John Myers
A healthy alkaline diet should consist of 70 to 80 percent alkaline foods and 20 to 30 percent acidic foods. Since there are good and bad acidic foods, it is necessary to know the difference.
The table – alkaline and acidic foods
Our acid-base table lists almost all basic and acid-forming foods that are used in today’s diet. So if you want to eat according to the guidelines of the base excess diet, then our acid-base table will help you to choose the right and healthy foods.
Alkaline diet or alkaline excess diet?
You may be wondering why we keep talking about an alkaline diet and not an alkaline diet. This is simply because we do not recommend an alkaline diet as a permanent diet:
- The purely alkaline diet is wonderfully suitable for a detoxification cure, for alkaline fasting, or as an accompaniment to an intestinal cleansing, detoxification cure, or deacidification. The alkaline diet is therefore more for short-term actions, e.g. B. for a period of four to twelve weeks. As a long-term optimal diet, however, we consider the base excess diet to be significantly more sensible, more practicable, and also healthier in the long term.
- The base excess diet consists not only of alkaline foods but also of acid-forming foods. Because not all acid-forming foods are bad and unhealthy. Of course, bad and unhealthy acidifiers are not part of an alkaline diet. However, good acidifiers should regularly enrich and supplement the meals.
As a result, it is not only important to be able to tell the basic foods from the acidic ones, but also to be able to tell the good acidic foods apart from the bad acidic foods. Our table will help you with that!
What does basic mean? What does sour mean?
Also, always remember that being alkaline does not mean that the food now has an alkaline pH (like soap or lye). Also, acidic foods — sometimes referred to as acidic foods — don’t taste as acidic as lemon juice (which is one of the alkaline foods).
Rather, it is about how the food works in the body and which substances are produced when it is metabolized in the body. If the effect is rather unfavorable and acids and other harmful substances are produced during metabolism, then the food belongs to the acid-forming foods.
However, if the food has a preferentially positive effect on the organism, if it provides it with basic minerals, or if it activates the body’s own alkaline formation, then it is a basic food.
Xwarinên alkaline çi ne?
If the base potential of food is officially examined, then it is burned and now examined how basic or acidic the remaining ash is. The combustion process here is intended to mimic digestion in the body a little.
In addition, one looks at how high the content of acid-forming amino acids is in the respective food.
From a scientific point of view, these two aspects are perfectly sufficient to determine the base potential of food and then divide all foods into acidic and basic. We have a different opinions.
Alkaline foods are alkaline on eight levels
Foods that are alkaline and healthy at the same time should – in our opinion – be alkaline on at least eight levels, not just two levels. Alkaline foods, therefore, meet the following criteria:
- Rich in basic minerals
Alkaline foods have a high content of alkaline minerals and trace elements (potassium, calcium, magnesium, and iron).
- Low in acid-forming amino acids
Alkaline foods are low in acid-forming amino acids. If there is an excess of these acidic amino acids – e.g. B. if you eat too much meat, fish, and eggs, but also too many Brazil nuts, too much sesame, or too much soy – they are broken down and sulfuric acid is formed.
- They stimulate the body’s own base formation
Alkaline foods provide substances (e.g. bitter substances) that stimulate the body’s own formation of bases in the organism.
- You don’t slag
Alkaline foods do not leave any acidic metabolic residues (slags) when they are metabolized.
- Valuable plant substances are included
Alkaline foods contain valuable plant substances (e.g. antioxidants, vitamins, phytochemicals, chlorophyll, etc.) that revitalize the body, strengthen its detoxification organs, relieve its elimination organs and support the immune system. In this way, alkaline foods enable the body to independently neutralize and eliminate excess acids, toxins, and waste products. This in turn prevents hyperacidity or reduces existing hyperacidity.
- They have a high water content
Alkaline foods are generally rich in water, i.e. have a high water content, so that the body always has sufficient liquid (even if perhaps too little is drunk) to be able to quickly excrete acids or other waste products via the kidneys.
- They have an anti-inflammatory effect
…because of their high content of vital substances and antioxidants as well as the right fatty acids. Chronic latent inflammatory processes are often at the beginning of many chronic lifestyle diseases (from rheumatism and arteriosclerosis to diabetes and autoimmune diseases) and initially go completely unnoticed. Inflammatory processes, however, lead to endogenous (taking place in the body) acid formation and thus increase acidification. Alkaline foods also alleviate or prevent hyperacidity by inhibiting risky inflammatory processes.
- They stabilize the healthy intestinal flora
Alkaline foods stabilize the intestinal flora. The healthier the intestine is now, the better and faster acids can be excreted, the more complete the digestion is and the fewer waste products are produced in the first place.
Alkaline foods include fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, herbs, and sprouts.
What are acidic foods?
Acidic or acid-forming foods, on the other hand, do not meet the above points or only do so to a small extent. Instead, they have an acidifying effect on eight levels.
- They are rich in acidic minerals
Acid-forming foods contain plenty of acidic minerals and trace elements (e.g. phosphorus, iodine, chlorine, fluoride).
- They are rich in acid-forming amino acids
so excessive consumption leads to the formation of sulfuric acid (see also under 2. for alkaline foods).
- They cannot stimulate the body’s own alkaline formation
Acid-forming foods are extremely low in those substances (e.g. bitter substances) that would stimulate the body’s own formation of bases and that could contribute to deacidification. Instead, acid-forming foods cause an increase in acids in the body.
- They lead to slag formation
Acid-forming foods contain so many harmful and acid-forming ingredients that when they are metabolized, enormous amounts of acidic metabolic residues (slags) are produced. Acid-forming ingredients are, for example, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, or synthetic food additives (preservatives, colorings, etc.).
- They prevent the body’s own deacidification processes
Acid-forming foods contain no or significantly fewer substances (e.g. antioxidants, vitamins, phytochemicals, chlorophyll, etc.) that would motivate the body to deacidify itself.
- They often have a very low water content
so that the body – especially if too little water is drunk at the same time – hardly has enough capacity to be able to excrete acids or other waste products quickly via the kidneys. Some of the slags, therefore, remain in the body and contribute to increasing acidosis.
- They promote the development of inflammation in the body
e.g. B. because of their high content of pro-inflammatory fatty acids, but also because they are poor in anti-inflammatory substances. However, where there is inflammation, more acids are produced.
- They worsen intestinal health and damage the intestinal flora
If food has a negative effect on the intestines, the acids that occur can be excreted more slowly and more waste products are produced as a result. In addition, those bacteria that predominate in damaged intestinal flora produce toxins that also contribute to acidification and slagging.
Acidic or acid-forming foods to be avoided include meat, sausage, cheese, conventional sweets, cakes, pasta, and baked goods made from flour, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, and numerous highly processed finished products.
How do I recognize the good/bad acidifiers?
In addition to the bad acid-forming foods that should be avoided, there is another category in our acid-base table. It’s the ones with recommended acidic foods.
If food is only acid-forming on one or two levels and if it also fulfills ecological criteria, then it is a good acid-forming agent.
Good acid generators include e.g. B. Nuts and legumes. Although they have a low water content, a high phosphorus content, and provide plenty of acid-forming amino acids, they are still very healthy foods because they are rich in proteins and many essential vital substances.
Good acid generators – Bad acid generators
- Organic grain – eggs from conventional farming
- Oats and oat flakes – Fish and seafood from conventional aquaculture
- Legumes – Meat from conventional farming
- nuts – dairy products
- Pseudo-cereals – Alcoholic and caffeinated beverages
- Animal products from organic farming – Ready-made beverages such as soft drinks
- High-quality vegetable drinks – sugar
How do intolerances affect the base potential?
Intolerances can affect the alkaline potential of a food. It is therefore important to know that even the best alkaline food has an acidifying effect on people who react to this food with an intolerance. So it also depends on the individual person whether a food is metabolized as alkaline or acidic.
So if you suffer from fructose intolerance, for example, you will certainly not metabolize the best alkaline fruits in an alkaline way, but in an enormously acid-forming way. In the case of intolerances, you shouldn’t rely so much on specific tables, but instead, test out for yourself what works for you and put together a menu from those foods that are tolerated.
What are neutral foods?
High-quality fats and oils are considered neutral foods, e.g. B. coconut oil, linseed oil, pumpkin seed oil, hemp oil, olive oil, butter, etc.
Why are there different acid-base tables?
If you look for acid-base tables on the Internet or in the literature, you will quickly find that they differ again and again. Which table should you believe?
We – the center of health – recommend an alkaline diet that is not only alkaline but also healthy. If you look at some acid-base tables that have been created using scientific analytical methods (e.g. those based on the PRAL value), you will find that there are things that come up with the alkaline foods that are not at all fit into the healthy alkaline diet (including wine, nut nougat spread, jam, beer, and ice cream).
Foods of this type are only found in conventional acid-base tables because the two criteria mentioned above are used to create them or the acid excretion in the urine is measured. In fact, only the base or acid potential of food is of interest, but not whether this food is also healthy.
So you can eat wonderfully alkaline and at the same time very unhealthy – and that’s exactly what we want to prevent!
