Acid Alkaline Food List

What Are Alkaline Foods?

Below is an easy to read Acid Alkaline Food List.

Foods can be classified as alkaline if they leave an alkaline residue in your body after digestion and similarly so for acidic foods.? It’s important to understand that the pH of food before digestion does NOT affect the classification.

Alkaline Forming and Acidic Forming Foods

We are interested in the pH (acidity or alkalinity) of the food after digestion, or after it has been metabolised by the body.? For this reason, the title of this page should be Acid-Forming Alkaline-Forming Food List because that is what we are really showing! This explains why lemons, which are mildly acidic, are classed as alkaline because they contribute to the body’s alkalinity once digested.? The same goes with tomatoes, which many of us think of as acidic, but in reality tomatoes are alkaline forming, because they are low in sugar and are high in alkaline minerals.

What Are the Most Alkaline Foods?

Generally speaking, the most alkaline foods are vegetables and salads, which have a very low sugar and high mineral content. Conversely, the most acidic foods are processed, sugar-containing foods and meat which become acidic once digested.

Why Eat Alkaline Food?

The reason we want to know which foods are alkaline and acidic forming is so that we can make informed decisions when aiming for a healthy diet.? You will notice that the vasty majority of foods that are classified as alkaline forming are already considered to be healthy foods.? However, there are foods that are classed as acidic forming that many still consider to be healthy, such as wholemeal bread, pasta, dairy, fish. These are foods that we should aim to minimise in our diets if we want to create a pH balanced environment.

It’s all About Being pH Balanced!

Your body works best when the cells are slightly alkaline, having a pH just over 7 (pH 7 is considered neutral and is the pH of distilled water). This is not to be confused with the pH of your blood which MUST be between 7.35 and 7.45.? Your body works very hard to maintain this pH since tiny variations in either above or below can cause severe illness and death. The natural elimination processes, such as sweat, urine are normally very effective at maintaining a healthy blood pH.? However, making poor (acidic) food choices over many years can overwhelm the natural elimination processes. The body can be?forced to preserve the blood’s ideal pH by diverting excess acidity away from the blood and storing it (eg in the fat cells or organs), not ideal!

By increasing the amount of alkaline forming foods in your diet and decreasing the amount of acidic foods, you allow your body gradually to release stored acidity.

Good Health is All About pH Balance

Good health is all about balance and once acidity has been released, a maintenance diet could consist of 80% alkaline foods and 20% acidic foods.