The alkaline diet is a diet that has its first premises in the early 1900s, based on the initial observations of Claude Bernard.

According to the theory behind this diet, there are some foods with alkalizing power and other foods with acidifying power.

The purpose of the alkaline diet is to reduce or completely eliminate the foods of the second category, in order to alkalize the pH of the blood and tissues with the right foods.

This would lead to the disappearance of diseases: from obesity to neoplasms up to any inflammatory disorder, which would originate from an acidic environment.

HOW THE ALKALINE DIET IS BORN

The theory behind the alkaline diet, known as the acid-base hypothesis, was first published in 1912. Although the hypothesis had already been disproved, in the 1990s, a certain Robert O. Young , after obtaining a degree for correspondence at a University not recognized by law, he wrote a series of books known as “The Miracle of PH”. In these books he combined the acid-base hypothesis with the germ theory.
In 2014 he was arrested for fraud and a vaunted medical profession.
It was also speculated that his medical advice on sick people had contributed to their death.

Young in fact claims that through the alkaline diet all diseases could be cured by analyzing the blood of the sick. His alkaline diet is a diet that includes a lot of water, green leafy foods, few grains, fish, vegetables and only some types of fruit. Vegetables should be eaten raw.

Most cereals and tubers, milk and dairy products, meat, cheese, eggs and all forms of sugar, coffee and alcohol should be banned or reduced.

In practice, two thirds of foods according to Young are bad for us. The more we eat alkaline foods, the more we create an alkaline environment in our body. And so we prevent our blood from becoming acidic.

DISPUTES AND DISPUTES ABOUT THE ALKALINE DIET

At the moment there is no scientific evidence for any of the hypotheses on which the alkaline diet is based, although the latter is often promoted as a purifying diet, capable of maintaining alkaline the pH of our skin and that of the blood.

In reality, we know very well to purify ourselves and keep ourselves basic, it is our body that naturally expels waste: depriving ourselves of some foods to help it makes no sense.

Of course, a greater consumption of fruit and vegetables is recommended, but the aim is always that of a correct and balanced diet. We cannot think of excluding all cereals and protein sources because otherwise our blood turns into yogurt.

An acidification of body fluids through these foods is scientifically impossible.

Do you lose weight on the alkaline diet?

But if you eat more fruits and vegetables, you will certainly lose weight, simply because they are low-calorie foods, with water, fiber, vitamins and minerals that decrease our calorie intake and aid digestion. If you eat a kilo of fennel you don’t get fat, if you eat a whole kilo wheel of Parmesan you not only get fat but you feel bad, since you consume 4000 calories all at once. However, this does not mean that you cannot eat a piece of it.
We can’t go on a lettuce-only diet to lose weight.

If something in the diet works, it’s not because our blood is being purified or cleared by alkaline foods. Alkaline foods, once they reach the gastric juices, partially lose their alkalinity. Both acidosis and metabolic alkalosis that occur not temporarily but in the long term are pathological conditions or are the effects of some diseases or serious imbalances, but beyond these extreme cases our body tends to regularize itself. .

Diets that share part of the theory with the alkaline diet are the Hay diet and Dr. Sebi.