Re: Good grief! Where can I find the truth??
I have been searching the net for info on which foods are alkaline & which are acidic. I have heard these foods are acidic on one site & alkaline on another: eggs, popcorn, strawberries, milk.
That is just looking over the lists quickly. Who know how much they disagree. How can I get good info & know it is good info?
Part of this confusion comes from the fact that most foods contain both properties. For example most of these are rich is proteins and sugars, which break down in to acids, and minerals that are considered alkalinizing.
Certain foods are going to break down forming acids primarily. Meats for example, regardless of how the source was raised is going to form acids. This is because protein breaks down forming uric acid. There is also uric and lactic acids already trapped in the cells to begin with as the animal is killed.
Another part of the confusion is the presence of acids already in the foods. Strawberries for example contain tannic acid. And they contain sugars that will be metabolized in to carbonic acid.
So we can actually say that all foods are acidic since they all contain proteins and/or sugars that lead to acid formation.
But acids are not inherently bad. We need a large number of acids just to exist and survive. Some beneficial acids include amino and fatty acids, carbonic acid, acetic acid, lactic acid, uric acid, tannic acid, citric acid, malic acid, hyaluronic acid, glucoronic acid, pyruvic acid, etc.
And again many of these foods also contain minerals that balance the acidic components. And since we rarely eat one item all the time we are getting both acid and alkaline components.
In addition diet is not the only factor in pH balance. Breathing is the body's primary method of balancing the pH. The body also uses other means to maintain pH including urinary secretion of hydrogen, bicarbonate buffers and as a very last resort minerals from the bone. This is why we RARELY see actual cases of acidosis. There has been so much hype over pH balance though and generally from people who really don't have a clue about how pH is maintained in the body and more often by sales sites wanting to sell you their product. A great example are all the alkaline water sites, which are often selling machines that generate very dangerous hydroxide (OH) water or that have carbonates in their bottled waters that cause issues for the body as well.
If people really want to help their body maintain its pH they can save their money and simply learn to deep breathe, which alkalinizes the body.