Alkalizing foods seem to monopolize most of the informative articles that embrace the fashion of natural therapies and counter-information, forgetting or even discrediting the opinion of official medicine.
Alkalizing foods: alternative medicine and counter-information
Nowadays, the champions of counter-information catalyze the interest of millions of individuals disoriented and frightened by the problems of today's society, to whom they attribute the blame for their condition: just as "it is very simple to attribute the blame to the system. failures and personal failures, even on the health front it is convenient to point the finger at others.
As far as alkalizing foods are concerned, we also point the finger at milk and dairy products, recommended for the prevention of osteoporosis but guilty of aggravating the disorder by promoting the loss of calcium from the bones. Also in this case, the official medicine would say the opposite only and exclusively to protect the profit of the milk and dairy products industry. In short, the world is drifting due to the famous disease of profit, from which the champions of counter-information would be so immune to sacrifice themselves to protect the rights of the weakest.
Alkalizing foods: what they are and why they are recommended
Most people confuse acidic and alkalizing foods with the concept of food pH. Thus, according to this erroneous view, the juice of lemons would be a particularly acidic food, when in fact it is one of the best known alkalizing foods, so much so that it is even recommended in therapy to alkalize the urine and prevent - in predisposed subjects - the formation of kidney stones of urate, calcium oxalate and cystine.
The alkalinity or acidity of a food is attributed not on the basis of the ph of the food itself, but on that of the solution in which its ashes are dispersed, therefore on the basis of the pH of the inorganic residues, not metabolized by the organism. , to take the example of lemon, the organic acids that determine the acidity of this food are metabolized by the organism, while the basic inorganic residues are excreted unchanged in the urine, basifying them.
According to this rule, vegetables are generally alkalizing foods, while those of animal origin are acidifying. The consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables should therefore be encouraged, and that of cereals, dairy products, meat, sugars, alcohol, eggs, coffee and mushrooms should be discouraged.
As for the potential benefits, proponents of the alkaline diet argue that a "diet based on the consumption of 70-80% alkalizing foods prevents many of the diseases of well-being that plague the population - obesity, allergies, osteoporosis, some forms of cancer. - ensuring greater energy and vitality.
All these benefits are not scientifically proven; moreover, under normal circumstances, the alkaline diet has not proved capable of producing a significant variation in the pH levels of the blood (which is rather constant and subject to numerous control mechanisms, particularly effective and independent of the diet, first of all breathing ).
Alkaline Diet: What's Good About It?
Beyond the rather "imaginative" theories (because they lack solid scientific foundations) on which it was built, the alkaline diet must at least be recognized as having the merit of promoting the consumption of fresh vegetables, often lacking in Western "nutrition than recommended by nutritionists. and to discourage the - often excessive - of meat, sausages, cured meats, simple sugars and alcohol. Scrolling through the list of alkalizing and alkaline foods reported on this site in English, one understands how such a dietary model can actually promote the health of "organism, with obvious and immediate benefits in the transition from a typically Western diet to the so-called alkalizing one. These benefits, however, are not to be attributed to the concept of acid and alkaline, but to the extraordinary mine of friendly substances contained in fresh vegetables, together with a reduced intake of saturated fats, sugars, sodium chloride and alcohol. Reading between the lines, this list seems to be largely acceptable and in keeping with the international guidelines of the new food pyramid; unfortunately it limits the consumption of foods that are very important in human nutrition, such as fish and lean dairy products, only because they are considered acidifying. We then proceed with the blinders pursuing an abstract concept (that of alkalizing and acidifying) instead of forming a solid food culture, which helps to make the most correct nutritional choices by facing new food fashions with a critical spirit.
