Brenda Khan
The alkaline diet is a plant-based diet that claims to change your body's pH to make you healthier. It involves eating specific foods that make your body more alkaline, such as fruits, vegetables, soybeans, tofu, nuts, seeds, and legumes, while avoiding acidic foods like dairy, eggs, meat, grains, and processed snacks. While the diet may promote healthy eating patterns, it is based on misconceptions about how diet influences pH in the body, and there is little evidence that it can change your body's pH level. The diet can be challenging to maintain due to its restrictions and limited food options. Before starting any new diet, it is recommended to consult a doctor or dietitian to ensure it aligns with your health goals.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Purpose | To change your body's pH to make you healthier |
| Food | Natural, nutritious, and unprocessed foods that are generally considered good for you |
| Food to include | Most fruits and vegetables, soybean, tofu, some nuts, seeds, legumes, natural fats, milk, sugars |
| Food to avoid | Dairy, eggs, meat, grains, processed foods, alcohol, caffeine |
| Effect | Weight loss, cancer prevention and treatment |
| Science | There is little evidence to support the diet's claims |
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What You'll Learn
Eat natural, unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds
The alkaline diet is based on the idea that eating specific foods that make your body more alkaline can improve your health and protect against certain conditions. However, it's important to note that there is little evidence supporting the claim that diet can significantly change the pH level of your blood, which your body tightly regulates.
A natural, unprocessed diet includes whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds. These foods are packed with nutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber, which can provide various health benefits. For example, research has shown that a nutrient-rich diet helps protect against inflammation, a risk factor for heart disease. Additionally, a high-fiber diet supports a healthy gut and aids in digestion.
When it comes to fruits, focus on fresh, whole fruits rather than dried or packaged options. Include a variety of colourful vegetables in your diet, such as leafy greens, bell peppers, and carrots. Legumes, such as beans, lentils, and chickpeas, are excellent sources of protein and fiber. Nuts and seeds, such as almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds, provide healthy fats, fiber, and various vitamins and minerals.
It's important to note that you don't need to eliminate all processed foods from your diet to reap the benefits of an alkaline diet. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends consuming minimally processed foods in addition to non-processed foods. Minimally processed foods are those that have been altered through cooking, freezing, or removing inedible parts, but they do not contain added ingredients. Examples include frozen fruits and vegetables, cooked salmon, and roasted nuts.
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Avoid meat, dairy, eggs, grains and processed foods
The alkaline diet is based on the idea that eating certain foods can alter the pH of your body, making it more alkaline. According to this theory, maintaining a constant blood pH requires the body to take alkaline minerals from bones to buffer acids from acid-forming foods. This is known as the "acid-ash hypothesis of osteoporosis", which suggests that acid-forming foods can cause bone mineral density loss. However, this theory does not consider the function of the kidneys and lungs in regulating blood pH levels.
Proponents of the alkaline diet suggest that people monitor the pH of their urine to ensure that it is alkaline (over 7) and not acidic (below 7). However, health experts note that urine pH is a poor indicator of overall body pH and general health. While food can change the pH of urine, it does not significantly affect blood pH.
The alkaline diet is highly restrictive and involves avoiding or limiting certain food groups. Here are the reasons for avoiding meat, dairy, eggs, grains, and processed foods on an alkaline diet:
Meat
Meat, including red meat, poultry, and game, is considered acidic and is not allowed on the alkaline diet. The diet is almost entirely vegetarian, and most forms of meat are off-limits. Meat is a common source of protein, and on an alkaline diet, many of these protein sources are restricted.
Dairy
Most forms of dairy are also restricted on the alkaline diet. Dairy products, such as milk and natural fats, are considered neutral foods. Advocates of the alkaline diet typically recommend limiting neutral foods.
Eggs
Eggs are another food group that is avoided on the alkaline diet. They are considered acidic and are not included in the primarily plant-based eating pattern.
Grains
While some whole grains are allowed on the alkaline diet, most grains are restricted. This is because they are considered acidic and fall on the acidic side of the pH scale. However, some alkaline-friendly grains include wheat, which is avoided by those with allergies, and non-starchy grains.
Processed Foods
The alkaline diet promotes low-processed, whole foods and restricts highly processed items. This includes canned and packaged snacks, convenience foods, and other acidic, junk foods that lack nutritional value. By limiting processed foods, the diet may help reduce the intake of sugar, saturated fat, and sodium.
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Avoid alcohol and caffeine
Alcohol and caffeine are off-limits when following an alkaline diet. This is because the diet is almost entirely vegetarian and cuts out meat, processed, and other acidic foods.
Alcohol and caffeine are considered acidic, and the alkaline diet is based on the idea that replacing acid-forming foods with alkaline-forming foods can improve your health. Proponents of the diet argue that the acidity of the ash that remains after the body burns food affects your body's acidity. Alkaline ash is thought to protect you from illness, while acidic ash can make you vulnerable.
However, it's important to note that there is little evidence to support the claims that the diet can change your body's pH level. While food can change the pH value of your urine, it does not reflect a change in the blood's pH level. In fact, your body tightly regulates blood pH levels, and in healthy people, diet does not significantly affect blood pH.
If you are looking for alternatives to alcohol and caffeine when following an alkaline diet, you can try natural alkaline drinks such as spring water, which has a higher pH level than regular tap water, or natural, unsweetened fruit or fruit-and-vegetable juice.
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Monitor urine pH with dipsticks or strips
The alkaline diet is based on the idea that eating certain foods can make your body more alkaline, which its proponents claim can protect against various conditions and promote weight loss. However, it's important to note that there is little evidence supporting the claim that the diet can change your body's pH level. While it may alter the pH of your urine, this does not reflect the pH of your blood.
To monitor urine pH, dipsticks or test strips are commonly used. These are plastic strips with patches of chemicals that change colour when they come into contact with certain substances. They are widely used in clinics for the semi-quantitative detection of haematuria, proteinuria, and glycosuria. They are also used in urine pH testing, which is a useful and easily measurable biochemical marker, especially in the context of a kidney stone clinic.
Dipsticks are single-use test strips that can measure a range of variables in addition to pH, such as the presence of glucose, protein, leucocytes, and nitrite. They are convenient and do not require user training, making them a more popular choice than pH meters, which are considered the gold standard but are less commonly employed due to their calibration requirements and the need for fresh samples.
To use a dipstick or test strip for urine pH testing, you will need to provide a urine sample in a cup. You can then either send the sample to a lab for testing or perform a dipstick test immediately in your healthcare provider's office. The strip will change colour based on the pH level of your urine, and you can compare this colour to a colour scale provided by the manufacturer to interpret the results.
It is important to note that the accuracy of dipsticks in determining urine pH has been questioned, and they are not always sufficient, sometimes requiring follow-up testing by other methods. Additionally, improper technique can produce false results, so it is important to ensure that the sample is properly mixed and that excess urine is removed from the strip.
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Avoid the need to buy supplements or expensive products
The alkaline diet is based on the unproven notion that eating certain foods can change your body's pH level and that these pH levels are associated with different health conditions. The diet recommends eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking lots of water and cutting back on sugar, alcohol, meat and processed foods.
The alkaline diet is mostly vegetarian and works for vegans, as dairy is off-limits. It also excludes wheat, but to avoid gluten completely, you'll need to check food labels carefully, as gluten is not just in wheat. It also excludes other common food allergens, including eggs, fish, and shellfish.
The alkaline diet can be expensive, with various products available for purchase, but you don't need to spend money on specialised products to follow this diet. There are many free alkaline food charts online that list foods you can buy at the grocery store.
To follow the alkaline diet, you can focus on eating more alkaline-forming foods, such as:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Legumes
- Tofu
While reducing the amount of acidic foods you consume, such as:
- Processed foods
- Meat
- Dairy
- Refined sugars
- Grains
- High-sodium foods
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Frequently asked questions
The alkaline diet is a plant-based diet that involves eating natural, nutritious, and unprocessed foods that are believed to make your body more alkaline and protect against certain conditions. It involves eating lots of fruits, vegetables, soybean, tofu, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains, while avoiding meat, dairy, eggs, processed foods, alcohol, and caffeine.
The alkaline diet is based on the theory that eating alkaline-forming foods can change your body's pH levels and make you healthier. However, there is little evidence to support this claim, as the pH of your blood needs to remain constant for you to stay healthy, and your body has several ways to regulate it.
While the alkaline diet may not significantly affect your blood pH levels, it can still have positive effects on your overall health. It encourages the consumption of whole foods that are known to be healthy and can help with weight loss by decreasing leptin levels and inflammation.
