Foods List For An Acidic Alkaline Diet

When choosing acid or alkaline foods, we refer to how a food influences the body's pH, (acid-forming or alkaline-forming), not the food's actual pH content. This can be confusing since some highly acidic foods such as lemons have a more alkaline impact on the body due to digestive breakdown. The body's average pH is 7.4, making it more alkaline. Excess acid-forming foods create acidic levels, causing unhealthful conditions. The modern diet has an increasingly acidic dietary load, making the goal not to consume either an acid or alkaline diet but to strive for a better balance.

Acid Foods

Food's effect on the body's pH level is measured by a physiologically based calculation referred to as potential renal acid load, or PRAL . Higher numbers indicate an acid-forming food while negative numbers are alkaline. Doctors Thomas Remer and Friedrich Manz published results of these calculations in the "Journal of the American Dietetic Association," in July 1995. The most acidic foods are aged cheeses such as cheddar, Gouda and Parmesan, processed cheese and eggs. In decreasing order, other acid-forming foods include processed meats such as sausage and salami, chicken, veal and lean pork and beef. Grains were the lowest ranked acid-forming potential foods with oats, brown rice and wheat being the most acidic grains. Peanuts and walnuts are also acid-forming.

Alkaline Foods

Fruits and vegetables are alkaline-forming foods. Raisins are the highest ranked alkaline fruit but also the highest calorie count. Other alkaline fruit choices include apples, bananas, lemons, oranges, peaches, strawberries and watermelon. Spinach is the highest ranking alkaline vegetable. Vegetables the next best vegetables include broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. Hazelnuts are alkaline-forming as is sugar, honey and margarine. Many beverages are alkaline including beer, coffee, cocoa, red and white wine and Indian tea.

Neutral Foods

Very few foods are considered neutral. Of those measured by Remer and Manz, only olive oil and sunflower seed oil scored neutral at 0.0.

pH Balanced Diet

Maintaining optimal blood pH prevents various unhealthy conditions. According to the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, diets rich in acid-forming foods like meats and grains reduce lean tissue mass, especially in the elderly. The Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at University College in London determined that bone homeostasis is profoundly affected by pH, thereby influencing risk for osteoporosis. Fortunately, studies in "Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine," July 2007, and "Plant Foods for Human Nutrition," March 2010, agree that vegetable-rich diets can shift the body to a more alkaline, healthier state.