Alkaline Vs. Acid ?

[UR Groovy]

Hi,

Wasn't sure where to put this topic. Maybe I should have stuck it in Gab?

I've been noticing something interesting about my dietary changes and that I do much better when I eat more alkaline than acidic foods. I happened upon some info about PH and would like to look into it further. I have never paid attention to this before, but would like to. Anybody out there who has any knowledge or experience with this? If anyone out there can direct me to a reputable website or maybe a book that could be helpful in learning about this, I would really appreciate it.

thanks,

k

[zkat]

Paleo diet and the Paleo diet for athletes delves into PH levels of food and how they impact the body.

The website is Paleodiet.com

Human Blood is slightly alkaline with an optimal pH of 7.35-7.45. This site is helpful, but I will not swear by it's reputation. Open Original Shared Link

[Centa]

Hello,

I've about half-researched this one. I'll be interested to read what other members post on it.

An alternative medicine practitioner strongly recommended that I check my pH and if it was acid, to eat foods to make my pH more alkaline.

I did some reading about it on the net, but finally decided that the whole thing wasn't for me, even though the foods recommended are healthy ones and I should hope that they would be in my diet.

• I not only tested my urine, with the recommended kit that I bought at Wild Oats (there were a couple different kinds available; I presume that they're available in other health foods stores, too), since that's what is supposed to be the indicator of body pH, or alimentary pH, but also tested everything that I could think of: my mouth, the tap water, the water in the bottled spring water that I drink. And I tested throughout the day. None of the sites tell you to do that, but since the whole premise is that your body, or its fluids, remain in a steady acidic or basic state, and that you are to eat different foods to re-set the pH state, obviously, I thought, I should have acidic urine 23 hours a day as well as that one morning hour of the test.
  
  In my case, my urine registered acid in the morning (they tell you to expect this, that this is the sign of trouble), but in an hour was within the range that the pro-pH sites were saying was normal. 23 hours of the day, the urine test seemed to be saying that my urine at least, was satisfactory as far as its pH was concerned.
  

What really encouraged me to drop the pH concerns at all were three other things, the first the most important to me.

• I read a full-fledged, sample-based medical scientific paper that established that the pH of the GI tract was highly regular, was alkaline and that what you ate didn't affect that. I read far enough around that I started to see that in other articles based on sample gathering, too, by the traditional medical community (by that, I mean Western). None of the sites recommending eating certain foods to change the body pH made any remarks about the pH levels in different parts of the body...they would say that that morning pH test was an indicator of the whole body, or all its fluids.
  
  
  
• (!) The sites disagree with each other as to what food items are acid, or make the bodily fluids (or the whole body) more acidic, and which foods make it more alkaline. And there were very big discrepancies in some of those lists. Now, I figured that if this thing about eating foods that change the pH is true, then through common experience of increased well-being, surely there ought to be a very high level of consistency in those lists of foods to eat or to not eat. Some foods were on all the lists, but there were enough foods that some were claiming to be "good" that other sites were claiming were "bad", to be avoided, that I really wasn't satisfied.
  
  
  
• I discovered that I could fiddle with that morning pH test of my urine pretty easily. Like eating spinach the night before. If pH is systems-wide consistent, as these sites claim, it shouldn't be so easily manipulated, I thought.
  

So sum total, I don't know what to think about the claims that pH balancing shifting it toward alkaline will take away all the symptoms that are listed on those sites.

By the time I got through reading, I had seen many claims but no scientifically cross checked (through blind studies of different groups, or placebo versus non placebo, etc.) demonstration of the pH claims.

On the other hand, the foods they encourage you to eat are all healthy. I do think eating leafy greens, and other foods with high nutrient content will make anyone feel better, and for me it can be pretty dramatic: I can feel the effect in a couple days.

Sum total sum total, I'd need to see the pro-re-balance the body pH proponents deal directly with the medical studies that say that the pH of the GI tract is constant, and constantly alkaline. And particularly deal with the samples the medical studies present.

At this point I'm not convinced. If the major drive for a person with celiac sprue is to protect and heal the wellbeing of their GI tract, it didn't look to me like this pH rebalancing had much to offer, since the tract, in whatever state it is, is ALREADY alkaline, well within their claimed health range

I end up writing long posts sometimes. Sorry about that. I really would be interested, in a positive way, in hearing other people's research of the matter or testing in their own life

[UR Groovy]

...

By the time I got through reading, I had seen many claims but no scientifically cross checked (through blind studies of different groups, or placebo versus non placebo, etc.) demonstration of the pH claims.

On the other hand, the foods they encourage you to eat are all healthy. I do think eating leafy greens, and other foods with high nutrient content will make anyone feel better, and for me it can be pretty dramatic: I can feel the effect in a couple days.

...

Sum total sum total, I'd need to see the pro-re-balance the body pH proponents deal directly with the medical studies that say that the pH of the GI tract is constant, and constantly alkaline. And particularly deal with the samples the medical studies present.

At this point I'm not convinced.

...

I see what you're saying. Thanks for posting. And, thanks zkat.

I also was noticing a lot of conflicting info. on different websites with no real proof of anything, except that most of the foods that seem to be recommended (to increase alkalinity) are, in fact, good for your body anyway. It could be simply that because I've increased my veggie and good fat choices, I've been noticing that I'm feeling more energy and better in general.

[Di-gfree]

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