I received an interesting question today:
Hi Ian,
We are developing an easy tool for people to determine pH levels of food and recipes and would really like to speak with you about it.
I spoke with Leon Bartlett from your office and he kindly forwarded me the Alkaline Defence Program pdf which I have begun reading.
On the third page of the pdf, you mention that “it isn’t the ratio of the acid/alkaline minerals in our food” that helps create our acid/alkaline balance. If this is the case, then how do you determine if a recipe or food is right for you once ingested?
Our main question is: when determining the overall pH of a recipe, does the quantity of each ingredient matter?
A good question!
I said it isn’t the ratio because the latest works on alkaline food classification, carried out by German researchers Drs Thomas Remer and Friedrich Manz were based on a pretty obvious flaw in most of the acid/alkaline food charts we see on the net today. They realised, in a ‘Duh-Oh’ moment, that not all acids affect the body in the same way.
As an example, I regularly consume doses of Ascorbic Acid, a.k.a. Vitamin C in its purest and most absorbable oral form. The early charts lumped all acids together with a simple/simplistic ‘burn a food then test the pH of the ash result’ approach.
Remer and Manz looked at what acids the foods were composed of and from their knowledge of nutrition and metabolism, classified not just the pH but the effect of the acids in the food. This forms the basis of our Acid/Alkaline Food Chart.
So, unfortunately – and fortunately, it isn’t as simple as ‘how much’ alkaline or acid remains in food after metabolism.
Unfortunate, because many readers thought it was simple; just eat the foods with high alkaline pH, and they were wrong. Fortunate because it gives us an opening to a higher understanding of the relevance of both acids and alkalis in our diet.
So, folks, I wish I could answer it simply, but I can’t, and I know of no-one who has taken the next step, which is to look at how, specifically, to reduce the symptoms of acidosis on our bodies through daily diet. I believe we have the answer but I am neither scientist or doctor.. and my answer is a tough call.
Give up sugar. Sugar as sugar, sugar as starch, sugar as carbs. Replace this quick and nasty power source with the one you have been using for thousands of years. FAT.
I’m doing it, Cassie is, my relatives and our team are.. and so far the results have been excellent.