In general, alkaline food have the full power to offset the pH effect of acid-forming foods in the body. People who are very fond of consuming acidic foods can develop acidosis. Acidosis is a condition in which there is an excessive level of acid in the body. This can cause loss of the mineral calcium that is wholly responsible for bone health and loss of muscular mass. A body that is acidic can affect the immune system by decreasing its resistance and vitality. Food or things that are high in acid content include meat, dairy, grains, pasta, fish, coffee, soda, alcohol and tobacco. To maintain a healthy pH level, it is recommended that eighty percent of your daily diet should consist of foods high in alkaline content and the remaining twenty percent from acid forming foods. A balance between alkalinity and acidity should be maintained in order to have a healthy, well functioning body.
Below is a list of food and their category
Vegetables – most vegetables are slightly alkaline; spinach is the one vegetable with the highest alkaline content, celery is second, carrots is third. Although spinach will lost fifty percent of its alkalinity if cooked, steamed, and blanched or sautéed. Spinach must be eaten raw and fresh in preserve its full alkaline-forming power.
Fruits – raisins have the most alkaline content among fruits. Next to raisins are black currant, then bananas comes third. Most fruits fall between (1.9) and (4.8) PRAL making the fruit category from slightly alkaline to very alkaline. Fruit juice made from fresh fruits are considered alkaline-forming beverage. Apple juice alkaline content is (2.2) in terms of PRAL calculation.
Beverages – red wine is the most alkaline beverage with a PRAL of (2.4), mineral water is second with a (1.8) PRAL followed by coffee. White wine, tea, cocoa and draft beer are all considered alkaline beverage in terms of PRAL calculation.
Nuts – nuts are considered healthy snacks but out of all the nuts in the world, only hazelnut is alkaline-forming with a PRAL value of (2.8)
To determine the Potential Renal Acid Load or PRAL of food, calculate the amount of protein, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and calcium content of each food individually. The United States Department of Agriculture or USDA has a website that publishes all the nutritional values of a wide variety of foods and drinks.
Input the values into the fields below to discover if the food you like to eat has acid-forming or alkaline-forming potentials based on the data you will find from the USDA National Nutrient Database. If your result is a positive value, these foods are acid forming while a negative value is indicative of alkaline-forming potential.
Protein (g)
Phosphorus (mg)
Potassium (mg)
Magnesium (mg)
Calcium (mg)
PRAL
In a perfect world, your daily meal should be slightly alkaline; this can be accomplished by adding up the PRAL scores of alkaline and acidic foods and adding them to each other. If the net amount is a negative number then you have succeeded in following an alkaline food diet.
No comments:
Post a Comment