Alkalizing foods: how to include them in the diet

Knowing which foods are more alkaline or more acid, from the point of view of how they affect the pH of the urine, can help us to follow an alkaline diet. But first, some general guidelines on how to alkalize the diet can be of great help to start an alkaline diet.

How to do an alkaline diet

That a diet is alkaline does not depend only on choosing specific foods. Not only are there other factors that influence the acidification of the diet, but it will be much easier to orient yourself if you follow some general advice on diet and lifestyle:

Fruits and vegetables: the most alkaline foods

In general, it is important to eat more ripe fruit, vegetables and root vegetables. Vegetable soups with potatoes are ideal.

You can also take homemade citrus juices, celery, apple, pear, carrot, grape, wheat sprouts, cherry… rich in potassium. Figs, ripe lemons, onions and alfalfa are also advisable.

Avoid an acidifying diet

It is important eat less protein and fat overall, as well as pasteurized dairy products, refined cereals, preserves, pastries, chocolate, soft drinks, alcohol and coffee. If dairy products are taken, they should be reduced to a maximum of four per week. You also have to reduce the salt and leave the white sugar.

Avocados and vegetable oils are in the neutral zone.

You have to take the nuts not roasted or salted.

It is also better to use steam-gentle cooking.

In addition, it is advised alternate the olive oil with others of first cold pressure and opt for cider vinegar and brown sugar.

Make debugging easieras acid waste is eliminated through the skin, lungs and intestine.

Carry out deep breaths and avoiding overexertion in the exercise are some of the recommendations.

Water and infusions to alkalize

In this sense, it is advisable to drink one or two liters of water a day. A large part of the bottled waters in Spain are natural minerals, many of them sodium or mixed bicarbonated waterswhich alkalinize the urine pH.

Also indicated are herbal teas such as green teaponytail, dandelion…

Mineral salts have traditionally been sold in pharmacies that help to alkalinize the urine: epson salts (magnesium sulphate), Eno fruit salt with bicarbonates and citrates, or alkalizing preparations such as the one used in Mayr’s cure, of which a teaspoon dissolved in a quarter of a liter of water is taken, twice a day.

Alkaline foods: table with the acid load of the most common

To know How acidic or alkaline food is, your urine acid load is calculated. This allows choosing those that less acidify.

The acid load of food in urine is expressed with what is known as potential renal acid load or PRAL, for its acronym in English, and is calculated from its content in 5 nutrients that alter the pH of the body: proteins, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium. Thus, we find:

Acidifying foods: Foods with positive values ​​have an acidifying effect, greater the higher they are. Alkaline foods: Alkalizing foods obtain negative values.

Below you will find the acid load of some of the most common foods in the diet:

Vegetables and vegetables

Spinach: –14.0 Celery: –5.2 Carrot: –4.9 Zucchini: –4.6 Potato: –4.0 Lettuce: –2.5 Eggplant: –3.4 Tomato: –3.1 Onion: –1.5 Broccoli: –1.2

Fruits and nuts

Raisin: –21.0 Dried fig: –18.1 Black grape: –6.5 Banana: –5.5 Apricot: –4.8 Cherry: –3.6 Orange: –2.7 Lemon: –2, 6 Apple: –2.2 Almond: +4.3 Walnut: +6.8 Peanut: +8.3

Cereals and derivatives

Whole wheat bread: +1.8 White bread: +3.7 Rye bread: +4.1 White rice: +4.6 Cornflakes: +6.0 Spaghetti: +6.5

Legumes

Green beans: –3.1 Lentils: +3.5

Fats and oils

Olive oil: 0 Sunflower oil: 0 Butter: +0.6

Drinks

Orange juice: –2.9 Lemon juice: –2.4 Red wine: –2.4 Coffee: –1.4 Green tea: –0.3 Coca-Cola: +0.4 Beer: +0.9

sugars and sweets

White sugar: 0 Brown sugar: –1.2 Honey: –0.3 Dark chocolate: +0.4 Milk chocolate: +2.4

meats

​Pork, lean: +6.7 Chicken: +8.7 Beef, steak: +9.0 Lamb: +9.9

fish and shellfish

​Cod: +7.1 Salmon: +9.4 Sardine in oil: +13.5 Mussel: +15.3 Prawn: +15.5

dairy and eggs

Skim milk: +0.7 Whole milk: +7 Yogurt: +1.5 Egg: +8.2 Fresh cheese: +11.1 Manchego cheese: +28.7 Parmesan cheese: +34.2

How to know if you have acid ph in your urine

One option is to measure 24-hour urine, mixing it well, and another to make measurements on an empty stomach and after meals. a pH measuring paper is then inserted into the collected urine and the result is read.

He pH measuring paper It comes in the form of strips. It is sold in any pharmacy, it is cheap and it gives the reading in decimals. You just have to be careful to keep it well.

There are instruments that allow to measure the pH and that are called potentiometers (or pH meter); They are very expensive and give up to thousandths. But to measure the pH of the urine it is not necessary to refine so much. An adequate urine pH ranges between 6.3 and 7.2; lower is considered acidic and higher, alkaline.