Importance of Increasing Alkaline

Nutrition
41

So if your blood stays the same pH whether you follow the advice of the “alkalinizing diet” folks or not, what is the difference in what the cells of the body are experiencing?

Other than effects from either having good or poor dietary levels of things such as potassium, phosphorus, phytonutrients, and so forth, which is NOT what they claim the effect and reason is.

What, is it to prevent “calcium leaching from your bones”?

But that does not happen (see previous posts.)

Can you explain to me why aiming for a deficient phosphorus intake by avoiding grains and other foods scoring high in acid load due to phosphorus is a good plan?

Are you really so much better off by avoiding protein, thanks to avoiding the “acidifying effect”?

So what is the goal? Not blood pH, not the cells experiencing different pH, not integrity of your bones, not saving your body from alleged hard work, not necessarily getting best amounts of various nutrients… so, what is it?

Making your urine a particular pH or within a given range that otherwise wouldn’t be the case? If so, what is the value in that? Something demonstrated. A physiology text, medical text, or legitimate medical journal article would be a good source.

I know that there are some very smart individuals who have fallen into this error, but everybody falls into believing a mistake at some point in their careers.

There is a reason you will not find this supported in physiology or biochemistry texts.

And there’s a reason that there are very many perfectly healthy athletes, world champions for that matter, who have done just fine – including their bone mass, thank you very much, nothing “leached away” – while eating “acidifying” diets.

Well, excepting the epidemic of acidic-diet powerlifters having their bones snap like dry twigs, of course.

Don’t you think you could find quite a few teenagers who eat only acidifying diets and their bones have not only not leached away, but considerable bone mass is added during a given year? (Oh, how is that POSSSIBLE??? Their bodies MUST leach calcium from the bones to maintain pH!)

Vegetables are good.

But this theory is not the reason why.

42

I haven’t read all the responses but I am pretty sure that most food leaves the stomach as neutralized, hence oral consumption of baking soda shouldn’t actually do anything but give you an upset stomach at some point.

44

Or you could always follow Poliquin’s and Berardi’s advice at the same time.

The resulting increased abdominal pressure could aid core stability.

45

[quote]BlakedaMan wrote:

The goal of eating alkaline isn’t to change your blood chemistry.[/quote]

I agree, and we all know that here at T-Nation (I hope.) The trouble is that some people out in the rest of the world believe that.

46

Good points. IMO, the benefits of this way of eating are realized simply because it tells you to eat fruits and vegetables, and the benefits of that are well known anecdotally. Since it also considers reducing grain intake and such, it removes a lot of food irritants/allergens, which will obviously show improvements. I personally don’t think that the protein aspect of it has much validity, but the above things are helpful. So basically the improvements come down to improvements along the GI and increased nutrients.

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
So if your blood stays the same pH whether you follow the advice of the “alkalinizing diet” folks or not, what is the difference in what the cells of the body are experiencing?

Other than effects from either having good or poor dietary levels of things such as potassium, phosphorus, phytonutrients, and so forth, which is NOT what they claim the effect and reason is.

What, is it to prevent “calcium leaching from your bones”?

But that does not happen (see previous posts.)

Can you explain to me why aiming for a deficient phosphorus intake by avoiding grains and other foods scoring high in acid load due to phosphorus is a good plan?

Are you really so much better off by avoiding protein, thanks to avoiding the “acidifying effect”?

So what is the goal? Not blood pH, not the cells experiencing different pH, not integrity of your bones, not saving your body from alleged hard work, not necessarily getting best amounts of various nutrients… so, what is it?

Making your urine a particular pH or within a given range that otherwise wouldn’t be the case? If so, what is the value in that? Something demonstrated. A physiology text, medical text, or legitimate medical journal article would be a good source.

I know that there are some very smart individuals who have fallen into this error, but everybody falls into believing a mistake at some point in their careers.

There is a reason you will not find this supported in physiology or biochemistry texts.

And there’s a reason that there are very many perfectly healthy athletes, world champions for that matter, who have done just fine – including their bone mass, thank you very much, nothing “leached away” – while eating “acidifying” diets.

Well, excepting the epidemic of acidic-diet powerlifters having their bones snap like dry twigs, of course.

Don’t you think you could find quite a few teenagers who eat only acidifying diets and their bones have not only not leached away, but considerable bone mass is added during a given year? (Oh, how is that POSSSIBLE??? Their bodies MUST leach calcium from the bones to maintain pH!)

Vegetables are good.

But this theory is not the reason why.[/quote]

47

That being said I’ve seen it said many many times that, in absence of buffers, hydroxyl donors, etc. the body is forced to pull these compounds from body tissues. Your point about protein leaching bone calcium is valid though. That’s one BS fact that the diet presents. Other than that though, the above claim IS well founded.

48

You’ve seen it SAID many times, but how do you explain teenagers on an acidic diet gaining in all body tissues?

That should be impossible according to the alkaline folks, correct? Why, they are leaching needed compounds from body tissues all the time, and therefore must experience net loss over time.

And yes, there are tons of people whose diet is “acidifying” every single day. Probably most Americans and for that matter most weight trainers, including many or most of the most highly successful.

As for seeing this said many times, again, you’re not going to find it in a physiology or biochemistry text. And there’s a reason why not.

You will, however, find how the body maintains pH without leaching anything from tissues.

49

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
PonceDeLeon wrote:
I haven’t read all the responses but I am pretty sure that most food leaves the stomach as neutralized, hence oral consumption of baking soda shouldn’t actually do anything but give you an upset stomach at some point.

And baking soda would buffer the HCL in the stomach, making digestion of proteins, etc, harder. Kind of like the opposite of the HCL supplement ideas.

Here’s a neat idea: recommend that people intake baking soda, and then when they get digestive troubles, sell them HCL as well, to counter it.

BBB[/quote]

Or just sell them the result of the reaction Sodium Chloride… Oh wait; thats bad for you…right?

50

[quote]B rocK wrote:
does anyone drink V8 to get their extra servings of veggies?

i noticed that they have other flavors now that might not taste like sh*t.

i suspect my acidity/alkalinity levels are way out of wack lately too…[/quote]

Just go with the real deal, you don’t get any fiber from V8.

I eat at least 2-3 servings of veggies a day and 4-5 servings of fruits. I need to step it up with my veggies. I was a lot more consistent over the summer, I ate tomato-cucumber salad all damn day.

51

Best foods to help with alkalinity (not to mention a bunch of other health benefits):

Spinach
Garlic
Broccoli
Kale

Also, squeeze some lemon into a glass of green tea and you’ll be helping yourself out big time.