Mythbusting: The Alkaline Diet

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Lisa

alkaline.jpg

I told y’all I would mythbust the alkaline diet! The alkaline diet is SO frustrating to me. The whole idea is to eat alkaline foods to lose weight and prevent disease by making your body more alkaline. To start, alkaline means ‘basic,’ as in, the opposite of acidic. The pH scale ranges from 0 (acidic) to 14 (alkaline), with neutral being 7.  The pH of foods vary along that scale, and the alkaline diet preaches that eating alkaline foods makes your body more alkaline and that’s healthier than acidic. Oyyy…let me explain.

The pH of your body varies greatly. Your blood is around 7.4. Each compartment of your body is totally different. Your stomach is very acidic, since it’s filled with acid, and ranges somewhere in between 1 and 3.5. This low pH is necessary so that the stomach can properly break down food. I should also mention if you mix a strong acid with a weak base, the result is probably an acid.

Think about that for a sec. All the food you eat immediately goes to your stomach, which is filled with acid. So, you’re working so hard to eat all these basic foods, only so that they can end up in a pool of acid seconds later. Remember: if you mix a strong acid (the stomach acid) with a weak base (the food you eat), the result is probably an acid. The pH of your food immediately changes to acid in the stomach not matter what you eat. I mean, unless you’re downing bleach (poisonously basic), in which case, you’ve got bigger problems.

Additionally, even IF (and that’s a biggg if) your alkaline food somehow magically makes it through the stomach to try to make the rest of your body more alkaline, your body has serious mechanisms by which it works to maintain the blood’s pH levels. If anything enters the body to try to make the blood more basic or acidic, your body is going to react to keep it stable around 7.4. Trust me, you want your body to win that fight.

So why are people on the alkaline diet losing weight?

This is an easy one — most ‘alkaline’ foods are actually healthy vegetables and fruit. Eat your fruits and veggies, you’ll lose weight. Duh. The alkaline diet also tells you to consume a lot of water and avoid processed foods and sugar. Uhh…of course you’ll lose weight if you’re replacing processed foods and sugar with fruits and veggies.

Now go share this hilariously smart mythbust with your favorite alkaline dieter and have a good laugh.

Do you all have any other celebrity fad diets you’re curious about? 

xx
lisasig

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  • The Healthy Collective

    Amazing! Love this. Makes so much sense to me now the way you describe it. From all my text books and everything I learn it really seems that that a well balanced diet of veg, fruit and whole grains, is just the way to go! No need for complicated diets.

  • heatherbquinn

    I’ve never heard of the alkaline diet, but I did participate in a metabolic bootcamp and the nutritionist’s plans included testing saliva pH morning and night, with the goal of being basic rather than acidic. The blends that went with the program were supposed to help one be less acidic. The bootcamp really helped me lose a lot of weight but the weight loss was hard to maintain because the meal plan was very restrictive.

    • http://www.theskinnyonhealth.com/ Lisa @ The Skinny on Health

      I think you may be thinking of the ketogenic diet! A lot of people advocate for the ketogenic diet, particularly to reverse the effects of metabolic syndrome. Testing urine or saliva may mean they were looking to measure the amount of ketones in your body to determine if you were using ketones for fuel instead of glucose. The ketogenic is also very restricted and unpalatable, so it’s difficult to maintain. If you remember it being very low in carbs, it was probably the ketogenic diet!

      xo

  • Alisia

    I’ve always heard of this diet but never really looked into it. I’m not a huge diet person, actually I’m not a “diet” person at all. I do like how to explained this. It sweat all of these “diets” are all about getting peoples’ money. Diets don’t work and they will never work. Great post!

  • http://liveanddiet.com/ Whitney @ To Live & Diet in L.

    I never really understood the point of the alkaline diet but after reading this I realize…there is no point. Haha, great myth-busting girl!!

  • Melissa Burton

    YESSSSS! Thank you for posting this. Nice work.

  • http://www.consciouskitchenblog.com/ Dana @ Conscious Kitchen Blog

    Nice bust! I didn’t know too much about the alkaline diet until now… and I can see how silly the idea of it is! Thanks for sharing.

  • Stephanie Leonard

    LOVE THIS!! I was reading about the alkaline diet and thought it was so cool until it hit me… well duh, you’ll lose weight you’re eating fruits and veggies!! Not rocket science! :p

  • Cassie Vaughn

    Love it! It doesn’t have to be complicated, right? Eat mostly fruits, veggies and throw in some lean protein and whole grains, and it’ll all work out!