Acidic Diet & Disease Risk
Science has shown that an acidic diet leads to all sorts of diseases in the body. In the mouth, an acidic diet leads to premature destruction of the enamel at best and to severe dental disease at worst. We, the dentists, have always promoted a diet that is low on the acidity scale for the sake of helping you protect your teeth. Turns out that an acidic diet (foods, drinks, medications, etc.) sets the ground for developing disease in other body parts as well. To better understand the impact of our diet on our health, let’s first look at what happens when there is a disease in any tissue.
Disease & Acidity
There are so many diseases that we cannot talk about each single one of them. So we’ll look at them as a whole and ask the following question. What do all diseases have in common? The answer is an acidic environment. You see, any time there is a disease in any of our bodily tissues and organs, the organ and the surrounding environment become more acidic. Research has shown that disease can only be present in an acidic environment. This acidic environment is highly toxic to our tissue and organs. So much so that our tissues begin to change at the cellular level. These changes have detrimental effects depending on what tissue or organ is involved.
So if any disease needs an “acidic” environment to thrive, it follows that an anti-acidic (e.g. alkaline) or at least neutral pH environment is best to prevent the disease from forming. Now that we see the link between acidity and disease, let’s look at our diet and our body’s pH.
Diet & pH – Alkaline vs Acidic
Any food or beverage or medication has a certain pH associated with it. “pH” is simply a measurement of how acidic or alkaline something is. The scale goes from 1-14 with high numbers representing an alkaline state and low numbers an acidic environment. Neutral is at the midway point or 7 meaning not acidic or basic. Certain foods and beverage measure very acidic on this scale. Some examples of acidic beverages are sodas, energy drinks and alcohol. A similar analogy can be made for foods and vegetables. Steaks, tomatoes, and oranges are some examples of acidic foods and vegetables. We also have foods and beverages that are alkaline.
Avocadoes, nuts, fish, and cheese are examples of alkaline foods. Alkaline drinks can include milk, soy products, some low-sugar yogurts, and of course, alkaline water. And by the way, not all alkaline waters are the same. Learn about “ionized” alkaline water versus bottled alkaline water.
Diet & Health – The Ignored Link
We’ve all heard the expression “You are what you eat.” To a certain extent, this is very true. But it doesn’t take into account “what you do” after you eat. However, everything else being equal, it is accepted that food that is high in calories leads to weight gain compared to food low in calories. Also, foods high in cholesterol like certain sea foods result in a high cholesterol level in our body. Using these commonly accepted correlations, it follows that an acidic diet leads to an increase in the acidity level in our body.
Healthy Diet & Water
Eating the right foods and water will keep our bodies in a more alkaline condition. The alkalinity will also reduce the likelihood of disease and ailments in our body. Since this is an “additive” effect, the longer we eat and drink healthy, the more the benefits. Conversely, a lifelong diet of acidic foods and beverages will result in all sorts of ailments as we age. If you want to stay out of doctor’s offices when you hit your golden years, it’s best to start on a healthy diet journey while you are still young.
Our diet has a tremendous impact on our long-term health. The sooner we accept this fact the better we can protect ourselves from the detrimental effects of an acidic diet on our health.