Alkaline Diet and Alkaline Water
Q: Why do most Naturopathic Doctors and Nutritionists advice clients to eat a predominantly alkaline diet?
They have either studied nutrition from the acid-alkaline and digestive enzyme aspects, or they are are vegetarian for ethical reasons.
Probably the best nutritional advice is to:
1. Select food according to its nutritious content
2. Combine it according to how it will best be digested.
3. Drink plenty of Alkaline Water.
So, for example, don't eat fruit after a meal or eat steak and chips - eat the fruit first, and swap the chips for a fresh salad!
I don't take the food combining rules too rigidly, as I know that the body is intelligent and can handle quite diverse food combinations. But the food combination in a meal of a Big Mac, Fries and Coke is a definite no!
Super Size showed a young man go from a state of good health to near death in under a month simply from eating processed fast food. Morgan Spurlock put on 25 pounds, got depressed, suffered chronic chest pains and palpitations, his libido was low, sex life non-functional, he stank, experienced mood swings, liver damage; his medical charts went off the scales. He also suffered from addiction, lack of energy and fuzzy logic. These things are now typical of modern life.
From a standard 'scientific' or chemistry point of view, his McDonalds diet contained lots of protein (for muscle), fat and carbohydrate and sugary drinks for energy, so he should have been fine shouldn't he?
So why did he nearly die?
The answer lies in the Acidity from the food and from the acidity that the food creates on digestion, the lack of enzymes, and the bad food combinations from a digestive enzyme pH point of view.
The McDonalds meal contains zero enzymes, so the body produces acid pH functioning enzymes to digest the Protein, but at the same time releases alkaline pH functioning enzymes to digest the starch and the cola. The result is that none of the enzymes can function.
In addition, the sugar and the acidity from the cola mean that the body needs to make emergency pH adjustments to maintain alkaline pH. As the alkaline blood buffers are depleted, the body draws on the calcium in the bones and the teath to replenish them and prevent instant death.
The body then manufacturs Cholesterol to contain the Acid wastes that are produced in processing/digesting the difficult to digest meal. It creates more and more of these fatty tissues to store the continiously hoghj levels of acid wastes that the process keeps producing. This accounts for the rapid 25 pound weight gain.
If the body didn't do this, the acid wastes would damage the internal organs like the heart, liver and kidneys. The fat is actually saving his life....
Q: What is the connection between acidity and obesity?
We are now stockpiling acid wastes in our bodies in pockets of fat. The body creates fat to cope with the heavy load of toxic acid wastes that are continuously being produced as a result of metabolism. The fat consists of cholesterol, cellulose and other deposits which actually contain dangerous organic wastes inside them.
"Obesity is an acid problem - the fat is saving our lives" as Dr Young explains.
Q: What is the connection between dehydration and obesity?
A: It has also been shown (I'm afraid I don't have clinical studies to hand) that the body also creates cholesterol as a water conservation mechanism - it surrounds the cell walls to stop water leaving the cell. This also stops nutrients from entering in and toxins from leaving the cell, but it means that you will live. Eventually, such cells with access toxicity become cancerous
Q: Should I eat alkaline foods and avoid acid foods?
A: No, I don't think you should focus too much on this. Foods are classified as acid or alkaline depending on the pH of the ash (in solution) that is produced on burning them. However, all food is composed of of simple elements like Carbon, Oxygen, hydrogen which burn to produce acid wastes. As over 97% of any food that you eat will create acid wastes; I don't think that the pH of the ash of the 3% will make much difference!
For more details, read the book Reverse Aging by Sang Whang.
Alkaline minerals (which make the food acid or alkaline) are only a very small part of the nutrition from solid food. So you shouldn't focus on this at the expense of other vital nutritional elements that only nature knows about and only nature can provide. It's silly to avoid any food just because an acid-alkaline chart says that it's low on certain minerals!
You should, however, drink lots of alkaline water to hydrate, detoxify and mineralize the body. You can always take a balanced colloidal alkaline mineral supplement like Alkalife to supply any minerals not present in diet or water like Potassium, which so many of us are now difficient in.
Q: If I eat alkaline food, will it make me alkaline?
A: No, I think it's a mistake to think in such simplistic terms.
From my perspective, the classification of food according to the mineral content of its ash is not particularly relevant to anything.
The important thing is what nutrients the food contains, how easy to it is to digest and how much toxic waste it produces on mtabolism. The tiny amount of alkaline minerals in even the 'top' alkaline food will make very little difference to your alkaline blood buffers in the short term. Over the long term, as the Frassetto study implied, an alkaline diet could help reduce acidosis and obesity, since an 'acid' diet causes it.
Drinking alkaline water, fresh vegetable juices and fruit juices and super greens (spirulina, wheat and barley grass juices) on the other hand will help; not only will you get more alkaline minerals, you'll get the countless number of other nutrients and enzymes that your body needs.
Remember, a half tea spoon of something like Barley Grass or Spirulina powder will give you the equivalent alkaline minerals and nutrients as a basket of green vegetables.
Similarly, don't drink acid soft drinks - the concentrated sugar and high acid pH of these drinks plays havoc on your body, and makes you fat.
Q: If I have indigestion, isn't it cheaper and more effective to take ant-acids (baking soda) then mild alkaline water?
A: Ant-acids are a billion dollar business, but a total waste of money and actually harmful as they reduce our ability to digest protein foods. Eat food in correct combinations, don't eat so much and drink plenty of alkaline water. Next time you want to snack between meals, snack on a glass of alkaline water!
Q: Will alkaline ionized water de-acidify the stomach?
A: No. You can never de-acidify the stomach simply because the body produces acids on demand. Without the required stomach acids you won't be able to digest your food so you shouldn't try to de-acidify it. The body generates acids depending upon the food you eat - it can produce around 3 litres hydrochloric acid/day. If you reduce the amount of proteins you eat, eat less and in better combinations, it will produce less acid.
Alkaline water is much too mild to have any effect on stomach pH. The stomach is thousands of times more acid, 16 drops of lemon juice would neutralize the alkalinity of alkaline water of pH 10.0.
Remember, the alkalinity (colloidal minerals + excess oxygen) of the water is only one of the benefits from ionized water. Other benefits are from the water being reduced (antioxidant), and its smaller cluster sizes (better hydration)
Q: Will not the alkaline water you drink get neutralized by the acidity in the stomach?
Yes, particularly if the stomach is digesting food and contains digestive acids. However, the purified water will still be hydrating, provide alkaline minerals and all the other benefits, and zero toxins - you just won't get the slight alkaline boost for your blood pH that's all.
This is a minor benefit in any case, but you should drink water first thing in the morning and in-between meals, not during or after meals to get the most benefits. When the stomach is empty, the water or freshly squeezed juices will flow straight through, and not be significantly effected by the acid stomach pH.
Studies show that in colloidal form the calcium ion is surrounded by water molecules; it could well be that nature has a sheltering mechanism for transporting alkaline minerals to where they are required in the body.
The actual pH (i.e. the measurable pH, 8-10 usually) is not the major benefit of this Alkaline Water - ' Alkaline ' is just a label used to describe the water, one of many labels. You could call it natural water, water pure of contaminants, or pure natural water or pure mineral water. If you analyze natural spring water from the Alps or better still Glacier water, you will find that it has all these properties: alkaline pH, high colloidal alkaline mineral content, low acid mineral content, low ORP (i.e. reduced), low NMR (small clusters).
In health circles alkaline water is also called Microwater, Light water, Micro-clustered water, Reduced water, Electrolyzed Reduced Water (ERW), Ionic mineral water and even miracle water in the Japanese 13 part TV documentary.
Appendix A of this page lists abstracts from 100 published papers that give an indication of the diverse uses of ionized water and terminology used. What is important is what is contained in the water (i.e. alkaline minerals, active hydrogen, excess oxygen in the OH- form, micro-clusters, and zero poisons).
When nutritionists and naturopaths talk about an 'alkaline diet' they are NOT talking about neutralizing the acidity of the stomach acids that are needed to digest our food with chemicals!
Alkaline foods like super greens and carrot juice are not particularly alkaline if you measure the pH with a meter, but they will have an overall slight alkalizing effect when you change your diet to eat more of them. An important point to note is that if you are eating live, alkaline foods like fruits, freshly squeezed juices you should do so on an empty stomach to help the digestion process and get the most benefits (i.e. nutrients, enzymes and energy) from the food. This is less of an issue with alkaline water, since there is nothing to digest in water. JK]
Q: What happens to alkaline water in the acid stomach?
A: When you drink alkaline water, two things are possible, both will be helpful to the alkaline buffers:
1. If your stomach is full, the water could get trapped in the acid stomach environment. The alkalinity would be neutralized by the stomach acid, and the stomach may produce slightly more acid. A pathologist friend of Sang Whang, Dr. Stephen Weiss explains that in the process of producing more stomach acid (hydrochloric acid) as a result of drinking alkaline water or alkaline foods, the body creates sodium bicarbonate (an alkaline buffer) and adds it to the bloodstream.
H2O + CO2 + NaCl = HCl + NaHCO3
Water + carbon dioxide + salt = hydrochloric acid + sodium bi-carbonate
So the net result is an increase in alkaline buffer. This does not happen if you ingest bicarbonates (baking soda) because the body converts these to water, carbon dioxide and sodium salt. The bicarbonates will not reach the bloodstream no matter how much baking soda you consume.
2. If the stomach is empty, it is likely that the water would go straight through the stomach to the intestine, and go to the blood stream to give it an alkaline pH boost, and any excess will replenish the alkaline buffers. As Sang Whang explains
"If alkaline water is introduced directly into the bloodstream from the intestine, the acid buffer (carbonic acid, H2CO3) will interact with the alkaline water to bring down the blood pH and the acid buffer will become the alkaline buffer
Ca(OH) 2 + 2(H2CO3) = Ca++(HCO3-)2 + 2(H2O) (calcium bicarbonate buffer in the blood is the net result)
An increase of bicarbonates in the bloodstream will prevent aging and the onset of adult degenerative diseases."
Q: The body has an efficient buffering system which is continually generated as glucose is metabolized; what use is alkaline water or an alkaline diet for buffering?
A: The body needs minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium and zinc as fuel to sustain the buffering system, not only glucose! The bodies bicarbonates are sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium bicarbonates; it also makes effective use of hydroxides, primarily calcium hydroxide to maintain alkaline balance.
We need to obtain these minerals from dietary sources; alkaline water, vegetable juices and super green juices are good nutritious sources for the many nutrients that the body needs, including alkaline minerals.
Alkaline water helps the buffering system as it provides the minerals and the raw materials that the body needs.
You can make water alkaline by adding Alkalife drops, which are potassium and calcium hydroxides in colloidal form in ionized water.
The benefits from increasing the potassium hydroxide in the diet was shown by the Frassetto studies.
However, this is only one of the many benefits from alkaline ionized water. Other benefits stem from the ionized water being reduced; it has an ORP around -300, and micro-clustered (low NMR) and it's good tasting water so you'll be able to drink more and avoid dehydration, which effects some 75% of the population.
Sang Whang, who introduced water ionizers to the west in the late 80's adds a couple of drops of alkalife to his ionized water.
Q: A Chemist says that Body pH meaningless concept because different parts of the body and cell have different pH values.
A: Body pH doesn't become a meaningless concept just because different parts of the body and cell have different pH values. Look at the literature - Read Dr Theodore Baroody's Alkaize or Die. Read books and articles from countless other doctors, authors and naturopaths worldwide that state from personal clinical experience that body pH (i.e. blood and tissue pH) is a vital indicator of health, and the key part it plays in nutrition.
The same is the case for almost all bodily functions. Acid/alkaline balance concepts are based on years of observations of the types of food and the acidifying or alkalizing effect they have on blood pH. It has been confirmed by countless ND's throughout the world who advise a predominantly alkaline diet of greens, fruits and vegetable juices for health.
This is a good summary that explains why restoring proper pH balance is vital for all bodily functions, including Heart, Lungs, Liver and Kidneys
This paper should settle the argument, but as there are vested interests in maintaining a state of ill health, it is unlikly to change general attitudes as to the real underlaying cause of obesity and ill health.
"Our group has shown that contemporary net acid-producing diets do indeed characteristically produce a low-grade systemic metabolic acidosis in otherwise healthy adult subjects, and that the degree of acidosis increases with age, in relation to the normally occurring age-related decline in renal functional capacity."
Appendix A: Dr Frassetto Study Paper Abstract
Diet, evolution and aging--the pathophysiologic effects of the post-agricultural inversion of the potassium-to-sodium and base-to-chloride ratios in the human diet.
Eur J Nutr. 2001 Oct;40(5):200-13
Frassetto L, Morris RC Jr, Sellmeyer DE, Todd K, Sebastian A.
University of California, San Francisco 94143, USA.
Theoretically, we humans should be better adapted physiologically to the diet our ancestors were exposed to during millions of years of hominid evolution than to the diet we have been eating since the agricultural revolution a mere 10,000 years ago, and since industrialization only 200 years ago.
Among the many health problems resulting from this mismatch between our genetically determined nutritional requirements and our current diet, some might be a consequence in part of the deficiency of potassium alkali salts (K-base), which are amply present in the plant foods that our ancestors ate in abundance, and the exchange of those salts for sodium chloride (NaCl), which has been incorporated copiously into the contemporary diet, which at the same time is meager in K-base-rich plant foods.
Deficiency of K-base in the diet increases the net systemic acid load imposed by the diet. We know that clinically-recognized chronic metabolic acidosis has deleterious effects on the body, including growth retardation in children, decreased muscle and bone mass in adults, and kidney stone formation, and that correction of acidosis can ameliorate those conditions.
Is it possible that a lifetime of eating diets that deliver evolutionarily superphysiologic loads of acid to the body contribute to the decrease in bone and muscle mass, and growth hormone secretion, which occur normally with age? That is, are contemporary humans suffering from the consequences of chronic, diet-induced low-grade systemic metabolic acidosis?
Our group has shown that contemporary net acid-producing diets do indeed characteristically produce a low-grade systemic metabolic acidosis in otherwise healthy adult subjects, and that the degree of acidosis increases with age, in relation to the normally occurring age-related decline in renal functional capacity.
We also found that neutralization of the diet net acid load with dietary supplements of potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) improved calcium and phosphorus balances, reduced bone resorption rates, improved nitrogen balance, and mitigated the normally occurring age-related decline in growth hormone secretion--all without restricting dietary NaCl. Moreover, we found that co-administration of an alkalinizing salt of potassium (potassium citrate) with NaCl prevented NaCl from increasing urinary calcium excretion and bone resorption, as occurred with NaCl administration alone.
Earlier studies estimated dietary acid load from the amount of animal protein in the diet, inasmuch as protein metabolism yields sulfuric acid as an end-product. In cross-cultural epidemiologic studies, Abelow found that hip fracture incidence in older women correlated with animal protein intake, and they suggested a causal relation to the acid load from protein. Those studies did not consider the effect of potential sources of base in the diet. We considered that estimating the net acid load of the diet (i. e., acid minus base) would require considering also the intake of plant foods, many of which are rich sources of K-base, or more precisely base precursors, substances like organic anions that the body metabolizes to bicarbonate.
In following up the findings of Abelow et al., we found that plant food intake tended to be protective against hip fracture, and that hip fracture incidence among countries correlated inversely with the ratio of plant-to-animal food intake. These findings were confirmed in a more homogeneous population of white elderly women residents of the U.S. These findings support affirmative answers to the questions we asked above.
Can we provide dietary guidelines for controlling dietary net acid loads to minimize or eliminate diet-induced and age-amplified chronic low-grade metabolic acidosis and its pathophysiological sequelae. We discuss the use of algorithms to predict the diet net acid and provide nutritionists and clinicians with relatively simple and reliable methods for determining and controlling the net acid load of the diet. A more difficult question is what level of acidosis is acceptable.
We argue that any level of acidosis may be unacceptable from an evolutionarily perspective, and indeed, that a low-grade metabolic alkalosis may be the optimal acid-base state for humans.
