Should You Avoid Acidic Foods?

People in Totowa, NJ, have started the year right with many vowing to exercise more and eat healthier. What are healthy foods? What foods should you eat and which should you avoid? Some wonder whether you should avoid acidic foods to maintain good health. What are acidic foods? They’re foods that have a pH of 4.6 or lower.

It’s not about the acidity of the food when you eat it.

The problem, however, is not the acidity of the food that makes a difference but the amount of acidity created when the food is digested and metabolized. Foods that can create an acidic condition in the body include seafood, processed and fresh meat, cheese, and certain other dairy products, some starchy food, soft drinks, and supplements made with animal protein.

Offset the animal protein with fruits and vegetables that tend to be alkalizing.

As noted before, it’s not about how acidic the food is, but how acidic it makes the body upon digestion. Most people will agree that lemons are acidic, but it’s not the effect they have on the body. They leave alkaline ash in the urine after eating them. If you eat sugar or food with added sugar, it leaves acidic ash in the urine. Eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, regardless of the food’s acidity level, makes more alkaline ash in the urine. The acidity of the ash left in the urine is the only change that occurs in the body regardless of the food you eat. Eating highly acidic or alkaline food won’t change your body’s pH.

Does the food cause your body to work harder and create acid?

Not all foods that create acidic ash are unhealthy. Seafood, lean meat, and dairy cause acidic ash, but they’re also healthy foods. Refined sugar, alcohol, soft drinks, and white flour products are also high acid producers, but they don’t fit into any healthy diet. Rather than focusing on acid producers, focus on healthier options at the table. Eat more alkaline ash producers like greens, eat moderate dairy, and cut out food with added sugar entirely.

• If you follow an alkaline diet you’ll probably be healthier, but it has nothing to do with alkalinity. Foods that increase alkalinity provide nutrients that boost the immune system and create a healthier body.
• The lower the pH, the more acidic a food is. Some foods, like limes at 0.4 pH or blueberries at 0.6 are very acidic, but after eating them, they alkalize and reduce the body’s acid levels.
• Consuming more fruits and vegetables that tend to be alkalizing can help neutralize the body by diminishing the amount of animal protein that causes metabolic acidosis.
• Some diets focus on alkalizing the body for health. There is no evidence that the benefits have anything to do with the body’s acid levels but more with the other nutrients and benefits the food provides.

For more information, contact us today at Prime Fitness Studio