The Alkaline diet–also known as the alkaline-acid diet, or the “cure for everything”– has grown in extreme popularity over recent years. The theory is that eating acidic foods like meat, wheat, and dairy “acidify” our blood and tissues by lowering our blood pH (potential of hydrogen), causing a cascade of negative health effects. On the other hand, eating foods like nuts, legumes, and vegetables “alkalize” our body, thereby promoting better overall health.
Proponents of the Alkaline diet have touted its apparently “profound” ability to do everything from curing cancer and AIDS to dramatically boosting physical performance and totally revamping body composition–It’s your one stop shop for all dietary needs! Sounds too good to be true? That’s because unfortunately, it kinda is. While an alkaline diet alone certainly isn’t going to be the solution to all of your problems, making your diet more “alkaline” does have a few benefits that should peak the interest of any athlete looking to perform better.
Blood pH
As mentioned above, the primary mechanism through which Alkaline diets claim to work is through the modulation of blood pH: when an overabundance of either acidic or alkaline foods are consumed, blood pH either lowers–becomes acidic, or rises– becomes alkaline. Despite claims from those advocating the alkaline diet based on this assumption , food cannot directly impact blood pH, at least not in this manner. This all has to do with something called allostasis: “The process by which the body responds to a stressor in order to maintain homeostasis”. In this case, the stressor would be acidic foods, attempting to disrupt homeostasis or a neutral blood pH. Maintaining a neutral blood pH is of high orderly importance to the body, and will do so at all costs. This is because if the blood becomes too acidic (acidosis) or even too alkaline (alkalosis), you’ll die.
Allostasis is synonymous with the constant flux that our bodies go through daily to maintain balance (homeostasis). While we may not be able to measurably impact our blood pH at any given time simply from food consumption alone, we still should examine 1) the primary mechanism through which blood pH is maintained 2) the downstream effects of suboptimal functions related to or carried out via this pathway.
Blood pH ranges on a scale of 1-14, 1 being the most acidic and 14 being the most alkaline. normal blood pH is tightly regulated around 7.3, making it slightly alkaline and relatively neutral on the scale. One of the mechanisms through which this blood pH is maintained is through buffering “acidity” via alkaline substances consumed through diet, mainly minerals.
Note: This can get a little confusing sometimes, so I’m going to recap: Food does not DIRECTLY impact blood pH by raising or lowering it at will. Blood pH will always stay the same. However, diet can impact SOME of the systems used in the regulatory process of maintaing blood pH, thereby REDUCING or INCREASING your total allostatic load: the amount of work your body has to distract from other processes (such as performance) to maintain balance.
Muscle Wasting, Bone Demineralization & Gut Dysbiosis
alkaline foods can be a vital component in the maintenance of healthy blood pH, and a diet lacking in them can have negative repercussions on bone health and muscle growth alike. This is because muscles and bones house the bodies primary reserve of alkaline nutrients, mainly glutamine (In the muscle) and minerals (in the bones). This brings us to the second way the body maintains allostasis within a blood pH context: by breaking down or catabolizing muscle tissue, and demineralizing bones to extract these alkaline nutrients. This would be one of the many downstream effects of an overly acidic diet that may not readily present itself, but can have huge negative repercussions for serious athletes down the road.
While a diet that is overabundant in acid forming foods has it’s downsides, being “too alkaline” isn’t the best thing in the world either. For example, certain parts of our body such as the stomach are acidic by nature. This allows us to breakdown our food efficiently and prevents the growth and colonization of pathogenic organisms or “bad gut bacteria”. When our diet becomes too alkaline (although rare), this acidic environment can become neutralized and shifted unfavorably. Therefore, an ideal diet should contain a good healthy balance of BOTH acid and alkaline forming foods and nutrients.
Putting It All Together
The solution to many of the problems experienced from consuming and overly acid forming diet can be resolved easily by following some of the strategies listed bellow:
- Juices–while you shouldn’t rely primarily on juices to consume all of your vegetables (you need the fiber as well) juices can be a good option for packing more nutrients into your diet. Avoid juicing fruits completely and stick to green vegetables for the most part: celery, cucumber, and lemons are the best. PS: While lemons and limes are technically “acidic” in constitution, they become alkaline once ingested
- Glutamine– As mentioned previously, glutamine is a highly alkaline nutrient, found in high-abundance primarily in muscle tissue and the brain. You can take 5-10G of glutamine daily to help ward off “acid induced” muscle catabolism.
- Baking soda–Baking soda has traditionally been used by runners and those in endurance sports to prevent the build up of acid forming metabolic waste/fatigue byproduct via its buffering capacity. Dosing: 1/8 tsp pre/intra workout.
- Supplement with liquid chlorophyll and greens powders
- Include a full serving of vegetables with each meal
As stated previously an alkaline diet alone isn’t going to fix all of your problems,but virtually everyone can reap the benefits of consuming more alkaline forming foods and nutrients like the ones above.
A holistic approach to nutrition and fitness addresses the body as a complex and dynamic system whereupon everything effects virtually everything else. From a surface level , it’s not readily apparent how acidic or alkaline foods directly impact health related metrics of any kind. Again, this is because our bodies do a very wonderful job of surviving by any and all means necessary–aka maintaining homeostasis. However, As Max Schmarzo says “When it comes to training [ and maintain optimal health] we want not to just “survive”, but to THRIVE and ADAPT”.
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