Discrepancy Between Many Alkaline Food Lists

Why alkaline food lists differ so much

There are many books and companies claiming to have the definitve 'list of alkaline foods'. The problem is, they all seem to differ. 

How can a food be classed as alkaline in one place and then as acidic in another? Surely that's like saying yellow is green and green is yellow, well kind of ;-). But can a food be both alkaline and acidic? 

Well the answer is yes and for this reason...

It all depends on how the author/researcher defines an ‘alkaline food'. For example, a list may simply classify foods by their pH in whole physical form, as they are in the fridge. This is the way most people would view foods – whereby things such as lemons and limes are deemed acidic and milk, cheese and chicken are alkaline.

This seems reasonable and intuitive. However, it is an inaccurate way of looking at things as it takes no account of the impact which that food has on our own bodies.

Alkaline Diet Health Tip: A food that is alkaline in its physical form can often have an acidifying effect on the body when consumed (and vice versa), so be mindful of this.

We are looking to adopt a predominantly alkaline diet lifestyle in order to balance blood pH at its slightly alkaline set point, so we need to look at the effect a food has on the body when consumed.

As it turns out, lemons and limes are found to be high alkaline foods in terms of their effect on the body and milk, cheese and chicken are acidifying.

Another main reason for differences between one acid alkaline food chart and another is due to the progressing nature of the research being conducted in this area.

Research from the early twentieth century until fairly recently classified acid and alkaline foods by being burnt and then measuring the pH of the resultant ash residue when dissolved in water (i.e. what is left after passing through the metabolism).

Later research, however, found that the ash residue in isolation was not really relevant: The important factor is the chemical compounds that the food contributes to the body after it has been metabolised.

Our metabolic system is a marvelously complex and intricate system, so determining how acid or alkaline forming food is in this way is a slow and steady task, one that only now scientists are beginning to complete.

I hope this clears up why alkaline food lists differ and shows you how you should approach food selection.

Alkaline Diet Health Tip: I would recommend that if you do wish to stick very strictly to a list of foods then look at when and how the research behind it was conducted. I have produced a guiding alkaline foods list PDF, which also shows food that are debatable, from the research and reading I have done but it is not definitive.

I hope this clears up why alkaline food lists differ and shows you how you should approach food selection

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