Mar
12
How Can I Avoid Acidic Food?
Filed Under Nutrition
Title: What Is An Acidic Food?
What is an acidic food? The answer is more complicated than most people guess. Some people want to avoid acidic food because they follow the alkaline diet. Other people avoid these foods because they have heartburn or acid reflux.
Even so, irrespective of their reasons, people often become terribly confused because they fail to differentiate between foods that are acidic in themselves, and foods that cause the body to become more acidic.
Understanding the Distinction Between Acidic and Acidifying
An acidic food is one that has an acidic pH outside of the body. For instance, if you took the juice from a lemon and applied it to a piece of pH test paper, the paper would change color to indicate an acid pH of under 7.0.
Life would be simple if all acidic foods made the body more acidic, as well. But this is not necessarily the case.
For example, most types of vinegar are both acidic and acidifying. But there is one interesting exception: Apple cider vinegar is actually an alkalizing food because it is relatively rich in potassium.
On the other hand, you wouldn’t think of breakfast pastries or ice cream as an acidic food. Why? Because these foods taste sweet and mild, not sour and acidic, the way that lemon juice does. But both of these foods have an acidifying effect on the body.
Both heartburn and acid reflux are often due to the excessive production of stomach acid, in which event eating an acidic food can make these symptoms worse. But what most people don’t know is that too little stomach acid can also cause heartburn and other digestive symptoms. Therefore, some people actually find it helpful to drink a small quantity of apple cider vinegar mixed with water before each meal.
The bottom line is that you don’t need to go to extremes to have an overall alkaline diet. You just need to seek the proper balance between acidifying and alkalizing foods.
