Most people understand that their diet would be healthier if they ate more raw fruits and vegetables and less processed food and red meat. The high-alkaline low-acid diet is essentially exactly that, and provides additional reasons why such a shift in eating habits is so healthy. The idea of an alkaline diet has been around for decades, but more recently it has been championed by Robert O. Young, Ph.D., and his wife Shelley. According to their book, "The pH Miracle," raw, unprocessed foods raise the pH of internal body fluids, and most harmful bacteria cannot thrive in an alkaline environment. They claim a strongly alkaline diet can reverse many unhealthy conditions, including obesity.
pH of the Body
The pH scale, which measures acidity, runs from 0 to 14. A pH of 7 is neutral; solutions that measure less than 7 are acidic and those over 7 are alkaline. The body's natural balance is slightly alkaline, at 7.4 pH. Those who support the high-alkaline diet believe stress and diet can create a prolonged acidic environment within the body that can damage bones, raise blood pressure, invite infection and weaken immune response. They say raising pH through the diet helps eliminate and reverse these conditions and create feelings of increased energy. Young believes that a major cause of overweight is the storing of fat tissue as a coping mechanism for acidic internal conditions.
High Alkaline Foods
The high-alkaline, low-acid diet has two parts. The first is a move toward eating primarily high-alkaline foods. Broccoli, bananas, carrots, celery, garlic (raw), greens (spinach, chard, collards), lemon, lime, sprouts and apple cider vinegar are considered high-alkaline foods by high-alkaline diet proponents. The claim is that increasing your intake of these foods can have a strong effect on your internal pH when combined with a reduction of acidic foods like meat, white bread, alcohol, artificially sweetened drinks and dairy products.
Effects
Many foods that produce an alkalizing effect in the body are not the ones you might first expect. Citrus fruits and vinegar, in particular, seem to be acidic in nature, but their effect on the body when digested is to increase pH levels because of the very alkaline residue they form when metabolized. According to Young, these alkalizing effects can be demonstrated by testing saliva, urine, tears, sweat and blood. Processed fruits and vegetables that are cooked or canned are no longer alkalizing. An aggressively high-alkaline diet includes roughly 40 percent raw, alkalizing foods, 40 percent steamed or lightly cooked alkaline foods and 20 percent acidic foods or beverages.
Neutral Foods
According to the Mayo Clinic Diet Manual, several foods are classified as having a neutral effect on internal pH. These include some cooking oils (olive, flax, canola, walnut and safflower), syrup, honey, coffee and tea. They are better choices than more acidic alternatives but should be indulged in sparingly. Distilled water, which has an exactly neutral pH when produced, often tests acidic upon consumption because it absorbs carbon dioxide when exposed to air. Mineral, ionized or reverse osmosis waters are believed best for alkalizing. Young recommends drinking water with a pH between 9 and 11 as a way to neutralize alkaline food and release stored fat.
Theories/Speculation
The benefits of an alkaline diet were a major theme of Edgar Cayce, the "Sleeping Prophet," during the 1930s and '40s.Though the high-alkaline. low-acid diet has seen widespread adoption in some circles, it is not universally supported. Conclusive scientific evidence for the alkalizing effect of foods, and the benefit of an alkaline diet, has been elusive. A leading theory for why this diet might be effective is that the body and its interconnected systems likely developed on a diet of primarily raw fruits and vegetables and water, with a moderate amount of legumes and small amounts of meat. Proponents of the alkaline diet believe that radically deviating from this diet could have harmful long term effects.
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