Acidic and Alkaline Foods

[BazzaW]

I searched some of the old forum and couldn't find anything specifically on this topic as it is an interest of mine, and something I believe a lot of us get wrong with our modern diets. Much of the westernised world now has adopted a diet that is stongly acidic, and I believe that this is one of the reasons that there is so much 'dis-ease' amongst modern people, particular as it relates to their food intake, energy output, and just general well being. If you think about it, the body is alkaline by design, but acidic by function. By design I mean 70 percent water (which is neither alkaline or acidic - in its purest, non chlorinated form) and by function, as a lot of the food we eat has a strong acidic component.

If the range of PH (Potential for Hydrogen) in a body is between 1-14 - then 7 is the perfectly neutral stasis to which a normal healthy would conform. The lower the PH value of your body, the higher the acidity value. As acidity by its nature thrives in an environment where there are more hyrdrogen ions that there is water. i.e. the lower the PH value, the more ions there are in your system.

Some of the foods which are atrongly acidifying include: coffee, sodas, bread, meats and so on....Yup, I hear ya, all the good stuff. But this in excess is all of the stuff that swings your body into a toxic state. Sometimes we just focus on the calorific content of the food we eat, and as bodybuilders just worry about whether we are achieving a 40/40/20 split on our carbs, proteins, and fats.....the acidity of your food is also something that I thought I would through into the mix.....

Sodas are on thing that I think could help elimanate so much obesity. I was ready somewhere that a can of soda needed about 32 glasses of water through your system to detoxify the acidic affects on your body!

[___Lisa___]

CRAZY that soda is so acidic. I seem to run rather acidic my self, and I never drink coffee, tea, soda or any of the diet drink crap. I do however LOVE LOVE LOVE my sugar, which I've completley cut out since last week (totally withdrawling tonight, feeling almost desperate enough to eat my son's special-for-being-a-good-boy gummies, which I don't like one bit!) and I feel all around better. So, it's good to spread the knowledge of the body's PH balance, since you're very right, not many people understand it atall!

[brooke08]

Originally Posted by BazzaW

I searched some of the old forum and couldn't find anything specifically on this topic as it is an interest of mine, and something I believe a lot of us get wrong with our modern diets. Much of the westernised world now has adopted a diet that is stongly acidic, and I believe that this is one of the reasons that there is so much 'dis-ease' amongst modern people, particular as it relates to their food intake, energy output, and just general well being. If you think about it, the body is alkaline by design, but acidic by function. By design I mean 70 percent water (which is neither alkaline or acidic - in its purest, non chlorinated form) and by function, as a lot of the food we eat has a strong acidic component.

If the range of PH (Potential for Hydrogen) in a body is between 1-14 - then 7 is the perfectly neutral stasis to which a normal healthy would conform. The lower the PH value of your body, the higher the acidity value. As acidity by its nature thrives in an environment where there are more hyrdrogen ions that there is water. i.e. the lower the PH value, the more ions there are in your system.

Some of the foods which are atrongly acidifying include: coffee, sodas, bread, meats and so on....Yup, I hear ya, all the good stuff. But this in excess is all of the stuff that swings your body into a toxic state. Sometimes we just focus on the calorific content of the food we eat, and as bodybuilders just worry about whether we are achieving a 40/40/20 split on our carbs, proteins, and fats.....the acidity of your food is also something that I thought I would through into the mix.....

Sodas are on thing that I think could help elimanate so much obesity. I was ready somewhere that a can of soda needed about 32 glasses of water through your system to detoxify the acidic affects on your body!

i'm sorry, but some of your science is very flawed here.

for starters... "PH" (actualy "pH") is the negative log (that's what "p" is) of the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution. it's not correct to say that there are "more ions," or "less water" in a low-pH (acidic) solution. ions are simply charged molecules, and you would die without these electrochemical effects.

second, your body does not operate at a pH of 7, or "neutral". your digestive system, for example, is quite acidic. blood is slightly alkaline. etc.

while i agree that excesses of the foods you mentioned (soda, bread, coffee, etc.) are not good for you, it is really for other reasons. you are not going to enter a "toxic state" with these foods, nor do their health effects have much to do with pH.

so i'm not trying to criticize too harshly, and i definitely think it's good to think closely about what we are eating and drinking, especially when putting heavy demands on our bodies like weightlifting. however, please do some more reading on some of the basic science underlying these things before you believe too much of the hype you read.