaks havoc with pH and our
dependency on potassium.
• Second, there has also been a
similar reversal in the consumption of naturally occurring
bicarbonate (such as potassium bicarbonate) in foods and added
chloride (mostly in the form of sodium chloride, or table salt).
Bicarbonate is alkaline, where as chloride is acid-yielding. Chloride
also constricts blood vessels, and narrows blood vessels reduce
circulation, Sebastian says. Because the whole body depends on
healthy circulation, vasoconstriction contributes to heart disease,
stroke, dementia, and probably every other degenerative disease.
•
Third, eating large amounts of animal protein (including meat, fowl,
and seafood) releases sulfuric acid though the metabolism of
sulfur-containing amino acids, also contributing to greater acidity.
This acidic shift can be offset with greater consumption of fruits
and vegetables (rich in potassium bicarbonate), but again, most
Americans eat these foods sparingly.
• Fourth, grains,
such as wheat, rye, and corn, have a net acid-yielding effect,
regardless of whether they are in the form of white bread, breakfast
cereal, pasta or whole grains. "Grains are the most frequently
consumed plant food in the United States," says Sebastian, and
account for 65 percent of the plant foods eaten by Americans. "In
addition to their acid yield, grains displace more nutritious fruits
and vegetables," he adds.
"The real problem is one
of alkaline deficiency, more than one of too much acid," says
Sebastian. People eat plenty of acid-yielding animal protein, dairy
products, and grains. The missing piece is an appreciate amount of
fruits and vegetables, to produce an alkaline yield. Study after
study has shown that most Americans -- 68 to 91 percent -- don't eat
the five recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables.
pH, acidosis and osteoporosis
The strongest
evidence in support of maintaining an acid-alkaline balance relates
to osteoporosis. "Consider that Americans consume more
calcium-rich dairy foods than almost every other nation, and we have
one of the highest rates of osteoporosis," says Cordain.
"There's a disconnect here. Dairy may be rich in calcium, but
most dairy foods also produce an acid yield."
Susan
Brown, Ph.D., who heads the nonprofit Osteoporosis Education Project
in East Syracuse, N.Y., frames the acid-alkaline issue as one of
mineral adequacy and depletion. "It's a little like over-farming
and depleting mineral levels in soil," she says. "If we eat
foods that create an acidic pH in the body, we will deplete our bones
of minerals and our muscles of protein.
Brown described a
client named Janet whose doctor diagnosed her at age 52 with
osteopenia, a demineralizing of bone that often foreshadows
osteoporosis. At 55, Janet began following Brown's recommendations
for eating more fruits and vegetables, taking supplements, and
exercising. Three years later, Janet was clearly building bone mass
in her spine and hip, even while going through menopause.
Meanwhile,
Sebastian acknowledges that he may have only scratched the surface
when it comes to the health problems related to mild life-long
acidosis. He says low-grade acidosis increases insulin resistance,
the hallmark of both prediabetes and full-blown type-2 diabetes. It
increases the risk of kidney stones and kidney failure. And one study
suggests that it might even alter gene activity and raise the risk of
breast cancer. He admits that no one yet knows all the consequences
of a fundamental shift in the body's acid-alkaline balance, but he
suspects it's far reaching.
Can supplements help?
Millions of women
dutifully take calcium supplements to help maintain their bone mass
and reduce their chances of developing severe osteoporosis with age.
But do supplements have any real benefit in alkalizing the
body?
Brown does see a benefit from supplements, but she says
it's important to stem calcium and magnesium losses from
acid-yielding eating habits. "Acid-alkaline balance is
overwhelmingly a food issue," she emphasizes. "Your pH is
really a sign of how your body is managing your mineral
reserves."
Potassium has turned out to be a crucial
mineral for maintaining bone. High-potassium diets -- that is, those
rich in fruits and vegetables -- slow bone loss, mainly by promoting
alkalinity. So do supplements, such as potassium citrate and
bicarbonate. While potassium citrate is commonly sold, the
bicarbonate form is available only on prescription. Still, it's hard
for supplements to compete with the potassium in foods. A handful of
raisins, two dates, or a small banana each provide more than 300 mg
of potassium.
If you take supplements, opt for the citrate
form, such as calcium citrate and magnesium citrate. (Potassium
supplements must by law be under 99 mg because of a risk of
arrhythmias at high doses.) Fumarate, aspartate, and succinate forms
of minerals also have an alkalizing effect, and all get Brown's
blessing. In one study, Sebastian found that potassium citrate
supplements protected against calcium losses, even when people ate a
high salt diet. Buffered vitamin C, which is ascorbic acid formulated
with the carbonate forms of calcium, magnesium, and potassium, might
also have a slight alkalizing effect.
Some supplements, such
as coral calcium, have been promoted as a way to restore an alkaline
pH. But coral calcium is largely calcium carbonate, which is far less
expensive as a generic supplement. It's also not as well absorbed as
the citrate form.
What should you eat for proper pH levels?
Nutritional
recommendations are as varied as political and religious beliefs and,
sometimes, held to just as stridently. Cordain tries to rise about
the controversies by looking to our biological and genetic heritage.
He points out that people, until relatively recently, were
hunter-gatherers whose diets consisted of a combination of lean
animal foods (including fish) and uncultivated vegetables and fruits.
Based on his analyses of the diets of 229 pre-modern cultures,
Cordain has calculated that the "average" ancient diet
consisted of 55 percent animal foods and 45 percent plant foods. The
animal foods included healthy fats as well as protein, and the plant
foods consisted of leaves, stalks, fruit, seeds, tubers, and roots.
Grains and cow's milk didn't enter the picture until about 7,000 to
10,000 years ago, too short a time for genetic adaptation.
Cordain's
recommendations, found in The Paleo Diet and The Paleo
Diet for Athletes include too many veggies to be a knockoff of
the Atkins' high-protein diet. (Eating very lean meats, he adds,
reduces saturated fats amount to only 10 percent of calories.) Nor do
you have to be a vegetarian to gain the alkalizing benefits of fruits
and vegetables. "It takes about 35 percent of total calories as
fruits and veggies to produce a net alkaline load," he explains.
"What's so hard about one-third of your plate being
veggies?"
Still, if you have visions of veggies coming
out of your ears, the answer is really simple. Cordain, Sebastian,
and Brown suggest cutting back on breads, pastas, and other
grain-based foods, as well as "high-glycemic" foods such as
potatoes. They're all nutrient-poor foods, compared with protein and
veggies.
"It's all another scientific justification for
what your mother always told you," notes Brown. "Eat your
fruits and veggies."
How to test your own pH
You can test your own
pH simply and inexpensively. All you need are some pH test strips.
Tear off two three-inch strips. As you as you awaken, before you
drink or eat anything, put some saliva on the test strip. Compare the
color to a pH color chart that comes with the test strips. Next,
measure the pH of your second urination of the morning. To
do this, urinate on the strip or collect the urine in a plastic or
glass (not paper) cup and dip the test strip. Again, compare the
color to the pH color chart.
Decker Weiss, N.M.D., of
Scottsdale, Arizona, recommends doing the saliva and urine tests for
10 mornings in a row. "Ignore the top three and bottom three
tests because they're extremes. Average the remaining four to
determine your pH," he says. Weiss aims for a pH of 6.8 to 7 in
his heart patients, and 7.2 to 7.4 in his osteoporosis patients. You
can retest a few weeks after changing your eating habits.
You
can order the test strips from www.alkalineforlife.com
or by calling 888.206.7119. One roll, which is good for a few dozen
tests, is $13.95.
The pH of common substances
14.0 Sodium Hydroxide:
Alkaline
13.0 Lye
11.0 Ammonia
10.5 Milk of Magnesia
8.3
Baking Soda
7.4 Human Blood
7.0 Pure Water: Neutral
6.6
Milk: Acid
4.5 Tomatoes
4.0 Wine and Beer
3.0 Apples
2.2
Vinegar
2.0 Lemon Juice
1.0 Battery Acid
0.0 Hydrochloric
acid
Acid-Yielding Foods
Spaghetti
Corn
flakes
While rice
Rye bread
White bread
Whole
milk
Lentils
Beef
Pork
Very Acid-Yielding
Foods
Parmesan cheese
Processed (soft) cheeses
Hard
cheeses
Gouda cheese
Cottage cheese
Brown rice
Rolled
oats
Whole wheat bread
Peanuts
Walnuts
Salami
Luncheon
meat, canned
Liver
sausage
Chicken
Cod
Herring
Trout
Eggs
Alkaline-Yielding
Foods
Apricots
Kiwifruit
Cherries
Bananas
Strawberries
Peaches
Oranges
Lemon
juice
Pears
Pineapple
Peaches
Apples
Watermelon
Celery
Carrots
Zucchini
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Green
peppers
Cucumber
Tomatoes
Eggplant
Lettuce
Green
beans
Onions
Mushrooms
Mineral water
Very
Alkaline-Yielding Foods
Spinach
Raisins
Dates
Note:
All fruits and vegetables are alkaline yielding, unless they have
been pickled or marinated.
Scientific Citations
Rylander R, Remer T,
Berkemeyer S, et al. Acid-base status affects renal magnesium losses
in healthy, elderly persons. Journal of Nutrition,
2006;136:2374-2377.
Frassetto L, Morris RC, Sellmeyer DE, et
al. Diet, evolution and aging. The pathophysiologic effects of the
post-agricultural inversion of the potassium-to-sodium and
base-to-chloride ratios in the human diet. European Journal of
Nutrition, 2001;40:200-213.
Sebastian A, Frassetto LA,
Morris RC. The acid-base effects of the contemporary Western diet: an
evolutionary perspective. Eds: Alpern RJ and Heber SC, in The
Kidney: Physiology and Pathophysiology, 9th edition. In
press.
Patterson BH, Block G, Rosenberger WF, et al. Fruit and
vegetables in the American diet: data from the NHANES II survey.
American Journal of Public Health, 1990;80:1443-9.
Li R,
Serdula M, Bland S, et al. Trends in fruit and vegetable consumption
among adults in 16 US states: behavioral risk factor surveillance
system, 1990-1996.
Menendez JA, Decker JP, Lupu R. In support
of fatty acid synthase (FAS) as a metabolic oncogene: extracellular
acidosis acts in an epigenetic fashion activating FAS gene expression
in cancer cells. Journal of Cell Biochemistry,
2005;94:1-4.
Macdonald HM, New SA, Fraser WD, et al. Low
dietary potassium intakes and high dietary estimates of net
endogenous acid production are associated with low bone mineral
density in premenopausal women and increased markers of bone
resorption in post menopausal women. American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, 2005;81:923-933.
Sebastian A, Harris ST,
Ottaway JH, et al. Improved mineral balance and skeletal metabolism
in postmenopausal women treated with potassium bicarbonate. New
England Journal of Medicine, 1994;330:1776-1781.
Sellmeyer
DE, Schloetter M, Sebastian A. Potassium citrate prevents increased
urine calcium excretion and bone resorption induced by a high sodium
chloride diet. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology &
Metabolism, 2002;87:2008-2012.
About the author
Jack Challem, known as
The Nutrition Reporter(tm), is a personal nutrition coach based in
Tucson, Arizona. Jack is one of America's most trusted nutrition and
health writers, and has written about research on nutrition,
vitamins, minerals, and herbs for more than 30 years. He is the
author of The Food-Mood Solution: The Nutrition and Lifestyle
Plan to Feel Good Againem> (Wiley, 2007), Feed Your Genes Right
(Wiley, 2005), The Inflammation Syndrome (Wiley, 2003) and
the lead author of the best-selling Syndrome X: The Complete
Nutritional Program to Prevent and Reverse Insulin Resistance
(Wiley, 2000). His next book, Stop Prediabetes Now, will be
published in the fall of 2007. He writes The Nutrition
Reporter(tm) newsletter and contributes regularly to many
magazines, including Alternative Medicine, Better
Nutrition, Body & Soul, Experience Life,
and Let's Live. Jack's scientific articles have appeared in
Free Radical Biology & Medicine, Journal of
Orthomolecular Medicine, Medical Hypotheses, and other
journals. In addition, he is a columnist for Alternative &
Complementary Therapies. Jack is a frequent speaker at
nutritional medicine conferences and to consumer health groups. Email
him via www.foodmoodsolution.com
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