PH Alkaline Diet?

[Lily]

[Edit - I have later realized that my title could be misleading;
I can't change the title but perhaps it should have read pH Alkaline Diet?]

Have any of you any experience you could share in regard to an alkaline diet?

I really know very little about it but an acquaintance is pursuing a diet like that for a serious health concern so I've been reading a little about it (again).

Primarily I guess I'm wondering if it's safe with a tissue valve, or while on ACT. Any comments please?

 

[Lily]

"What in the world is she blabbering about now?"

"What in the world is she blabbering about now?"


Years ago, my husband was given this list of Acid and Alkaline foods:

Common Acid Ash Foods, leaving strong acid in your internal environment... bacon, barley grain, beef, blueberries, bran/wheat and oat, bread/white and whole wheat, butter, carob, cheese, chicken, cod, corn, corned beef, crackers/soda, cranberries, currants, eggs, flour/white and whole wheat, haddock, honey, lamb, lentils/dried, lobster, milk/cow's, macaroni, oatmeal, oysters, peanut butter, peanuts, peas/dried, pike, (plums and prunes leave an alkaline ash but have an acidifying effect on the body), pork, rice/white and brown, salmon, sardines, sausage, scallops, shrimp, spaghetti, squash/winter, sunflower seeds, turkey, veal, walnuts, wheat germ, and yogurt.

Neutral Ash Foods that have an acidifying effect include: corn oil, corn syrup, olive oil, and refined sugar.

Common Alkaline Ash Foods, helping to control acid in your internal environment... almonds, apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, beans/dried, beet greens, beets, blackberries, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chard leaves, cherries/sour, cucumbers, watermelon, dates/dried, figs/dried, grapefruit, grapes, green beans, green peas, lemons, lettuce, lima beans/ dried and green, limes, milk/goat (recommended for infants only when mother's milk is not available), millet, molasses, mushrooms, muskmelons, onions, oranges, parsnips, peaches, pears, pineapple, potatoes/sweet and white, radishes, raisins, raspberries, rhubarb (not recommended for having properties detrimental to the body), rutabagas, sauerkraut, soy beans/green, spinach/raw, strawberries, tangerines, tomatoes, and watercress.

My husband was told that the Western diet tends to be heavy on the acidic foods, and that people would be healthier to consume an 80% to 20% ratio in favor of the alkaline foods.

 

[AgilityDog]

It sounds like bunk to me.

http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH?d=dmtHMSContent&c=465747&p=~br,IHW|~st,24479|~r,WSIHW000|~b,*

Of course changing your diet to predominantly fruits and vegetables may affect your INR and warfarin dosage.

And give you gas.

 

[Cris N]

I vote for a balanced diet

 

[Fundy]

I first came upon notice of benefits of an alkaline diet about a year ago, via a solution for chronic myofacial pain and trigger points. Massage can diffuse a trigger point but I guess diet is the cause of them and recurrence. The concept worked for me and I'm a believer.

Looking at an alkaline chart most of what I consumed was acid and much of it highly acid. Most of the troublesome foods are acid actually. You have the toxin type of peanuts and shellfish. Red meats, alcohol, soda pop, coffee, milk, etc...


Basicaly I swapped green tea for coffee, juice for pop(concentrate juices aren't good for fructose and other reasons though), tap water for spring water(often with lemon juice added). Snack foods I went from junk foods laced with additives and seasonings like MSG to handfuls of almonds and vegetable salads.

The alkaline diet premise basically says most disease cames from being too acid, well a quick look at acid/alkaline charts and what I ate and I should have been eventually very sick. And I was regarding almost everything by 40. Kidney pain, skin dry with rashes,scabs, and bumps. Muscles refusing to relax and being cramped and achy. Everything.

Although its also possible that I swapped out a bad water, and simply eliminated trouble foods and added some missing nutrients with the almonds and salds. although my blood tests during troubled period(ten years) were great.

I think its worth looking at. Some alkaline diets for cancer seem to work 10% of the time while nothing else seems to work. Those diets involve consuming over ten pounds of vegetables daily, which needs juicing to even be possible. This year I plan to start juicing a bit. A liter of carrot juice costs about 5 bucks and I'm not paying that so I'll make my own. Grass powders are expensive so I doubt I'll ever buy them, well maybe once.

Its not just important to eat 80%alkaline/20%acid. You need to make sure your getting all the essential vitamins and stuff too. I look at the blog posts and articles at this site often and find them helpful.
http://www.energiseforlife.com/wordpress/
I smoke and know I should stop but haven't. same thing with alkaline diet really. I know it would be helpful for me, but I never jump in with both feet sort of thing and give in to temptations of former diet often. And I pay the price every time.

 

[Jkm7]

Doesn't sound like a healthy diet to me.
Mediterranean makes more sense IMO

Only you can decide priority about alkaline vs acid vs smoking.

 

[LisaD]

A healthy balanced diet is best, there are a lot of really great foods listed on the acid list that I would not want to cut out. I have worked as a nurse for years and would recommend eating a lot of those foods, ie: salmon, lentils, walnuts, cranberries, oatmeal; all fall on my highly recommended list. Our bodies are designed to keep our blood at a certain pH and do a remarkably good job of it. Unless someone is doing very strange things with their diet, critically ill, or in kidney failure, our bodies regulate without issue. There is no reason to go with such a restrictive regimen.

 

[Fundy]

An alkaline diet in practice doesn't restrict all acid ash producing foods. An alkaline diet really doesn't restrict anything really. The aim is to be more alkaline than acid, as opposed to being acid/alkaline balanced, or (as most western diets are) heavily acidic.

Some alkaline listed items are highly acid such as cola drinks which takes about 32 drinks of high alkaline water to balance the acidic effect of 1 cola drink. Some are only mildly acidic. Its better to get a good chart that breaks foods and drinks into 6 categories mild/moderate, and high for each category.

Also, its definitely better to avoid all high acid stuff. Its mostly soft drinks, artificial sweeteners, beef, shellfish, alcohol. Which should be avoided anyway. Cranberries do make most high acid lists(coffee for instance I've found in all 6 categories, but it bothers me so I just avoid it when my willpower allows). But cranberry benefits can be found alternatively with blueberries for antioxidants. If you have urinary or kidney trouble then I'd suggest using cranberry juice in spite of its acidic ph effect anyway. Just try to add more alkaline stuff to balance.

The body does balance especially the blood which has to stay fine line ph alakline of very near 7.36??? or so. If not you die, so the body does whatever it has to do to survive. How it does this isn't always good for the body in terms of acid and toxin buildup and its consequences on the lymphatic system.

The benefits of alkaline diet is to counterbalance how the body keeps blood this way. A high acidic diet tends to not remove acids effe3ctively sometimes; like lactic acid constantly being produced in muscles and having to leech calcium from bones even, if necessary to grab alkaline materials to balance acidic ash being placed into blood.

But eating salmon and oatmeal are definitely foods in most people's alkaline diet for sure IMO. There's no restrictions really, as long as you balance alkaline with acid. Well overbalance to alkaline really. Its also possible to be too alkaline, just that's its improbable especially with most western diets.

A very good article on acidosis which links to an article about food suggestions is here. Both articles communicate the benefits and food suggestions a lot better than I do.
http://www.healthinfomax.com/acidosis.html

And the acid alkaline foods article.
http://www.healthinfomax.com/alkaline_acidic_foods.html

Some people for example can tolerate smoking without serious illness and some people can tolerate high acidic diets without illness. And some like me used to be able to tolerate all that acid. My diet was almost all acid and much of it high acid. I've adopted the alkaline diet theory and eliminated all high acids and tried adding more alkaline foods.

I went from several years of max dose tylenol, muscle relaxants, to having to add celebrex, cipralex,clonozapam, and ametrptylene. And life wasn't too fun then.

Now after switching out high acids, I use no medicinals at all.

Its worth looking into the theory of the diet, and most of the highly acid foods should be eliminated anyway in most health remedy diets .

 

[Lily]

I added one brief edit in my first post, after later realizing that the title might be misleading to some.

Thanks very much for the input. I appreciate the comments.

I'm not recommending the diet -- I don't have any experience with it -- just asking about it in curiosity and for personal experiences. I find it interesting, primarily in regard to optimal health and not weight loss, per se. There's so much to be found about it online, both pro and con. But I have always worried -- though hopefully needlessly -- about doing anything that could mess up my valve.

My dad died from esophageal cancer, adenocarcinoma and not squamous cell, caused by heartburn, excessive acids I suppose. [It is still reportedly the fastest rising incidence of cancer in the US today, the last time I read about it.] We later found out that two of his first cousins also died from the same cancer.

The acquaintance I mentioned in my earlier post, who does not have our heart issue, was very compelling in their explanation of how they are benefiting from aggressively pursing the diet for their dangerous health situation.

Thank you all again for your comments; I hope more will respond. Also, I found this interesting article about it on ezinearticles.com:

The 3 Dangers of the Alkaline Diet by: Jack Sinclair

The alkaline diet is becoming more popular that even the South Beach diet and other trendy ways of losing weight.It might be because it is highly effective, and besides letting you return to your optimal weight, following an alkalizing diet will boost your energy levels and overall feelings of well being.

Like all things in life, there are dangers in following the alkaline diet, and you should pay attention to avoid the three biggest pitfalls.

First, never eat just alkaline foods. The body has some need for acidic foods, and if you were to go extreme, and consume only foods that become alkaline in your body, you might deprive your body of some essentials.

Second, the alkalizing diets do not address essential nutrients. If you are following an alkaline system strictly, you might be failing to pay attention to things like Omega 3 (DHA), and other
essential fatty acids. You absolutely need good nutrition, and should make sure you have a balanced diet that includes foods from all the major food groups (cutting down on meats and dairies, of course).

Third, do not poison yourself! This might sound extreme, but that is what is happening when you drink water from plastic bottles and even from the kitchen tap. You need to pay attention to the toxins around you, and to minimize your intake of things that are not good for you.That includes some of the alkalizing products you find on the web, too. Make sure you buy from a reputable source, and get yourself a Ph test kit, to make sure you can measure the impact of any products you decide to try.

Going alkaline is an exciting way to add energy to your life, and to bring back those feelings of youth. Avoid these pitfalls, and you might experience the tremendous results others are having.