Learn The Facts About Acidifying & Alkalizing Food and Drink

Discover How Food Can Be Either Alkalizing OR Acidifying!

In the last couple of years I have gone through many food charts that have classified food as either alkalizing or acidifying.

The more I looked into these charts, the more I came to understand that these foods were classified based on their chemical analysis and not on their effect on the human body.

That is probably why I had, until recently, never seen or heard of a third classification, ‘Acid Food’, food that can either be alkalizing OR acidifying, depending on one’s metabolism, which we covered last week.

Health Matters
Minutes Article
Jun 23, 2006

Classifying food based on their chemical analysis solely, is not a true reflection of its characteristics.  To be accurate, food needs to be classified based on the individual food’s effect on your body.

Food that chemically has alkaline characteristics can have an acidifying effect on your body.

The chemical reactions that take place and the way your body uses the food determines whether a food is acidifying or alkalizing.  A good example of that is white sugar.

White sugar can neutralize the highly acidic taste of rhubarb or black current.  While this neutralization is very real, it vanishes when ingested in your body.  White sugar, when metabolized, produces numerous acids and is, therefore, very acidifying.  Brown sugar, being processed sugar, is not much better than white sugar.

To generalize that the food in the three different classifications of Acidifying, Alkalizing and Acid fit everybody’s digestive profile, would also be a mistake.

Most people’s metabolism will be the same for most foods, but there are many people who will find metabolizing many of these foods to be difficult with some people unable to metabolize some of these foods at all.

As other examples: We all know how healthy raw vegetables are, except for someone with enteritis or colitis.  For them, the course nature of the vegetable fiber causes ever greater irritation to an already stressed digestive tract.

These people need to cook their vegetables, and eliminate those vegetables that cause their body to react poorly.  There are people who cannot metabolize acid foods.  Eating these foods will cause all kinds of digestive stress.

Dairy products as well. They are beneficial for most people, but not for those who are lactose intolerant, etc.

There are foods that are mildly acidic for most people and extremely acidic for others.  You cannot tell in advance of eating them.  Your body will make that decision for you when you do eat them.

Fruit is another example.  The riper it is, the easier to digest because the riper it is the less acidic the fruit.  Oranges are picked green so that they don’t spoil by the time they reach the market.  Eating one orange works fine for most people, but eating two can result in an “acid stomach”.

Oranges and other citrus fruits that are not tree ripened can be very acidic to extremely acidic depending on when in their ripening cycle they were harvested. Those same people who cannot safely eat more than one store bought orange, can eat 6 to 8 tree ripened oranges and have absolutely no side effects!  It’s the same with other fruit and foods.

Because of these differences, knowing the effect a food has on your body is of fundamental importance.  Food classification works for most people and should be used as the basis for a good beginning guideline.

Beyond that, you need to pay attention to the food you eat by monitoring each individual food’s effect on your body. That in the end will determine the true classification of the food you eat in relation to your own personal metabolism. You can then adjust the food classification chart accordingly.

Eliminating food that your body reacts poorly to will aid your digestion, which in turn, will add to your good health.  Poorly digested food is a serious cause for chronic low level inflammation within your body.

This condition usually leads to arthritis and other degenerative diseases and also leaves your body’s immune system in a weakened state and ill prepared to fight off viral and bacterial infections.

Christopher Vasey, N.D. (Naturopathic Doctor), who resides in Switzerland, produced a food chart that classified foods based on the observed effects the individual foods had on human beings and not based on the food’s chemical analysis.  It is his classification that we will be talking about.  I will list of these foods, broken down into food categories, in next week’s newsletter.  The acid food classification I gave you last week was based on his analysis.

If your body tests acidic, it is important that you reduce the amount of acidifying foods that you eat.  However, drastically reducing or eliminating acidifying foods is not wise as foods rich in proteins (eggs, dairy products, meat, and fish) are among the acidifying group.

The body needs a goodly supply of proteins for your tissues to be able to properly absorb alkaline minerals.  Otherwise, a portion of the alkaline minerals ingested will leave the body and will not be available when the body needs them to neutralize excess acids.

When you eat meals consisting of all or mostly acidifying food, your body is forced to call on its reserves of alkaline minerals stored in your tissues to neutralize these excess acids.  When eating alkaline food along with acid food, there would be no need to call on tissue reserves as the alkaline food would neutralize the acid produced from the acidifying food.

If you maintain a fairly good alkaline/acid balance in your diet, then occasionally overeating acidifying food which will necessitate calling on tissue reserves to neutralize the acid, will have no detrimental effect on your health as good balance in your diet will quickly rebuild your tissue reserves.

However, if the alkaline mineral reserves in your tissues are depleted, your body will not be able to neutralize the excess acid. 

In order to protect your vital organs, your body will store the excess acid in fat cells until such time as there was sufficient alkaline minerals in you body to neutralize this acid.  If the excess acid were allowed to run free in your blood, the acid would literally dissolve the cells of your organs, just like meat  tenderizer, and you would die.

Most people, who have highly acidic bodies,  will build up layer upon layer of fat in order to protect your organs.  These people will not be able to loose weight until they begin alkalizing their body.  It is then, when there is sufficient alkaline in the body to neutralize the stored acid, that the body will release the acid from the fat cells and turn the fat into energy, which should result in a loss of weight.

If your body is extremely acidic, according to Dr. Vasey, it’s okay to eliminate all acid and acidifying foods for a period, not to exceed two weeks, to get your body back in acid/alkaline balance.

In addition to the acidifying foods mentioned above, leguminous plants such as soy beans and chickpeas, bring a large quantity of uric acid into the body because they are rich in purines.

Chemically tested as alkaline, these purines are transformed by the body into uric acid so they may be eliminated from the body.  Coffee, tea, cocoa as well as chocolate also contain large amounts of purine which explains why they too are acidifying.

It is important to fully digest our food.  To achieve this, it is important to chew our food well.  Important not to eat when we are under extreme stress.  Important that our bodies are in a calm and relaxed state at the time we sit down to eat.  When dining with others, the conversation needs to be of a light and happy nature.

The process of digestion is a complex one and your body needs to give it its full attention.

The body uses fat, for example, (animal fat, deep-frying oil, etc.) in the form of fatty acid and saturated fatty acid.  These acids are difficult to metabolize and when their digestion is incomplete, they create toxic acid substances such as acetones, acetylacetic acid, beta-hydroxybutyric acid and, others.

These waste products and metabolic residues appear only if fat breakdown in the body is faulty; normal digestion of fats yields fatty acids and no toxic acid substances.

Starchy carbohydrates, which are far more complex than fat and proteins, face the same problems within your body.  Carbohydrates go through various stages of transformation during which their characteristic properties change what was originally alkaline into an acid and the intermediary acid substances are converted back to alkaline substances at the end of the process.

However, if the process is interrupted through poor digestion, then the conversion back to alkaline substances does not occur, and the body becomes acidified.

Another cause for a breakdown in the process is the over consumption of carbohydrates such as bread, cereals, pastas and crackers which goes beyond the body’s ability to digest properly.

It is interesting to note that while cereal grains are acidifying, germinated grains are not.  Sprouts, even those of leguminous plants such as soybeans, lentils, and chickpeas are alkalizing.  Breads made from sprouted grains are not.

We spoke about white sugar being acidifying but naturally occurring sugars (like carrots and beets) are not.  This is because the tissues of fruits and vegetables contain all the necessary trace elements, vitamins, and enzymes necessary to complete their transformation in the body.

For the same reasons, whole sugar, meaning the concentrate from the evaporation of sugar-cane in not acidifying either.

Nut, oleaginous fruits (except for almonds and Brazil nuts) are all acidifying.  These include walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, pecans, coconut, and even the seeds used in health food mixes --- sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, etc.  Their acidifying character is due to their high fat content as well as their high content of protein, phosphorus, and sulfur.

Although both are acidifying, a handful of a health mix is not as acidifying as 6 ounces of meat, even though they are classified in the same category.

Acidifying food is acidifying for everybody just as alkalizing food is alkalizing for everybody.  If just the extent that is different between the foods.

Potatoes are well known for their anti-acidifying qualities.  The potato’s juice, according to Dr. Vasey, is often recommended as a remedy for stomach acidity and ulcers and recommended as the best choice of food to counter the acidification of the body.  The potato, a starchy food, is nourishing and a beneficial alternative to cereal grains, which are acidifying.

Another nourishing and valuable food for fighting excess acidity is the chestnut.  Like the potato, it is starchy and a food that supplies fuel for energy and is not acidifying like cereal grains.  Chestnuts can be roasted in the oven or boiled in water and eaten as a vegetable.  Try red cabbage and chestnuts.  Tasty, healthy, and alkalizing.

Of all the fruits, the banana is the only one that is truly alkalizing.  All the rest are mildly alkalizing for most and acidifying for some.

Generally speaking, dried fruits are alkalizing as a portion of their acid is oxidized during the drying process.

Almonds and Brazil nuts are the only alkalizing oleaginous fruits.  Eat them as they are, or slice or chop them, and mix them with salads, vegetables and desserts.

Of the olives, only black olives preserved in olive oil are alkalizing.

Raw or whole sugar in not alkalizing, but when eaten in moderation, it does not acidify either, as is the case with other sugars.  The same is true of corn, milk, large-curd cottage cheese, cream, butter, etc. which, eaten in moderation, do not acidify the body.

Water is another area of neglect for most people.  Most walk around partially dehydrated.  Drinking enough purified water that has a high pH, not distilled water (which we call dead water), is vital if you wish to be in a continuous state of good health.  It is important that you drink at least half your weight in ounces of good water every day.

Water usually has a pH of 7.  When it is chlorinated, or put through reverse osmosis, it turns acid.  Some of the most popular bottled waters are also acid, some, very acid.  San Pellegrino, pH 4.49.  Perrier, pH 4.91.  Aquafina, pH 5.96.  Poland Spring, pH 6.31.  Fiji, pH 6.65.  Arrowhead, pH 6.83. and Evian, pH 7.53.

Only ionized water, using a water ionizer, has a pH range that can go up to a pH of 12.5 and is purified, unlike tap or bottled water.

Another advantage of ionized water is its oxidation reduction potential (ORP).

A negative ORP, measured in millivolts, prevents oxidative damage to your cells.  Tap water and bottled water all have positive ORP values and cannot give your cells that protection.

A high pH and high negative ORP will also detox your body and help with your digestion because ionized water absorbs more quickly into the cells of you body than does tap or bottled water.

Next week I will provide you with a breakdown and classification of the various foods.

To your good health and longevity.

Ira Marxe
CEO, Good Health Supplement

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