Can An Alkaline Diet Help You?

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝What is the science on eating alkaline foods and minimizing acid foods, does it help against diabetes and/or osteoporosis?❞

The short answer: no

The fuller answer: there are a number of acidic foods that can increase some disease risks—red meat scores highly for many diseases, for example:

• Processed Meat Consumption and the Risk of Cancer: A Critical Evaluation of the Constraints of Current Evidence from Epidemiological Studies
• Red Meat Consumption (Heme Iron Intake) and Risk for Diabetes and Comorbidities?
• Health Risks Associated with Meat Consumption: A Review of Epidemiological Studies
• Associations of Processed Meat, Unprocessed Red Meat, Poultry, or Fish Intake With Incident Cardiovascular Disease and All-Cause Mortality
• Meat consumption: Which are the current global risks? A review of recent (2010-2020) evidences

However, the issue here is the red meat (or processed meat, or worst of all, processed red meat), not the acidity.

Other quadruped-derived meats (especially from pigs) don’t fare much better in terms of metabolic health risks, but fish is generally considered healthful in moderation, and the jury is out on poultry, but it seems to be health-neutral. For more detail, see: Do We Need Animal Products To Be Healthy?

But there are other quite acidic foods that are, for most people, at least very healthful. For example: An Apple (Cider Vinegar) A Day…

…which actually has an antidiabetic (or at least: hypoglycemic, i.e. blood sugar-lowering) effect!

And, less acidic but still notably so: Do Tomatoes & Other Nightshades Cause Inflammation & Worsen Arthritis? ← Betteridge’s Law of Headlines strikes again; the answer is “no”.

And in fact, once again, it really does the opposite: Lycopene’s Benefits For The Gut, Heart, Brain, & More ← tomatoes are generally considered anti-inflammatory (not something their fellow nightshades, potatoes, can boast) due to their lycopene content and polyphenols.

So what’s the deal with the alkaline diet?

The British Dietetic Association explained it well in a nutshell:

❝What is it? Supporters of this diet believe that changing the foods they eat, consuming more alkaline and less acidic foods, will help change the pH balance of the blood and reduce health risks. Worryingly some wrongly claim it can treat cancer and that incorrectly ‘acidic’ foods cause osteoporosis.

Our Verdict: Unfortunately, this diet is based on a basic misunderstanding of human physiology. While encouraging people to eat more fresh veggies is a good thing, the pH of your food will not have an impact on the pH of your blood – and you wouldn’t want it to! Your body is perfectly capable of keeping its blood within a very specific pH range (between 7.35 and 7.45). If it fails to do so you would become very ill very quickly and die if not treated! Diet can change the pH value of urine, but testing the pH of your urine just measures the pH of your urine and is not related to the pH of your blood, which cannot be affected by diet.

Bottom Line: It’s alka-lie! You’ll most likely lose weight as you are cutting out processed foods and eating more healthily – nothing to do with acid or alkali nonsense.❞

Read more: British Dietetic Association | Top 5 worst celeb diets to avoid

About the idea of it treating cancer, let’s look to the American Institute for Cancer Research:

❝The alkaline diet cannot change body pH. While it promotes healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, the body tightly regulates blood pH, and diet cannot alter it.

There is no evidence that an alkaline diet can prevent or cure cancer. The tumor environment’s acidity is a result of cancer metabolism, not a cause of it.

A balanced plant-focused diet is best, especially if it’s not too restrictive. Following evidence-based recommendations such as AICR’s New American Plate is a smart approach for overall health and cancer prevention.❞

Read more: American Institute for Cancer Research: Does the Alkaline Diet Cure Cancer?

As for osteoporosis, once again, there’s a clear answer:

❝A causal association between dietary acid load and osteoporotic bone disease is not supported by evidence and there is no evidence that an alkaline diet is protective of bone health.❞

Read more: Causal assessment of dietary acid load and bone disease: a systematic review & meta-analysis

In short: it was an interesting idea, but the science said “no” in every respect.

There are some exceptions

For some people, there can be a health-related reason to avoid acidic foods.

For example:

• Foods For & Against Hiatus Hernia (acidic foods can worsen such)
• Acid Reflux After Meals? Here’s How To Stop It Naturally (shocking nobody, reducing the acids one puts into one’s stomach can help reduce acid reflux).

But, those are things to bear in mind if you are facing those specific health problems, not something to do prophylactically.

Your stomach acid is supposed to be acidic, after all.

It wouldn’t work otherwise!