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Should You Try An Alkaline Diet?

Special diets are very popular these days as people try to find a way to lose weight, stay healthy, or satisfy their nutritional needs. These diets are of varying standards. Some can be helpful, and others are harmful. The truth is that your body is different from anyone else’s, which is why you need to find an eating plan that works for you. The alkaline diet is one diet to consider, and there are some very important health benefits to it, but they are not for many of the conditions it is commonly used to help.

What Is the Alkaline Diet?

An image of an older woman smiling and holding a red bell pepperThe alkaline diet tends to be more varied than other diets, which often include lists of what you can and can’t eat. Also known as the acid-alkaline or alkaline ash diet, it’s based on the idea that the food you eat can alter the pH of your body.

The pH scale describes the level of acidity or alkalinity in something. Your body is a chemical powerhouse, with metabolic activity going on every moment of the day. The conversion of food into a form of energy your body can use is one of the most important chemical reactions. And as this goes on, the chemical reactions leave metabolic waste in the body. This waste can either be alkaline or acidic. A pH of 7 is neutral, while a low pH is acidic, and a high pH is alkaline.

The alkaline diet is based on the idea that metabolic waste should be alkaline. According to this idea, acidic metabolic wastes make the blood more acidic and leave you vulnerable to disease and illness. On the other hand, alkaline waste has a protective effect when it gets into your blood. Proponents of this diet claim that eating alkaline foods can make metabolic waste and your blood more alkaline, thereby improving and protecting your body’s health.

According to this system, certain foods are either acidic, alkaline, or neutral. Here’s a brief rundown of the classifications:

  • Acidic Foods - Some foods that are acidic according to this system are alcohol, grains, eggs, fish, dairy, meat, and poultry. Basically, if foods contain sulfur, protein, or phosphate, they’re likely to be acidic.
  • Alkaline Foods - Foods that are alkaline contain magnesium, potassium, and calcium. This includes vegetables, fruits, nuts, and legumes.
  • Neutral Foods - Foods like starches, sugars, and natural fats are neutral and don’t affect your body’s pH level. Water is also neutral.

Measuring pH Levels

A key part of the alkaline diet has to do with your body’s pH levels. pH levels vary from 0 to 14. Acidic levels are 0-6.9, neutral is 7, and alkaline levels are between 7.1 and 14.

The pH of your body varies throughout its individual systems. Different environments have different pH levels to allow for certain processes. For example, your stomach is highly acidic, allowing for digestive processes. Having some areas of the body be highly acidic is necessary and cannot be changed without resulting in serious repercussions. When you eat food that is alkaline, it will still be reduced by the acidity of the stomach acid.

People on an alkaline diet usually use the pH level of their urine to measure the alkalinity of their body overall. Basically, a pH level over 7 is the goal and under 7 is too acidic, requiring dietary adjustments. The pH levels of your urine can change. In fact, your body uses your urine to excrete excess acid, which can be very bad for you if retained. So, by changing your diet, you can change the acidity of your urine. However, this doesn’t mean that you can change the acidity of your blood.

Blood pH Levels

An image of three test tubes with blood in them laying on a lab order formYou can’t and shouldn’t attempt to change the acidity of your blood. The reason why the pH levels fluctuate in your urine is because your body excretes excess acid this way so that it doesn’t affect other systems in your body, including your blood. The pH level of your blood is vitally important to your health, which is why your body has several ways to keep it balanced. This is known as acid-base homeostasis. Human blood is always alkaline, with a pH level between 7.36 and 7.44. This range only changes when you have certain health problems such as starvation, diabetes, or excess alcohol intake. And when this pH range changes, it causes cell death and can be fatal. So, if your blood pH is outside of the normal range, it’s important that you seek out medical help immediately.

If you’re reasonably healthy, then food will not markedly change the pH level of your body. There may be small fluctuations within the normal range, but your body’s systems are very efficient at keeping these levels stable.

This has important implications for the alkaline diet. Basically, the pH of your urine isn’t a good indicator of blood pH levels or of the levels throughout your body. There are also other influences that can change the pH levels of your urine and confuse the results.

The Alkaline Diet Claims and Disease

There are several claims that an alkaline diet can reverse or address certain specific diseases. However, these claims are suspect at best. Here are some of the claims made by proponents of the diet:

  • A Cure for Cancer? The idea behind this is that cancer needs an acidic environment to grow, so an alkaline environment will cure it. However, there is no evidence to support this idea. Cancer can grow throughout the body, including in alkaline environments such as tissue. In fact, tumors that are found in acidic environments in the body usually create that acidity rather than the acidity creating the tumor. So, it’s highly unlikely that an alkaline diet will affect cancer development in any way, especially because it doesn’t affect blood pH levels at all under normal circumstances.
  • Osteoporosis Reversal? An alkaline diet will not reverse osteoporosis. In fact, it will likely do the opposite. Proponents of this diet claim that the body takes minerals from the bones to help maintain your blood’s pH levels, resulting in osteoporosis. Your body does have ways to keep blood pH levels stable, but this isn’t one of them. Instead, it’s primarily your kidneys and respiratory systems that neutralize and excrete excess acid. In fact, osteoporosis is usually caused by the loss of protein collagen in the bone. And this may be linked with low acid levels, which is why an alkaline diet is more likely to worsen this problem than solve it.

So, the alkaline diet probably won’t affect your blood pH levels or cure disease. However, this doesn’t mean that it won’t have health benefits that are important if you have Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS).

The Benefits of the Alkaline Diet for AFS

An image of alkaline foodsAn alkaline diet will probably have little effect on your blood pH levels. However, that doesn’t mean that it won’t benefit your body in other ways, and adrenal fatigue is one condition that may improve with this type of eating.

AFS is brought on when you’re under stress over long periods. There are numerous stressors in the modern lifestyle. Stress activates the NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response, which causes the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands. Cortisol is the most essential hormone in your body’s stress reaction. It wakes up your body’s systems, preparing them to fight or flee, and helps defend against the damage stress can do.

When you suffer from prolonged stress, your adrenals glands can become fatigued through overwork. This will happen on a very individual timeline. Everyone has a different tolerance for stress. But if stress isn’t alleviated, the adrenal overwork will cause them to start to breakdown. They will struggle to produce the cortisol that the body is demanding and levels will eventually drop. And because cortisol affects every system and circuit in the body, this will cause widespread imbalances and problems.

How Diet Problems Affect Inflammation

Inflammation is a key part of how your body responds to stress, and it is also a key reason why an alkaline diet can be helpful for those under chronic stress. As its name suggests, the inflammation circuit responds to stress by causing inflammation. When the source of the stress is short term, the inflammation helps get rid of it and then subsides. But when you’re under ongoing stress, the inflammation can become chronic and can be very damaging to your heart, arteries, gut, and multiple other organs and systems in your body.

When you have AFS, it’s very likely that you have several key causes of stress, and a poor diet is often one of them. A diet that’s high in sugar, fat, or processed foods can cause food sensitivities, contain toxins that contribute to the toxic overload in your body, cause nutritional deficiencies, and result in gut dysbiosis or an imbalance in the good and bad bacteria. These issues will directly affect the inflammation circuit and the three systems in the circuit, which are the immune system, the microbiome, and the gut.

The complications and problems that arise from a poor diet when you have AFS are interconnected. Basically, the extra toxins from your diet will activate the immune system, prompting more inflammation. Nutritional deficiencies will prevent the body from getting what it needs to function properly and to heal. The bacteria in your gut will go out of balance, resulting in infections, stomach upsets, digestive problems that worsen nutritional deficiencies, and bacterial overgrowth. And food sensitivities will worsen the bacterial imbalances in your body, add to digestive upset, and cause additional stress. This combination of problems will cause inflammation levels to rise, increase your stress levels, and cause the inflammation circuit to become further dysregulated and unbalanced.

The Benefits of an Alkaline Diet for the Inflammation Circuit

One of the key strategies for improving AFS and rebalancing the inflammation circuit is improving your diet. This will help to correct nutritional deficiencies, remove sources of toxins and stress which are taxing the immune system, and encourage the growth of good bacteria.

This demands a diet that contains fresh, unprocessed, natural foods and is nutritionally balanced. The alkaline diet is based on fruits and vegetables, both of which are essential for AFS recovery. An optimum eating plan for AFS recovery also contains plenty of healthy fats, which have neutral pH levels. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, legumes, and healthy fats is a great way to help reduce inflammation and is all recommended by the alkaline diet.

However, one problem that may arise with the alkaline diet is that meat, dairy, eggs, and most protein sources are not part of it. According to this system, protein is an acidic component of food and should be minimized.

However, it’s important that you still eat enough protein to satisfy your body’s needs. Protein is an essential building block for the health and growth of your body. This is especially important for those who have blood type O. Those in moderate AFS also tend to do better with more protein and fat. If your body is in a catabolic state, though, there may be other considerations, so it is best to see your doctor.

The important thing to take away here is that, even if you choose to eat more alkaline foods, make sure that you’re eating plenty of fresh, organic sources of protein, whatever form that might take.

Making Dietary Changes with AFS

An image of an older man talking with a doctorIf you have AFS, chances are that your diet isn’t as good as it should be. This alone could be a good reason for making the change to an alkaline diet. However, it’s important that you make this change slowly, carefully and with the help of a medical professional who’s aware of your condition and your body state. Making big changes quickly is very detrimental when you have AFS. Although the changes could be healthy ones, it’s still another source of stress. The sudden influx of nutrients and the removal of familiar foods and dietary patterns can cause an increase in stress levels when you have AFS. And when your body is already overloaded with stress, this could lead to serious repercussions such as an adrenal crash.

The Takeaway

There is no one size fits all when it comes to diet. It depends on your lifestyle, your health, your preferences, and the chemistry of your body. Making the change to the alkaline diet may help improve your physical health and ensure that you’re getting the nutrition you need just because you’re eating healthier vegetables rather than meat. However, due to the biology of pH, the claims that alkaline foods help cancer and osteoporosis are probably not realistic.

If you have AFS, this can improve the balance of the inflammation circuit and decrease AFS symptoms. However, it is a good idea to make the changes slowly and carefully to avoid adverse reactions. Because everyone is different, what works for one person may cause problems for another. AFS sufferers often have metabolic issues. Therefore, always seek expert guidance prior to embarking on an alkaline diet.

 
© Copyright 2020 Michael Lam, M.D. All Rights Reserved.


Dr. Lam's Key Question

As with most health strategies, the answer depends on you. Everyone’s body is different, which means that what works for you won’t work for someone else. That’s why you should only make big dietary changes like changing to the alkaline diet with the help of someone who understands your health.

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