Alkaline diet: five arguments in favor and another five against

Alkalinediet: five arguments in favor and another five against

Despite being its questionable scientific basis, this diet has positive aspects

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nutrition
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gurus

The fad of the alkaline diet has been going strong for some years at the popular level, under the belief that a diet based on certain foods can influence the pH (acidity-alkalinity ratio) of body fluids, including blood and urine. The pH of the latter would be taken as a measure of the general acidity of the body. 

A miracle diet

According to the promoters and evangelists of the alkaline diet, it has numerous advantages and is capable of preventing and even curing diseases such as cancer. The support of these powers would be that a low or acidic pH of body fluids promote inflammatory processes, related to all types of cardiovascular diseases and promoters of various types of cancer.

Although it is possible to accept that this theory is partially true -inflammatory processes cause numerous diseases and there seems to be some relationship between an excessively low homeostatic pH and inflammatory processes-, it is not at all proven that it can be raised, much less regular, the acidity of body fluids based on eating certain foods and ignoring others.

The relationship between diet and physiology is never direct and the products that we ingest for the most part do not pass directly into the blood or cells, except for small percentages, but are deconstructed by metabolism to reconstruct new compounds with their elemental molecules and atoms which are the ones that will circulate through our veins and will reach our organs.

Therefore the claim that an alkaline diet, based on supposedly high pH products, will make our blood and urine less acidic and therefore our body less prone to inflammatory processes, is totally crazy. Following an alkaline diet neither cures nor prevents absolutely nothing based on the pH of the food.  

Fruits

Favorable arguments of the alkaline diet

However, these types of diets are not bad in themselves -except for certain impostures that we will see later-, but, on the contrary, they carry a series of positive aspects that should be taken into account when demonizing them as social fashion. Among them it is possible to emphasize the following five. 

1. Promote the consumption of vegetables

Indeed, one of the mainstays of this type of diet is the consumption of vegetables, whether raw or heat-treated, something that in our current culture of haste and easy food we are leaving aside. Whether due to the contribution of plant fiber, the intake of flavonoids and other plant antioxidant compounds, as well as numerous vitamins such as ascorbic acid or retinol and carotenoids, or phytosterols, which contribute to the control of intestinal cholesterol supply, a strong vegetable diet is always positive.

2. Promote legumes as a source of calories and protein

Legumes are an excellent alternative vegetable food source to meat, with a great balance between their caloric and protein content that can substitute for obtaining energy from refined flours and purified carbohydrates, especially sugars, which are responsible for obesity and a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

3. It encourages eating whole grains

The alkaline diet's commitment to rice and wholemeal flours is also, a positive aspect of it, since it introduces vegetable fiber as necessary and avoids the refined flours that are so common in industrial foods.

4. Prevents against added sugars

Indeed, the alkaline diet clearly warns of the effects of added sugars, always harmful.

5. Recommends running away from ultra-processed food

As a consequence of all this, the alkaline diet is postulated as a firm enemy of the fast and ultra-processed products typical of the supermarket and is committed to cooking our own food, which becomes one of the pillars in the prevention of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular problems. 

Diet

Arguments against the alkaline diet

However, the alkaline diet also has its dark and counterproductive points on which it is convenient to influence.

1. It generates false expectations

The alkaline diet does not detoxify or purify or make us shine inside, however much it involves eating healthy. At most it will make us go to the bathroom more regularly and with more consistent stool. Nor does it have to make us lose weight, everything will depend on the caloric intake of our intake and the amounts we eat.

Attacks dairy
2. According to the alkaline diet, neither cheeses nor yogurts should be eaten, or at least not usually, since they are acidic products. You can live without dairy, but we must not forget that they are not bad and provide fat-soluble vitamins, probiotics, and calcium among many other things.
3. 3. Attacks products of animal origin
4. Again, the alkaline diet ensures that eating meat, fish, or eggs is counterproductive for homeostatic pH, something that is not proven at all, even though it is not recommended to abuse them either. As nutritionist Julio Basulto repeatedly explains, diet comes from the girega word 'digital', which means lifestyle, contumbre. In this way, the most indicated diet is the one that is healthy is varied in its products and above all it is constant.
5. 4. Promote green smoothies
6. In this medium we already explained in its day the dangers of green detox shakes based on vegetables, especially if abused. This type of shakes is a hoax that is useless and can cause problems.
7. 5. They induce bizarre and useless customs
   One of the premises of some alkaline diets is the intake of seawater, or adding salt to the water we drink, drinking saltwater on an empty stomach in the morning, etc. All these rituals are absolutely useless.