After getting sick this week, I’ve been eating poorly and taking medicine, culminating in a period of heartburn last night. Trying to placate my stomach, I turned to the internet and found that it’s probably because I’m eating too many acid-inducing foods! Who knew that pH would factor into such a mundane and frequent event as eating? What I read was very interesting – it turns out that it isn’t the pH of foods that make it acidic or basic for your body. Rather, it is the acidity of the final products after digestion that one’s body takes up that determines how acidic your body considers it. An interesting example are lemons, which are very acidic but end up as alkaline forming after being ingested. Apparently many people are very concerned about balancing their bodies’ pH through food, as there have been many studies and even an “alkaline diet” claiming health benefits. One such study I found below:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3195546/
It makes sense that it is not the food’s pH that determines how it affects the pH of our bodies, since there are so many enzymes and reactions that take place. Also, our stomachs are very acidic, with a pH around 3, so not many foods would bring that down through their acid concentration, and lead to discomfort, since we’re already so acidic. Instead, what we eat may induce reaction within the body that lead to significantly acidic products.
I’d never thought about the effect after eating (ie, that what really affects you is the product after processing), and had always just assumed it’s the acidity of the food which causes problems.
It’s funny that you mention this now though, because I had a lot of pineapple yesterday, and my mouth actually started hurting once I had eaten too much.
…I feel so enlightened now… Thanks, Xi!
Haha, I’ve read about the alkaline diet! It’s funny how obvious it would seem that the pH of digested food is what really matters, but everybody tends to focus on the pH out of the body.