For thousands of years, people have known that some substances tasted acidic, while others were alkaline. But until the invention of the pH scale in 1909, there wasn’t a good way of measuring acidity. Today, scientists are developing a more sophisticated understanding of alkaline diet foods and how they affect the body.

What Are Alkaline Diet Foods?

An alkaline diet food is a food that makes the body more alkaline. There are many related terms floating around, like “alkalizing food,” “alkaline-forming food,” and “alkaline-producing food.” All of this sounds pretty simple. However, it is important to realize that a food that is acidic or alkaline outside the body doesn’t necessarily have the same effect after it has been eaten and digested.

To consider one example, vinegar is known to be highly acidic, and most kinds of vinegar make the body more acidic as well. However, apple cider vinegar actually has an alkalizing effect. Why is apple cider vinegar different? It contains more alkaline minerals than other vinegars. The lesson is that you can’t tell how a food will affect your internal pH by how it tastes. Apple cider vinegar and lemon juice are highly acidic, yet they make the body more alkaline. On the other hand, sugar and milk have an acidifying effect on the body, even thought they taste sweet.

Why Do Alkaline Diet Foods Affect the Body the Way They Do?

As I mentioned above, alkaline diet foods have an alkalizing effect on the body because they are rich in alkaline minerals, especially calcium, magnesium, and potassium. All of these minerals are very important, but potassium has the biggest effect on your internal pH.

In contrast, acidifying foods affect the body’s pH the way they do because they are high in acid-forming minerals, such as iodine, phosphorus, and sulfur. To consider one example, meat is acidifying because it is high in protein. When the meat is digested, certain amino acids in the protein break down into the constituent ingredients, releasing the acidic minerals phosphorus and sulfur. These minerals then combine with water to form phosphoric and sulfuric acid. Some acidifying foods contain other substances, called organic acids, which cannot be broken down by the body. These organic acids also contribute to excess acidity.

You Don’t Need to Be a Scientist to Benefit from Alkaline Diets

As you can see, alkaline diets are based on some pretty serious chemistry. However, you don’t need to be a chemist to benefit from an alkaline diet. In fact, the most important tools are an alkaline diet food list and a willingness to experiment with new ways of eating.

The alkaline diet has become increasingly popular in recent years. Although the basic concept behind the alkaline diet has been around at least since the 1920′s, it burst into the mainstream with the publication of The pH Miracle in 2003.

In this article, I will explore the history of the alkaline diet, and provide an overview of the facts and theories that support this nutritional approach.

While the alkaline diet is a relatively recent invention, acids and alkalis were around long before humans devised names for these qualities, or began to speculate about their effect on human health.

The word acid derives from the Latin verb acere, “to be sour.” Acid began to be used in the early seventeenth century to describe substances that tasted sour.

A few centuries earlier, alkali was already used in English. This word derived from the Arabic al-kali, meaning a salty substance found in the ashes of various plants, including the glasswort.

The Invention of the pH Scale

Over the centuries, scientists developed competing theories of acidity and alkalinity. It was eventually discovered that acidity or alkalinity is determined by the concentration of hydrogen ions (positively charged hydrogen molecules).

An acid is a substance that is saturated with hydrogen ions, while an alkali (or base) is a substance that is capable of absorbing many hydrogen ions.

The pH scale was invented in 1909 by the Danish chemist Søren Peder Lauritz Sørensen. The term pH stands for “potential for hydrogen,” because it measures the number of hydrogen ions in a standard volume of liquid.

The pH scale spans from 0 (extremely acidic) to 14 (extremely alkaline). If a food or other substance has a pH of exactly seven, it is considered neutral. If it falls anywhere else on the pH scale, it is either acidic or alkaline.

The First Alkaline Diet: The Hay Diet

The first person to talk about the benefits of an alkaline diet was the New York physician William Howard Hay, who discussed his theories in the books Health Via Food and Weight Control.

Following Hay, other authors who wrote about the benefits of the alkaline diet included Edgar Cayce, D. C. Jarvis, Herman Aihara, and Victor A. Marcial-Vega.

The Resurgence of the Alkaline Diet

With the publication of The pH Miracle in 2003, the alkaline diet began to receive publicity from the mainstream media. In consequence, it came to be adopted by many people who had never been exposed to it before.

Increased interest paved the way for the publication of many other books on the alkaline diet. In fact, between 2000 and 2010, at least 29 alkaline diet books found their way to the market.

The Future of the Alkaline Diet

Today, interest in the alkaline diet continues unabated. What will the future bring for this diet? We can expect science to continue to advance, revealing more details about the benefits of the alkaline diet. Perhaps equally important, however, is the practical work of making this diet more user-friendly by providing useful food charts, recipes, and other information.

Today, I want to talk about why alkaline diet food is beneficial for human health. But to understand the benefits of alkaline diet food, we first need to understand why excess acidity is harmful. A perfectly healthy human body is slightly alkaline, like the seas in which our ancient ancestors evolved. An overly acidic pH affects literally every cell and organ in your body, reducing immune function and increasing inflammation.

To help you understand the importance of pH, think of how you start feeling ill when your body temperature is just a few degrees higher or lower than normal. If your body temperature continues to go off course, the result is serious illness, or even death. Likewise, a small change in your internal pH can have a significant impact on your health, while a bigger shift can lead to severe illness.

Next, consider that the typical Western diet is heavily weighted toward acidifying foods. For example, the only alkaline ingredient in a bacon cheeseburger is the lettuce, which is hardly enough to balance out the beef, bacon, cheese, and white flour bun.

If your body had no way to cope with dietary acids, eating a fast food meal could land you in the hospital! Fortunately, your body does have several mechanisms for neutralizing and eliminating excess acid. First, it expels excess acid every time you breathe, sweat, or urinate. Second, the parathyroid releases a hormone which causes calcium and other alkalizing minerals to be withdrawn from your bones. These minerals can then be used to neutralize acids before they can damage delicate tissues.

In the long run, however, a diet loaded with acid-forming foods can easily exceed the body’s ability to cope. In addition, the process of neutralizing excess acid can leave your body deficient in precious minerals. The result can be an increased risk of high blood pressure, inflammation, osteoporosis, and other diseases.

When you eat plenty of alkaline diet foods, you reduce the amount of acid in your body. You also provide your body with more alkaline minerals. The important thing is the overall balance of acidifying and alkalizing elements. Even if a few of these minerals are used to neutralize acid, there will still be plenty left over to meet your body’s needs.

If you are interested in seeing the benefits of the alkaline diet for yourself, the first step is to obtain an alkaline diet food list, which explains how specific foods will affect your internal pH. Instead of eliminating all acid-forming foods from your diet, which is an impossible task, try to gradually integrate more alkaline foods into your diet. Give it a month, and you may be surprised at how good you look and feel!

Many people who have become disillusioned with low-carb diets are turning to the alkaline diet. Most people who adopt the alkaline diet do so because they want to lose weight, improve their overall health, or overcome bothersome health problems such as acid reflux, fatigue, and indigestion.

But even if you’re an alkaline diet believer, you may doubt that it’s an appropriate choice for athletes. Let’s face it, the general belief is that if you want to build strong muscles, you need to load up on protein. That’s why so many athletes and bodybuilders fill up on egg whites, chicken breast, and protein shakes.

Yet contrary to popular belief, the most important key to muscle development is rigorous training, not a high-protein diet. No matter how many protein shakes you drink, you’re going to have to spend time in the gym if you want to get lean and muscular.

However, if you are training hard, you may not need as much protein as you think you do. Even the famous bodybuilder and fitness expert Tom Venuto has said that many bodybuilders overestimate protein requirements.

You don’t need to eat huge amounts of protein to build strong bones and muscles. In fact, several studies have shown that eating too much protein can actually cause a reduction in bone and muscle mass. This is because when the body becomes too acidic, it responds by withdrawing alkaline minerals from your bones. It can also break down muscle tissue to release glutamine, an alkalizing amino acid. These mechanisms prevent acid from building up to a dangerous level, but at the cost of reduced bone and muscle strength.

Athletes have similar nutritional needs to non-athletes, although they do need a higher caloric intake and somewhat more protein than those who are not as physically active.

A properly designed alkaline diet can provide sufficient protein, as well as complex carbohydrates for energy and vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients which support peak physical and mental performance. In short, the alkaline diet can be a good choice for people who demand the most from their bodies.

If you’re fed up with low-carb diets, you might consider picking up an alkaline diet book instead. But in spite of the word “diet” in the title, weight loss is not the only reason that many people have taken up this approach to eating. Today, I want to talk about five of the most significant health benefits of this nutritional approach.

1. Improved Digestion

Although digestive problems are common but many people are reluctant to talk about them. Many people have found that the alkaline diet is helpful for such problems as constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, and diverticulosis.

2. Natural Cleansing

Cleansing has never been more popular. Some cleanses, such as the master cleanse or lemonade diet, involve a liquid fast. Others are based upon special cleansing powders that contain fiber and herbs. If you are interested in experiencing the benefits of cleansing, it may interest you to know that the fiber-rich alkaline diet provides a gentle cleansing effect, without the harsh side-effects of laxatives.

3. Less Arthritis and Joint Pain

There are several reasons that an acid-forming diet can worsen joint pain. When your body becomes too acidic, it loses alkaline minerals, including calcium and potassium, which help to keep inflammation in check. In addition, acidity leads to increased free radical production. Free radicals promote oxidation, further increasing inflammation.

4. More Energy

Who doesn’t want more energy? Many of us turn to coffee and caffeinated soft drinks for an energy boost, but these quick fixes can’t change the underlying problem. In fact, they can make things worse by making your body more acidic. In turn, an acidic body is more prone to fatigue. Increasing your pH can help you feel more energetic. An alkaline diet also provides plenty of complex carbohydrates and dietary fiber, helping to keep energy levels stable throughout the day.

5. Improved Weight Loss

I’ve saved weight loss for last, because I don’t want to promote the idea that diets are only for people who want to lose weight. In reality, the word “diet” can also mean a way of eating that a person adopts in order to promote lifelong health. Nonetheless, many people have lost weight on an alkaline diet, so there’s no reason you can’t slim down and improve your overall health at the same time.

Of course, you don’t have to have one of the concerns listed to read an alkaline diet book. In fact, many people who adopt an alkaline diet don’t do so because they want to lose weight or overcome any specific health problem. Instead, they just want to improve their overall health and feel younger. Isn’t feeling great really the most important benefit of any diet?

People are increasingly discovering the benefits of following an alkaline diet menu. In this article, I’ll be exploring 5 of the major reasons to adopt an alkaline diet.

1. Promote Bone Health

When your body becomes too acidic, it reacts by removing calcium and other minerals from your bones. Once these alkaline minerals have been used to counteract the excess acid, they are excreted with your urine. In the short term, this mechanism protects your tissues from being harmed by powerful acids. However, this short-term benefit comes at the expense of bone demineralization, which can lead to osteoporosis. Eating an alkaline diet can help you to preserve your bone health.

3. Fight Pain and Inflammation

One of the alkaline minerals that your body uses to fight excess acid is magnesium. Unfortunately, the process of neutralizing acids leaves you with less of this essential mineral for other functions. Because magnesium performs many roles within the body, a deficiency can lead to many problems, including an increased susceptibility to pain and inflammation.

3. Reduce Blood Pressure

Modern humans are the only mammals who consume more sodium that potassium. This inverted sodium-potassium ratio is one of the causes of high blood pressure. In turn, high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. The alkaline diet emphasizes potassium-rich fruits and vegetables, rather than processed foods that are high in sodium. The result is a more optimal sodium-potassium balance, and a reduced risk of high blood pressure.

4. Maintain Muscle Strength

Your body uses a variety of alkaline substances to neutralize excess acid, including glutamine, an amino acid found in muscle tissue. When your body becomes too acidic, it may actually break down muscle tissue to free glutamine. In the long term, the result can be reduced muscle strength. By following an alkaline diet, you can help to maintain strong muscles.

5. Prevent Urinary Tract Problems

Your body depends on your kidneys to remove excess acid. This function is essential for preserving health, but there is a drawback: When your urine is more acidic, it can irritate the bladder and urinary tract, leading to painful urination. Again, a diet rich in alkalizing foods can help to reduce excess acid, thereby helping to prevent urinary tract inflammation.

Conclusion

The five benefits that I have discussed in this article are just a few of the benefits of following an alkaline diet menu. With so much to gain, why not start reaping the benefits of the alkaline diet today?

The alkaline diet plan has numerous benefits. However, many people miss out on these advantages because they believe that this nutritional approach is more difficult and extreme than it actually is. In this article, I debunk four common myths about the alkaline diet.

Myth #1: The Alkaline Diet Plan Is Too Complicated

It is true that the details of the alkaline diet can be somewhat complicated. But you don’t need to memorize every acid and alkaline food to get the benefits of this diet. Instead, focus on the big picture by eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, while reducing your consumption of meat, dairy, junk food, and soft drinks.

Myth #2: The Alkaline Diet Plan Requires You to Give Up All Acid-Forming Foods

In reality, it would not be practical or even desirable to eliminate all acid-forming foods from your diet. Some acidifying foods are junk, but this isn’t always true. For example, beans, peas, fish, and tomatoes all provide valuable nutrients that can be hard to find elsewhere. On the alkaline diet, a fifth to a third of the foods you eat can be acidifying.

Myth #3: The Alkaline Diet Forces You to Eat Only Boring Food

Depending on how you currently eat, you may need to make some pretty significant changes to alkalize your diet. For example, if you eat bacon for breakfast, a burger for lunch, and lasagna for dinner, you will have to work to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet. However, this doesn’t mean that flavor is off the menu. It simply means that you will need to learn how to prepare tasty meals from alkalizing ingredients like fresh produce, whole grains, and nuts and seeds.

Myth #4: The Alkaline Diet Forces You to Become a Vegan

It’s true that most people will need to reduce their meat and dairy consumption, since these foods tend to make the body more acidic. However, this does not mean that you must give up animal foods altogether. On this diet, the goal isn’t to eliminate all acid-forming foods. Instead, the important thing is to achieve a proper balance between acidifying and alkalizing elements.

Conclusion

As you can see, the alkaline diet plan does not have to be terribly complicated. Nor does it require you to give up all animal products, or to eat only alkaline foods. Rather than aiming for perfection, try to make a significant improvement in how you eat, and you’ll reap the rewards.

What is an alkaline diet detox? Is it the same as an alkaline diet, or something different? I believe that any diet that is rich in alkaline foods will naturally have a cleansing effect on the body. But if you aren’t getting the results you desire, you can create a more powerful detoxification effect by increasing the strictness of your alkaline diet.

Today, many people are interested in cleansing and detoxification. The goal of these activities is to purify the body of various toxins, ranging from petrochemicals to partially digested food that has gotten stuck to the wall of the intestine. Of course, cleansing is not a recent phenomenon. As far back as biblical times, people have believed in the value of fasting and special diets to cleanse the body of impurities.

There are many different ways to cleanse your body. At one extreme, some people go in for liquid fasts. At the other end of the spectrum, there are cleansing diets that are well-balanced enough that you could follow them for life without risking deficiencies of essential nutrients.

The alkaline diet is this type of diet. A diet rich in alkalizing foods provides all of the essential nutrients you need, including fat, protein, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Unlike fad diets that become dangerous if you follow them for more than a few weeks, the alkaline diet is something you could stick with for the rest of your life without negative consequences. In fact, the only “side effects” would be improved health and greater longevity!

But how does the alkaline diet qualify as a cleanse? Well, for one thing, it’s rich in fiber, which helps to sweep the bowels clean and remove impurities. This type of diet also contains a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, which contain plant compounds like chlorophyll that many people believe have a purifying effect on the body. But just as important as what the alkaline diet contains is what it doesn’t contain. When you eliminate junk foods and sugary beverages from your diet, you’ll stop putting all those simple sugars, unhealthy fats, and artificial ingredients into your body. The result? Your body can spend its energy removing the toxins that are already there.

If you are concerned that you’re not making fast enough progress and want to speed up your alkaline diet detox, simply work harder to follow the plan. Redouble your efforts to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, and drink plenty of fresh, purified water to help flush toxins out of your system.

In this article, I want to talk about the health benefits of alkaline diet food. First, however, let’s explain just what is meant by “alkaline diet food.” This subject can get rather confusing. You see, just because a food is acidic or alkaline outside your body doesn’t necessarily mean that it will have the same effect after you eat it. For example, lemons and other citrus fruits are among the most acidic fruits, yet they actually have an alkalizing effect on the body.

The reason for this paradox is that some of the acids in citrus fruits can be metabolized, or broken down, into harmless substances that don’t have any effect on the body’s pH. On the other hand, the phosphoric acid found in many soft drinks can’t be metabolized, so it remains in the body and has an acid-forming effect.

When I use the term “alkaline diet food,” I’m referring to foods that cause the body to become more alkaline. I’m not really concerned about whether that food is acidic or alkaline before you eat it.

Having explained that much, let’s discuss about how alkaline diet food can be beneficial to your health. Alkaline diet foods are generally rich in alkalizing minerals, including calcium, magnesium, and potassium. By increasing the quantity these minerals in your diet, you will be providing your body the ingredients it needs to build healthy bones. Research has shown that an acid-forming diet can lead to muscle atrophy. In turn, this means that alkaline diet foods are important for preserving muscle strength.

At the same time, alkaline diet foods contain fewer acid-forming compounds than the foods that most people normally eat. By following this type of diet, you can minimize the amount of acid that your body is forced to neutralize and eliminate. Experts say that excess acidity can have many harmful effects, including an increased risk of hypertension, urinary tract irritation, and accelerated aging as a result of accumulated acid waste products.

When you have a healthy diet that is rich in alkaline foods, you give your body the nutrients it needs to achieve optimal health. Yes, it may take some effort to change the way you eat. But the increased energy and vitality you will experience will fully justify the effort. At the same time, you will be taking an important step to prevent health problems before they start.

The goal of the alkaline diet is to combat one of the most common nutritional problems in the United States and other developed nations: Excess acidity caused by eating too many acid-forming foods and not enough alkaline foods.

A healthy human body has a slightly alkaline pH. One of the clues to the importance of maintaining a proper internal pH is the existence of three separate mechanisms for removing excess acid. Your kidneys, skin, and lungs expel acids in your urine, sweat, and exhaled breath. However, when you eat too many acidifying foods, these foods can overwhelm your body’s ability to eliminate excess acids. The result can be that your body begins breaking down bone and muscle in order to free alkaline minerals. When these minerals are used to soak up acids, they are eliminated in your urine.

In time, this coping mechanism can cause your body to be depleted of alkaline minerals. The resulting mineral deficiencies can cause many side effects, including increased inflammation, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis.

In addition, the acids that build up in the body can themselves be harmful. The mitochondria which supply the body with energy may begin to function at a lower level, resulting in fatigue. Other symptoms of a low-alkaline diet include inflammation, reduced immune function, and increased free radical activity. The delicate balance of intestinal microorganisms can be disrupted, leading to digestive problems. Even mild acidosis can lead to a low-oxygen environment, which reduces the ability of cells to repair themselves. On the other hand, harmful microorganisms often thrive in an oxygen-poor environment.

Convinced of the alkaline diet’s benefits, but not sure how to start alkalizing your body? The first step is to understand the ways that different foods affect your body’s acid-alkaline balance, which is why an alkaline diet food chart can be a helpful tool. Once you know what foods to emphasize, you need to know how to turn them into tasty and convenient meals. This is where alkaline diet recipes can be very helpful.

I hope this article has given you a better understanding of the alkaline diet’s many benefits. Although there is a lot of science behind the alkaline diet, you don’t need to be a chemist to put it into practice. Simply pick one or two dietary changes that will give you the greatest benefit, then put them into action.