Alkaline Diet

Question
Hi Melissa,
I am curious: Will adhering to a diet of foods that supposedly lower your body's overall pH help a person to lose weight? The first I ever heard of this idea was at Tony Robbins' website, where he is selling alkaline supplements and whatnot. After that, I started searching the web for more information and it seems that many people support this theory. Some people even suggest taking alkaline baths to rid the body of acid... which I think seems a little far-fetched... but the diet idea seems plausible. In my own personal experience, I gained 70 pounds (within 6 months to a year!) while taking Nexium for acid-reflux. My doctor assured me the medication could not cause me to gain weight, but I stopped gaining a week after I quit the medication. Could the alkaline/acid imbalance be to blame for the weight gain?
If alkaline dieting actually works, where can I get a list of the best foods to eat?
I have been trying to lose those 70 pounds for nearly three years now and they won't budge! I have never had this problem before, as exercise always produced the results I wanted. Any advice you can offer will be appreciated more than you could know!!!


Answer
Danielle,
First of all, there's no evidence that an alkaline diet helps with weight loss. However, no scientist has ever studied it-usually, before a scientist studies something, someone (other than an alkaline diet supplement salesman) needs to have a theory on how something might help, or there should be a lot of reports from people (again, not salesmen!) that have tried it.

I want to correct a misconception on Nexium, too. Normally, your stomach makes acid by splitting neutral into acid (pumped into the stomach) and alkaline (pumped back into the blood). Down a little farther, in the pancreas, the process is reversed to neutralize the stomach contents. There is no net gain or loss of acid or alkaline. Nexium slows the acid-generating process, but taking the drug does not change your acid/alkaline status in the least. However, Nexium can certainly cause weight gain! Some people with acid reflux, over time, subconciously learn to eat small meals to avoid acid buildup. Once on the drug, they can and do start eating more without even realizing what they're doing. I've never seen a 70 pound gain, but I've seen a lot of 10 pound gains.

If you want to try this, then the only alkaline diet supplement you need is Tums. As far as foods, you'll want to adhere to a vegan diet-no meat, eggs, or dairy. It can be challenging to make sure that you're getting all of your necessary vitamins, minerals, and amino acids on a vegan diet-before you start, you'll want to take some time, educate yourself on protein balancing, and talk to some long-time vegans. You'll also need to take vitamin B12 supplements, since there are no non-animal sources of this vitamin.

More realistically, though, you say you've been trying to lsoe the weight for three years without success. Generally the first step to successful dieting is a food diary. For two weeks, write down EVERYTHING you eat and drink. Use an online calorie counter like nutritiondata.com to see what you're taking in. A lot of times, this exercise really hits home with a lot of people-someone might say they get a candy bar from the vending machine "once in a while", but after keeping a food diary, they realize they get one nearly every other day, and are able to cut it to once a week by just paying attention.

The second step is to think about your food preferences. What are the foods you refuse to give up, and what are foods that you could eat rarely? Could you handle eating sweets only once every two weeks? Could you handle eating red meat only once every two weeks?

Finally, do you like to cook? If you don't, you'll want to build a diet based around prepared foods, like Lean Cuisines. If you do cook, you'll be much better prepared to start healthy habits, and you'll have a much wider range of choices, since most prepared foods and restaurant foods are pretty far from diet-friendly.

Whatever diet you decide to try, from a book or planned and developed on your own, spend time (a month or two) thinking about it, planning, and learning before you actually start the diet. You need to know that you'll be able to follow your plan for years to come. Even on a plan like Atkins, where the maintenance diet is different from the weight loss part, to lose 70 pounds you'll want to plan on spending about two years on the weight loss part.

Whatever you do, take your time, plan everything, and don't believe ANYTHING when it comes from someone trying to sell you something!

Melissa

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