PH balance diets, truth or hype??

Question
Ph people say PH imbalance is the cause of many diseases and that following a more alkaline diet that these conditions will go away. Many dieticians sd this is sales hype because foods and supplements do not make the blood or stomach acidic and that the only place this shows up is in the urine and that no matter what you eat the food in stomach is acidic and the food in the intestines is alkaline. What say you?  

Answer
Hello Joe,

The FDA recognizes pH importance for food processing and, in some cases, safety.

Medical evidence exists however that some diets oriented to special diseases pay attention to acidity-alkalinity of foods, e.g., the diet for gastric ulcer sufferers, gastric reflux, or pregnancy heartburn, or so called  nocturnal gastric acidity, should not be acid. However, it should be rather acid in case of dyspepsia (low production of enzymes assisting in food digestion.)

A good list of food pH values can be found at:

http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/lacf-phs.html

Note that pH of 7.0 is neutral, midway between very acidic (pH of 1) and very alkaline (pH of 14)

Now, I'm quite aware of alternative practitioners' ideas of pH in foods influencing this and that but a
physiologist taught a bigger picture of body's mechanisms of controlling its functions, I can hardly imagine that any food is capable of "bringing" its pH with it beyond gastro-intestinal barrier and against very precise bodily "gadgets" working hard to keep all parameters within normal values.

I can imagine however that ANY intensive thinking about any body part or function, not necessarily correct from scientific standpoint, DOES influence the function greatly. For some people, it's pH -- and why not?

But it's a different story.

1. Prev:Whats going on with Banta Diet?
2. Next:Is this bad?