The alkaline diet really works and fights cancer
The whole truth about the acid-base balance of our body
In recent years there has been a lot of talk about metabolic acidosis , so much so that there is also the widespread idea of ​​having to eat alkaline foods for the purpose to buffer hyperacidity in the body. All of this is only half true . Our body, in fact, is equipped with accurate systems that compensate the pH of food and ingested substances. Otherwise, it would be enough to take a teaspoon of vinegar – with a pH around 5.00 – to die immediately. And the same goes for a teaspoon of extremely basic baking soda.
Obviously, and fortunately, this does not happen, because a moment is enough through the renal and respiratory system for everything to be brought back to normal . It should also be said that our gastric juices have a very low pH, around 2. From this it is clear that it makes little sense to be careful to eat foods that have a high pH. Pay attention, therefore, to what you read in certain books or on the Internet, and always refer to serious, trained and competent specialists.
- Deepening: What is pH
It is a scale – which goes from 0 to 14.4 – for measuring the level of acidity or basicity of a substance. Acidic substances have values ​​between 0 and 7 (the latter considered neutral pH), while alkaline substances have a pH of 7 to 14. Our blood has a value of about 7.2-7.4. Even minimal alterations (less than 6.8 or greater than 7.8) lead to death.
The problem is not only acidity
It should also be remembered that it is not excess acidity in the blood that becomes dangerous, but also of alkalinity: as mentioned, in fact, values ​​below 6.8 or above 7.8 would lead to death. However, these values ​​do not depend only on what we eat, but above all on the lifestyle we lead, the environment in which we live, the general state of health of our body, renal functioning and our way of breathing. In short, the number of variables is so high that treating an acidosis only through nutrition is extremely reductive and often leads to nothing but nutritional deficiencies. What is metabolic or systemic acidosis
The real definition of acidosis is: a disorder that tends to add acids from organic liquids or to remove basic elements . To all this it must be added that any alteration of body fluids at the pH level – even momentary – causes immediate compensatory responses on the part of the kidneys. In the acidosis phase, in fact, the renal secretion of hydrogen and ammonia ions is increased, the result is that extracellular bicarbonates are formed. Similar function is also performed by the lung. At the gastric level, however, the role is decidedly less important and occurs only in emergency situations. In fact, we can consider the stomach as the most important ‘acid’ organ and the pancreas as the most important ‘basic’ organ.The alkaline diet is useful
In principle it is not of much use. If there is metabolic acidosis in place, it means that there is also a malfunction of the organism and of the various compensation systems – pulmonary and kidney. On the other hand, there is no doubt that a healthy diet and therefore free of refined foods, sugars and trans fats can contribute to the general well-being of the organism, avoiding the establishment of an acidosis or alkalosis. Because, we repeat, alkalosis is also possible, but nobody talks about it . It should also be said that vitamins are acidic substances, which have a pH between 5 and 6 – especially C. We perhaps mean that vitamins are harmful to our health.
- Did you know that
All foods considered healthy, such as fermented ones (sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir, etc.) have a very low pH. While harmful ones, for example rotten meat and rotten eggs have an alkaline pH.
Who came up with the idea of ​​the alkaline
diet The alkaline diet – if you can call it that – was conceived by Robert Young whom everyone considers a doctor, but who actually graduated from a university that was then closed for cheating his own pupils. According to the books he wrote, by eating legumes and fruit and eliminating meat, fat and fried food, the body would alkalize and prevent acidosis. According to the famous chemist and scientific popularizer Dario Bressanini “Young’s book is a set of glaring food errors, full of inventions, real blunders and absurdity. In reality, any acidity or basicity of a food that we introduce with the diet has no influence on the pH of our blood. In short, a real nonsense “[1]. It is not just a question of pH
In any case, the disease arises when the pH is altered together with other values ​​such as resistivity and rH2. The famous French doctor Jean Valnet spoke in depth about this. An organism can be considered sick when there is an imbalance of all three factorsin different body fluids: saliva, blood and urine. Being that these liquids are generated from each other, when something inside our body is not working as it should, the relationship between them is wrong. This is the real principle of pathology.
- Lemon is acidic or alkaline
Lemon is one of the most acidic foods we can eat. However, as soon as it comes into contact with our saliva and then with the digestive system, it transforms some substances into potassium carbonates – extremely alkaline. This also happens for whole grains which have a more acidic pH than refined ones, but thanks to the content of minerals such as magnesium they can be considered ‘alkaline’. This is why it is very difficult to talk about acidic or basic foods.
What is rH2
It is a factor that measures the level of electrons at a certain pH number. This means that for the same pH measurement there can be an infinite number of rH2 factors . This is considered to be the expression of molecular hydrogen – o (H2) and molecular oxygen (02). In practice, when electrons are lost, the substance is called oxidized and when they are acquired, reduced. Anything above 28 has few electrons and is therefore oxidized; all that is above is reduced. Contrary to what one might think, if in the blood the rH2 is close to 28 – therefore neutral – it is not possible to fix the oxygen . This occurs in asthmatics or in the presence of thrombosis. What happens in case of alkalosis
When the body is too alkaline – a problem nobody talks about – there is a greater risk of bacterial attack , if it is also oxidized (loss of electrons), tumors, heart attacks, thrombosis, arteritis, neurosis, shock following vaccines can arise, epilepsy, obesity, leukemia [2]. From this it is clear that it is absurd to assert that an ‘alkaline’ diet is enough to eliminate tumors. Also because there is no scientific proof that supports this thesis. What the AIRC thinks
On its website [3], the AIRC has answered very precisely the doubts that many people have about the benefits of an alkaline diet. «You can really have anti-cancer benefits by eating foods that tend to be basic outside the body, such as certain types of fruit and some legumes
. For this purpose, the answer is no.In fact, any food quickly comes into contact with the gastric juices present in the stomach, which are very acidic. They neutralize its alkalinity, making the food neutral or even acidic before it is even assimilated. Even if there were a food capable of maintaining its alkalinity, after passing through the stomach, and therefore capable of altering the pH of the blood and tissues, the body would activate the sophisticated and efficient automatic mechanisms to immediately restore the pH to the normal values, around 7.4. Otherwise, the organism would be in a state of metabolic alkalosis in a few minutes, and urgent intervention by a medical team would be necessary to avoid death […] Of course, no rigorous study has ever shown that alkaline diets have any effect on preventing or treating cancer due to pH ». What happens in case of acidosis
If the soil is acidic and oxidized it is more prone to pneumonia, poliomyelitis, mycosis, psoriasis and tuberculosis. If it is reduced: to depressive mania, cirrhosis, meningitis, nephritis, etc. [2] In conclusion
In summary, we can say that the topic of systemic acidosis or systemic alkalosis is vast and probably an entire book would not be enough to explain the possible compensation mechanisms that take place within our organism. This means thatwhen a pathological process is established there is also an internal imbalance. And this, before anything else, must be taken care of. Otherwise it is the same as turning off the alarm instead of the fire.
[1] The buffalo of the alkaline diet by Dario Bressanini
[2] Jean Valnet, ” Aromatherapy. Healing with plant essences ”. Edizioni Giunti
[3] AIRC, The alkaline diet can fight cancer
