Acid/Alkaline Foods - The Debate Continues...

First, let's look at how our digestive system works.

Organs that make up the digestive tract are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine—also called the colon—rectum, and anus. Inside these hollow organs is a lining called the mucosa. In the mouth, stomach, and small intestine, the mucosa contains tiny glands that produce juices to help digest food. The digestive tract also contains a layer of smooth muscle that helps break down food and move it along the tract.

Two “solid” digestive organs, the liver and the pancreas, produce digestive juices that reach the intestine through small tubes called ducts. The gallbladder stores the liver's digestive juices until they are needed in the intestine. Parts of the nervous and circulatory systems also play major roles in the digestive system.

Swallowed food is pushed into the esophagus, which connects the throat above with the stomach below. At the junction of the esophagus and stomach, there is a ringlike muscle, called the lower esophageal sphincter, closing the passage between the two organs. As food approaches the closed sphincter, the sphincter relaxes and allows the food to pass through to the stomach.

The stomach has three mechanical tasks. First, it stores the swallowed food and liquid. To do this, the muscle of the upper part of the stomach relaxes to accept large volumes of swallowed material. The second job is to mix up the food, liquid, and digestive juice produced by the stomach. The lower part of the stomach mixes these materials by its muscle action. The third task of the stomach is to empty its contents slowly into the small intestine.

Several factors affect emptying of the stomach, including the kind of food and the degree of muscle action of the emptying stomach and the small intestine. Carbohydrates, for example, spend the least amount of time in the stomach, while protein stays in the stomach longer, and fats the longest. As the food dissolves into the juices from the pancreas, liver, and intestine, the contents of the intestine are mixed and pushed forward to allow further digestion.

Finally, the digested nutrients are absorbed through the intestinal walls and transported throughout the body. The waste products of this process include undigested parts of the food, known as fiber, and older cells that have been shed from the mucosa. These materials are pushed into the colon, where they remain until the feces are expelled by a bowel movement.

Now, let's see what happens when the digested nutrients are absorbed into the blood.

All cells in the body continually exchange chemicals (e.g.,nutrients, waste products, and ions) with the external fluid surrounding them. This external fluid, in turn, exchanges chemicals with the blood being pumped throughout the body. A dominant mode of exchange between these fluids (cellular fluid, external fluid, and blood) is diffusion through membrane channels, due to a concentration gradient associated with the contents of the fluids. Hence, the chemical composition of the blood (and therefore of the external fluid) is extremely important for the cell. If, for instance, the pH of the blood and external fluid is too low (too many H+ ions), then an excess of H+ ions will enter the cell. As mentioned above, maintaining the proper pH is critical for the chemical reactions that occur in the body. In order to maintain the proper chemical composition inside the cells, the chemical composition of the fluids outside the cells must be kept relatively constant. This constancy is known in biology as homeostasis.

The body has a wide array of mechanisms to maintain homeostasis in the blood and extracellular fluid. The most important way that the pH of the blood is kept relatively constant is by buffers dissolved in the blood. Other organs help enhance the homeostatic function of the buffers. The kidneys help remove excess chemicals from the blood. It is the kidneys that ultimately remove (from the body) H+ ions and other components of the pH buffers that build up in excess. Acidosis that results from failure of the kidneys to perform this excretory function is known as metabolic acidosis. However, excretion by the kidneys is a relatively slow process, and may take too long to prevent acute acidosis resulting from a sudden decrease in pH (e.g., during exercise). The lungs provide a faster way to help control the pH of the blood. The increased-breathing response to exercise helps to counteract the pH-lowering effects of exercise by removing CO2, a component of the principal pH buffer in the blood. Acidosis that results from failure of the lungs to eliminate CO2 as fast as it is produced is known as respiratory acidosis.

Somethings about pH

• The human body is SLIGHTLY acidic when it is in a state of health.
• The Ideal range for the human BODY is suggested, by some sources, as between 6.1 and 7.0. Others indicate a preference for 6.5 to 7.5, taking into account variances during the day in accord with metabolic cycles.
• North American blood levels often fall between 7.25 and 7.45, which is slightly alkaline. When blood pH falls between towards 6.35 (too acidic) hemoglobin in the blood deteriorates and the red blood cells cannot carry adequate oxygen to the tissues. When muscles, and connective tissues are too acidic, acidosis is experienced.  
• A healthy vagina produces a normal discharge which acts as a natural cleanser and when maintaining an acidic pH level of 3.5 to 4.5 (very acidic), it keeps a balance between healthy and unhealthy bacteria, fungi and viruses in that area.
• The pH level of one's breath will be a combination of the pH level of the air being exhausted from the lungs plus the influence of pH levels in the sinuses and the mouth.
• The ideal pH for the human body will vary from individual to individual and compensate for a variety of factors including these:

  • Basic Personality;
  • Energy blocks;
  • Imprinting;
  • Blood Type;
  • Education;
  • Culture;
  • Food.

• The manner in which one interacts with their environment and themselves will influence their pH level.
• To reach the Optimum pH, the factors above, would act on the ideal pH of a particular person's body so as to influence it up, or down, to the optimum pH.  
• Persons who are intense and/or passionate will tend to exert more influence on their pH balance from day to day than someone less so. Negative emotions increases acidity.

Some observations.
So all digested foods from the stomach is acidic. It enters the small intestines and depends on the pancreas to neutralizes the stomach acids. For people with chronic diseases like cancer, the pancreas does not function optimally and hence unable to neutralize the stomach acids fully allowing an acidic environment to exist. It also does not produce enough pancreatic enzymes. Dr William Kelley (in his book One Answer To Cancer) says "Malignancy indicates an active pancreatic enzyme deficiency." At least 86% of all cancer conditions could be adequately treated and/or prevented by diet and pancreatic enzymes. You can read Dr Kelley's book here.
 
So, how does taking in alkaline foods which becomes acidic in the stomach due to the stomach acids make our body more alkaline? Is it a unsustainable claim? It looks like Dr Gabe Mirkin, M.D.  is right.

My personal experience is this. I have been on the alkaline diet for more than two years now. I don't think my body is much more alkaline than when I started the diet. There is one way to forced the body to become more alkaline. Please see Dr. Waltraut Fryda's Dextrorotatory Lactic Acid.

Please share your views.