Abstract
Diets are needed primarily in order to regulate the body’s metabolism. And at the same time, help in overcoming the disease, if it is a diet for any disease. The diet regulates the functioning of the whole organism. The alkaline diet bases its dogma on the possibility of regulating the pH of our body at will through the intake of certain foods, something that is not possible from the physiological point of view in any way. So in this article, we are going to discuss what the alkaline diet is and how this diet help in fighting cancer.
What is the alkaline diet?
Many experts in the field of nutrition and health point out that the consumption of alkaline foods positively influences the blood pH making it alkaline, which in turn contributes to a greater rebalancing of the body.
It has been shown in numerous studies1 and research that cancer cells increase their growth when they are in a highly acidic organism because acidic tissues lose their ability to exchange oxygen, so the resulting low oxygen level is the ideal environment for the reproduction of cancer cells. For this reason, during chemotherapy treatment, it is highly recommended to follow an alkaline diet, avoiding as far as possible, all those foods that are too acidic for our body.
An alkaline diet also known as a pH diet. It is a diet that mainly consumes all alkaline foods that have the ability to raise the pH level in our body and oxygenate all cells. The way food is cooked or eaten directly in its raw state also directly influences the alkalinity that it provides us.
It also distinguishes between alkaline and acidifying foods, claiming that those with an acid potential, which has been arbitrarily attributed, are involved in the development of a multitude of diseases.
What is pH?
pH is the scale used to measure the acidity and alkalinity in a solution (the concentration of hydrogen ions). It ranges from 0 to 14, where 0 is the most acidic, 7 is neutral, and 14 is the most alkaline. The pH scale is logarithmic, which means that pH 8 is ten times more alkaline than 7, and pH 9 is one hundred times more alkaline.
How does pH work in the body?
The body contains a huge range of solutions, which can be either more acidic or less acidic. PH (Hydrogen potential) is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution, the relationship between positively charged ions (acidifying), and negatively charged ions (alkalizing). The pH of any solution is a measure of its concentration of Hydrogen ions.
The higher the pH index, the more alkaline, and the richer in oxygen is the fluid. The lower the pH, becomes more acidic and poor in oxygen. The pH ranges from 0 to 14, with 7 being the neutrality index. Everything above 7 is alkaline, and below 7 is considered acid.
The extra storage required can weaken the body of alkaline mineral substances such as sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium, causing the person to tend to have chronic and degenerative diseases.
The Distinction between acidic and alkaline foods
Foods are classified as acidic or alkaline, according to the amount of waste they leave in the body after being digested and metabolized, regardless of the acidic taste or not.
For the defenders of the alkaline diet, the acidifying foods to avoid are red meat, eggs, fish, shellfish, or dairy, within the group of foods of animal origin, and also chocolate, coffee, mushrooms, tea or alcohol within those that have a plant origin.
On the other hand, we find some supposedly alkaline and beneficial foods in our diets such as cucumbers, carrots, soybeans, cruciferous vegetables, lemon, ginger, and a long list of vegetables and greens.
How does the alkaline diet benefit the body?
Having a balanced diet is one of the measures that help prevent cancer. The alkaline diet provides strength in the treatment of the disease, preventing the spread of cancer cells, metastases. Experts2 indicate that patients eat a 90% alkaline diet that is, based on foods with a pH above 7, to prevent illness and seek improvement in the quality of life. The Alkaline diet, we can use a myriad of medicinal plants that will benefit the body in various ways, giving it more vigor, vitality and helping it to recover from all the imbalances that it has been able to go through.
Diet rich in potassium bicarbonate in postmenopausal women contributes to improving growth hormone levels and reducing cardiovascular risk, as well as improving memory and cognitive function. Foods like bananas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beets are rich in potassium.
Foods rich in alkaline minerals, particularly magnesium, play a role in reducing lower back pain, a condition that affects between 60% and 80% of people at some point in their life. Include green leafy vegetables (spinach, kale), walnuts, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts and asparagus in your menus to receive the benefits of magnesium.
According to the alkaline diet, one of the typical problems of modern food, composed mostly of processed, refined foods, animal proteins, and sugars, is that it tends to have an acidifying effect on the body, with consequences for health such as, for example, the risk of inflammatory diseases and cancer.
How to Maintain alkaline pH?
The foods are divided into acidifiers, which generate acidic residues, and alkalizing agents, which generate alkaline residues and help in the proper functioning of the organism.(3)A good diet is made up of 70% alkalinizers and 30% acidifiers The ideal would be to have blood with a pH above 7.5, which provides greater resistance to diseases and, consequently, maintains good immunity, in addition to improving metabolism, increasing the elimination of toxins and decreasing fluid retention.
Why the alkaline diet approach is valid?
It must be emphasized that the more raw foods we consume, the better our diet will be, in addition to totally avoiding flours, sugars and all processed products, since they increase the acidity of our body considerably. Other foods that we must stop consuming from the first moment, when we face any a serious disease, such as cancer, are alcohol and coffee, as well as all other sugary drinks since they are some of the most acidifying foods for our body. From what has been proven, in an alkaline diet, basically many vegetables are consumed, especially those with green leaves, and fruits, water, and alkalizing teas.
There are countless models of food or diets that promise to help us achieve our health goals in a record period of time. But not only that, some of them claim to have a miraculous potential to cure certain diseases.
Such is the case of the alkaline diet, a type of diet that promotes ideas and claims of dubious scientific veracity. In some cases, the alkaline diet is spoken of as the perfect remedy to prevent almost any type of disease. However, on other occasions, an ethical line is crossed that should never be crossed when we talk about health since some gurus promote it as a cure for cancer.
Conclusion
A well-planned Alkaline Diet can be considered healthy and have positive effects on the body, but not because it has an alkalizing effect on our blood, but because it is mainly made up of healthy foods of plant origin. So, from the above article, we came to know that without qualifying the pH diet as curative, an alkaline diet can be healthy. The impact of the substantial reduction of proteins, usually recommended in this type of diet, must be evaluated, since they are essential for the maintenance of the muscles, especially when we age.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3917353/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3195546/
- https://www.abc.net.au/health/dietguide/stories/2013/07/15/3788862.htm
Dr. Vikram Chauhan (MD – Ayurveda) is the CEO and Founder of Planet Ayurveda Pvt. Ltd. He is Author of the Book “Ayurveda – God’s Manual For Healing”. He is an Ayurveda Expert Serving People worldwide through all the Possible Mediums, Operating from Main Branch in Mohali, India. With his Vast Experience in Herbs and their Applied Uses, he is successfully treating Numerous Patients suffering from Various Ailments. He is Serving the Society with Purest Herbal Supplements for One and only Purpose of Making People know and utilize the Wonderful Benefits of the Ayurvedic Diet, Lifestyle, and Natural Herbs. He Formulates Herbal Supplements himself and also Use Classical Ayurvedic Formulations for Helping People Get Rid of All Types of Health Issues, Restore their Health, Uses and Save themselves from the Worst Side-effects of Chemical Based Treatments. For More Details, visit www.PlanetAyurveda.com.
