Apparently the concept of balancing acid and base in our body has been around since the 1930’s when Dr. William Howard Hay published a book called “A New Health Ear”, where he proclaimed that all disease was caused by an accumulation of acid in the body.

“Now we depart from health in just the proportion to which we have allowed our alkalies to be dissipated by introduction of acid-forming food in too great amount… It may seem strange to say that all disease is the same thing, no matter what its myriad modes of expression, but it is verily so.”—William Howard Hay, M.D.

So what does it really mean to be acidic or basic?  According to experts it’s the pH measurement of the water content in your body, since about 70% of your body is composed of fluids.  This doesn’t take into account your stomach pH which has a completely different pH level.

So what determines the pH of your body?

Well many things can effect the pH of your body, but one of the major determining factor is food.  Each food has an acidic or basic (alkaline) value based on methods developed by researchers, who were able to figure out what foods cause an acidic or basic effect to your body.  Therefore, the more your diet consists of acidic foods the more likely your body will have an acidic environment… and vice versa.

According to nutritional experts however, most of us have an acidic body due to our poor choice of foods. Foods that are high in acidic value include red meat, cheese, dairy, refined carbohydrate foods (ie. bread, rice, pasta), nuts, sugar, and pretty much all processed foods.  Basic (alkaline) foods include pretty much all fruits and vegetables.

Here’s a list of common foods that have been analyzed and given an acidic or basic value.  PRAL stands for Potential Renal Acid Load and without getting into any scientific details…basically a negative PRAL score means the food is basic (alkaline), a positive PRAL score means the food is acidic and a PRAL score of zero means the food is neutral.

Foods - PRAL (- Acidic / + Basic)

MEAT
Chicken (8.7)
Lean Beef (7.8)
Turkey (9.9)
Lean Pork (7.9)
Lunch Meat (10.2)
Hot Dog (6.7)
Salami (11.6)

FISH
Cod (7.1)
Herring (7.0)
Haddock (6.8)
Trout (10.8)

MILK, DAIRY & EGGS
Whole Egg (8.2)
Egg White (1.1)
Egg Yolk (23.4)
Hard Cheese (19.2)
Gouda Cheese (18.6)
Cheddar Cheese (26.4)
Cottage Cheese (8.7)
Sour Cream (1.2)
Whole Milk (0.7)
Plain Yogurt (Whole Milk) (1.5)

SWEETS
White Sugar (-0.1)
Honey (-0.3)
Milk Chocolate (2.4)

VEGETABLES
Asparagus (-0.4)
Broccoli (-1.2)
Spinach (-14.0)
Cauliflower (-4.0)
Carrots (-4.9)
Tomatoes (-3.1)
Zucchini (-2.6)
Lettuce (-2.5)
Peppers (-1.4)
Onions (-1.5)

FRUITS
Apples (-2.2)
Apricots (-4.8)
Bananas (-5.5)
Cherries (-3.6)
Kiwi Fruit (-4.1)
Oranges (-2.7)
Peaches (-2.4)
Pears (-2.9)
Pineapple (-2.7)
Strawberries (-2.2)
Watermelon (-1.9)
**Raisins (-21.0)

NUTS
Hazelnuts (-2.8)
Peanuts (8.3)
Walnuts (6.8)

GRAINS
White Bread (3.7)
Rye Bread (4.1)
Wheat Bread (1.8)
Oats (10.7)
Wheat Flour (8.2)
Rye Flour (5.9)
Brown Rice (10.8)
White Rice (1.7)
Spaghetti (6.5)
Whole Grain Spaghetti (7.3)

*This table is adapted from the Remer and Manz study and each PRAL score is based on a 100g portion of food.

The pH of your body is always around 7 and we have built in mechanisms to keep the pH within a very small variance.  This is a good thing, since having a steady neutral pH is absolutely vital for our survival.

One way your body maintains a steady pH level when consuming copious amounts of highly acidic foods is to borrow, beg and steal important minerals like calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium from your bones and vital organs to neutralize the acid.

Now, it’s wonderful that our body is adapt and do what it needs to do, in order to keep the pH neutral, but this process of leaching minerals from our own bones and vital organs doesn’t seems like the healthiest course of action.  And so it’s no surprise that a continued course of eating highly acidic foods without adequate intake of basic foods (ie. fruits and veggies) to counter balance it, can cause enough strain on your body to lead to serious health problems like osteoporosis, joint pain, muscle pain, immune deficiency, kidney and bladder problems, premature aging and cardiovascular problems, just to name a few.

Here’s one major study that provided solid evidence of health problems acid-base imbalance can cause to your body.

A recent seven-year study conducted on 9000 women at the University of California, San Francisco showed that those who had chronic acidosis were at greater risk for bone loss than those who have normal pH levels. The scientists who carried out this experiment believe that many of the hip fractures prevalent among middle-aged women are connected to high acidity caused by a diet rich in animal foods and low in vegetables. This is because the body borrows calcium from the bones in order to balance pH — American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

So it makes sense to eat a balance of acidic and basic foods.  Now initially, looking at the list of foods with various PRAL values…it may seem like a complicated and daunting process, but as it turns out balancing acidic and basic foods isn’t hard at all.

In fact, if you already eat a well balanced diet composed of real foods, you probably don’t need to worry about balancing your pH levels or looking at PRAL values.

Protein is acidic and fruits and vegetables are basic (alkaline), so if you consume the proper amounts of both macronutrients, you should have no trouble balancing out your pH levels.  And you don’t need to worry about (healthy) fats, since they’re all pretty much neutral.  The problem arises from eating grain products like breads, rice and pasta, as well as processed foods that are made from wheat flour and trans fats.  This seems to be a recurring theme doesn’t it?

Here’s a quick summary of how you can easily achieve an acid base balance:

• Eliminating grains and processed foods is probably the simplest way to make the biggest difference in your diet in order to reduce unnecessary acidic food intake.

• Consume as much vegetables as you want to and eat moderate amount of fruits to make sure that you’re getting enough basic (alkaline) foods

• Eating protein is important and necessary, even though it’s acidic in nature.  Make sure to consume adequate amounts of protein that properly matches your lean body mass and activity levels.

• Fats are neutral, so you don’t need to worry about it in terms of effecting the acid base balance.  Stick to eating moderate amounts of healthy fats.

Do you eat lots highly acidic foods and not enough basic/alkaline foods?

Have you noticed any health issues with your acidic diet?

What are your thoughts on the article?  I’d love to know, please post your comments below!