Welcome to Bad Science on the Internet!  Here, we highlight some of the crazy and sometime dangerous stuff people post online,   and then give you the facts.  

The bad science: The Alkaline Diet

What do they claim? Increased longevity, lower risk of heart disease and cancer, among other things.

Are they trying to sell you something? $10-20 for a diet book.

Is any of this true?  No.  None of it.

Supporters claim that this diet “balances you body’s pH”.  These are words no reputable scientist or medical professional will ever say.  For those that have forgotten, pH is a measure of the acidity/alkalinity of a solution.  The pH of your cells and blood is very tightly controlled, and your diet does not affect this.  Intracellular pH is generally 6.8-7.4.  Blood pH is even less variable – generally 7.35 to 7.45.  When blood pH is outside of this range that is bad – go-the-the-hospital-right-now-bad.  Low blood pH (acidosis) is most often associated with uncontrolled diabetes, but can also occur during lung, liver, or hart failure.  High blood pH (Alkalosis) is less common, and can be caused by kidney failure, excessive vomiting and diarrhea, and certain genetic diseases.

The foods recommended as part of this diet will not change your body’s pH – intracellular, blood, or any other compartment other than maybe your urine.

With this in mind, it’s not really clear why some people promote this diet.  Some point to the changes in urine pH as being beneficial for kidney stones – it’s true that the types of kidney stones you may get is affected by urinary pH, but you can still get certain types with higher (alkaline) urine, and the foods generally promoted by this diet aren’t likely to change your urine pH significantly.  It’s interesting to note that the “Alkaline” here refers to “alkaline ash”, which is the pH of the food after is has been burned.  This makes no sense – for the record,when your body “burns” calories for energy, this is a very different process from just setting food on fire. Also it means that some foods that are clearly acidic (like citrus fruit) are considered “alkaline” for the purposes of this diet.

So, to recap, someone actually thought, “Hey, setting a citric-acid loaded orange on fire produces alkaline ash, so maybe if I eat enough oranges, by body pH will go up!  If I can trick celebrities into believing this, I could make millions!”

Is any of this Dangerous?  So what can you eat that will actually raise your blood pH?  Consuming large quantities of baking soda or  antacid drugs could do it.  You’d have to take a lot.  I’m not gonna say how much, because DON’T DO THIS.  This causes alkalosis, which as we have covered above is go-to-the-hospital-right-now-bad.

With that said, the basic Alkaline diet is not really dangerous.  It’s generally high in fruits and vegetables, raw foods and plant proteins, while being low in meat and alcohol.  As long as you get the protein and vitamins you need, this is not a bad selection of foods.

What’s the bottom line?  If you want to eat more fruit and vegetables and less meat, that sounds like a great idea.  Just don’t expect it to change your “body pH”, cure your ailments, or change your life.  It won’t do any of those things.  I know there are some famous celebrities who promote this diet.  Don’t trust celebrities with diet or health advise.