Acidic Food and the Alkaline Diet
03.09.10
Title: Should I Avoid Acidic Food?
What is an acidic food? The answer is more complicated than one would think. Some people want to avoid acidic food because they are following the alkaline diet. Others avoid these foods because they have heartburn or acid reflux.
Just the same, whatever their motivation, people often become hopelessly confused because they do not differentiate between foods that are inherently acidic, and foods that make the body more acidic.
Distinguishing Between Acidic and Acidifying
An acidic food is a food that has an acidic pH before it has been eaten and digested. For example, if you took the juice from a lemon and applied it to a strip of pH test paper, the paper would turn a different color to show an acid pH of under 7.0.
Life would be easy if all acidic foods made the body more acidic, as well. But this is not necessarily the case.
For example, most types of vinegar are both acidic and acidifying. But there is one interesting exception: Apple cider vinegar is really an alkalizing food because it is relatively rich in potassium.
On the other hand, you wouldn’t think of sweet rolls or milk as an acidic food. Why is this? Because these foods taste sweet and mild, not sour and acidic, the way that vinegar does. Just the same, both of these foods have an acid-producing effect on the body.
Both heartburn and GERD are often due to the overproduction of stomach acid, in which case eating an acidic food can make these symptoms worse. But what most people don’t know is that the underproduction of stomach acid can also cause heartburn and other digestive ailments. Since this is the case, some people actually find it helpful to drink a small quantity of apple cider vinegar mixed with water before a meal.
The bottom line is that you don’t need to go to extremes to have an overall alkaline diet. You just need to seek the correct balance between acidifying and alkalizing foods.