The internet is once again buzzing with sceptical claims about the so called “alkaline” diet. A chief need for some alternative medicine circles over the years, this diet is not exactly new to the sanctuary of the internet health. Practitioners of this food craze actually claim that following alkaline diet can actually help in preventing many serious illnesses including cancer through the regulation of your internal pH levels.
It might sound sceptical at first but on a serious note you would not need a PhD in chemistry to do a quick examination of the science behind this diet and how well it works with the human body.
What exactly is an Alkaline diet?
The first question that might pop up in someone’s head is the fact that what exactly an alkaline diet is. To start off, alkaline diet is pretty basic. Some compounds that get produced in our digestive system is either acidic or alkaline. As a quick chemistry recap remember that acids and bases are measured on their pH levels.
When an acidic compound is measured on a pH scale it gets represented from 0 to 7 while a basic compound gets represented from 7 to 14. Alkaline diet advocates say that the alkaline compound (7-14 on a pH scale) is good for your body, while the build up of acidic compound (0-7 on a pH scale) could lead to an unhealthy body. The main goal that the alkaline diet follows is the fact that it raises the amount of alkaline foods you have through the diet plan and decreases the rest of the food in your diet.
Food Included and Excluded In an Alkaline Diet
Many of the food that we eat to maintain a healthy lifestyle are actually staples in an alkaline diet. Vegetables, fruits and nuts are included in the alkaline diet. Alkaline diets actually heavily encourage consuming plant based proteins such as soy and beans. Sadly, that is where all of the good recommendations stop. It is restricted to consume any sort of dairy products besides eggs and meat. So basically you can eat any sort of food that does not make the pH levels in your blood rise which means any sort of “acidic” food shouldn’t be on the top of the list.
Health Benefits Of Alkaline Diets
According to the people who follow the alkaline diet say that any sort of acid forming foods actually causes a build up of all the acidic compounds in the bloodstream and in the body tissues causing severe health conditions. Advocates of this diet actually claim that the acidic food causes a breakdown in the bone tissue and hence increases the risk of cancer. It also increases other risk factors that can cause diabetes and heart diseases. Yikes! That does sound scary isn’t it?
Must Know facts About the Alkaline Diet
It is true that during the digestion of our food, both basic and acidic compounds are created. But there are some things that need to be cleared out based on purely scientific facts. Let’s look at the alkaline diet supported by science-based facts.
- Alkaline or acidic compounds that are derived from the food have very little or no effect at all on the pH levels in the blood. Blood actually is capable to maintain the pH levels in your blood at the right level. As long as you do not have any serious illness the pH levels in your blood is basically on an “autopilot” mode.
- Foods are capable of changing the pH levels in your urine but it does not mean that the food is changing the pH levels in your blood. Only individuals that suffer from chronic illnesses can say that the change of pH levels of urine is linked to potential health problems.
So there you have it folks! The food that you consume on a daily basis actually does not affect the pH levels in your body in the slightest way. If you are looking forward to eating alkaline foods in order to regulate the pH levels in your blood you will be disappointed thoroughly. The best thing you can do to achieve a healthy lifestyle is to eat alkaline based foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts etc because they are always a great addition to your diet.
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