Introduction
The body produces acid. If the acid produced cannot be eliminated, a state of unbalance between acids and bases occurs.
Balance also means polarity, contrasts and opposite tendencies which are likely to destroy balance.
When observing life, we also observe this perpetual quest for balance between two opposite polarities. Thus, physiological balance could be defined as the harmonious and rhythmical alternation between two states of unbalance.
As far as our subject is concerned, we can define the three following states:
- tendency towards acidosis • tendency towards alkalemia • possible balance between the two
The study of the balance between acids and bases leads us to consider the dynamics between several factors:
- Sleep/wake rhythms: a sleeping person’s physiology is different from that of a person who is awake.
- The different organic systems involved: the digestive system, blood, mesenchyme tissue (where connective and skeletal tissues, including blood and lymph are developed) and the liver. These organic interactions are regulated by the lungs and kidneys. Buffer systems, located mainly in the blood cells, should also be considered as they are natural correctors.
- The polarity of foods consumed, which constantly modify the precarious state of balance between acids and bases.
Definitions pH
The pH is a measuring unit used to describe a solution’s degree of acidity or alkalinity. The pH is a number between 0 and 14.
Increasing or Decreasing Acidity
Acidity ranges from 0 to 7 and high acidity corresponds to a low pH; 7 is neutral; from 7 to 14, alkalinity increases. These ratings are a matter of convention. The pH of human blood is slightly alkaline but organs can either be alkaline or acid, according to their function.
Any sudden variation in the pH can be detrimental to one’s health, therefore a number of protective systems in the blood (buffer systems) help prevent such variations.
In the blood, pH has a stabilized value that ranges from 7.36 to 7.42. In urine, the ideal pH ranges from 6.5 to 7.5.
These definitions are sufficient in order to understand the rest of this chapter, but students who wish to further their knowledge can refer to more technical information.
Blood and Tissues are Different
The balance between acids and bases can be very confusing, but this is because a distinction is not made between blood and tissues. However, blood pH tends towards acidosis when tissue pH tends towards alkalinity.
Variations in tissue pH are much greater than those in the blood. Blood pH must remain within a narrow margin that is compatible with life. It is remarkable that, despite erratic eating habits, blood pH remains between 7.36 and 7.42, with an average of 7.39.
The same goes for physiological secretions such as sweat, tears, aqueous humors, cerebro-spinal liquid and lymph, which undergo very slight variations.
Blood
In order to deal with food-related acid-base variations, the body uses plasma and cellular buffers, which include six buffer systems (within the cell). These six systems are essential as blood pH levels can only undergo limited variations before causing serious disorders that affect metabolism and consciousness. Therefore, when the blood pH reaches 6.95, a person goes into a coma, the cardiac muscle stops and death occurs. This is the case, for example, with serious diabetes. When the pH level rises to 7.7, a person may become extremely irritable and, in extreme cases, experience episodes of severe tetany (muscle spasms) and convulsions that may result in death. Therefore, the blood (and cells) will take from the body what is necessary to keep the pH levels adequate and this will deplete the body from necessary nutrients to specific systems. (Re: magnesium and calcium from the bone)
We shall not focus our attention on blood tissue because of its unique protective character and its very slight variations in pH levels.
The Kidneys and Lungs
The body uses two essential organs to eliminate the acid waste it creates. These organs are the kidneys and lungs.
Each organ is specialized in the elimination of a particular type of acid, because the chemical structure of different acids varies according to the food ingested.
Certain acids are difficult to eliminate, so the kidneys do the work. This work is long and difficult, but the kidneys are well-adapted to this function. However, they can only handle a certain quantity of acid and therefore they should not be burdened.
Non-volatile acids
- Amino acids – uric acid
- Sulphured amino acids of proteins (methionin, cysteine)
- Sulphuric acids – Nucleic acids, phospholipids, phosphoproteins: (casein, albumin)
- Phosphoric acid – Elimination of 100 nmol H+/day
Other acids are more easily eliminated because they are transformed into a substance that “evaporates” into the air. This type of elimination is easier and is done by the lungs.
Volatile acid
- Organic acid
- Carbonic acid – (carbonic anhydrase)
- Carbon dioxide – Elimination of 13000 to 15000 nmol H+/day
- It is important to understand these two mechanisms because they are of key importance in practical terms.
It is important to understand these two mechanisms because they are of key importance in practical terms.
The Dynamics of Digestion
Each organ in the digestive tract best functions in its own acid-base environment, and it is essential for these values to be respected in each segment of the digestive tract. The pH level may therefore differ from one organ to the next. Here is a brief reminder of what was already presented in the course on nutrition:
- At the gastric level, the environment should be predominantly acidic.
- At the duodenal level, the environment should be more alkaline. This is made possible thanks to:
- pancreatic secretions (pH from 7.6 to 8.2)
- biliary secretions (pH from 7 to 7.5)
- intestinal secretions (pH 8).
The role of these secretions is to neutralize the acidity of the chyme as it exits the stomach, by using bicarbonates that give these secretions an important buffering property. If the environment is too acidic in the duodenum, fat, carbohydrate and protein digestion will remain incomplete and the food will decompose in the small intestine and colon, causing putrefaction and self-poisoning.
In the colon, pH varies within the normal limits of 4.5 to 6 (for infants) and 6.5 to 7.5 (for infants who are fed cow’s milk, and for children and adults). At this level, several factors come into play:
– organic acids, produced by fermentation flora (lactic acid, butyric acid, propionic acid, acetic acid, succinic acid);
– amino acids, ammonia and amino bases resulting from the activity of putrefaction flora; and
– the alkaline principles of intestinal secretions.
pH variation
Fermentation and Putrefaction Processes
Physiologically, there is a true antagonism between fermentation and putrefaction.
As long as acid fermentation occurs in the intestine, putrefaction does not occur, or if it does, it is only marginally. Normally, acid fermentation begins in the second part of the small intestine and continues into the cecum.
If all of the carbohydrates have been digested and absorbed before the contents of the intestine reach the cecum, putrefaction rapidly takes over. Putrefaction develops not only at the expense of food protein residues, but also at the expense of proteins resulting from the secretions of the intestinal mucous membrane, scaling and dead bacteria. These processes are known as de-carboxylation and de-amination.
The de-carboxylation of amino acids generates amines: ornithine, lysine, tyrosine, histidine, etc., which respectively generate putrescine, cadaverine, tyramine, histamine, etc. Mercaptan, sulphuretted hydrogen, ammonia, scatole and indole are also generated.
In order to reduce the effects of putrefaction, the diet should include foods that are rich in carbohydrates protected by a fiber shell (food grains). Fruits and vegetables, especially carrots, apples and carob seeds, can fight putrefaction effectively.
Putrefaction by-products are all more or less toxic. The fraction that is absorbed by the intestinal mucous membrane directly accesses the liver through the portal vein. Through its chemical action, the liver can transform toxic substances that originate in the intestines. These substances, once transformed and detoxified, are eliminated through urine. The amount of these substances in urine is a means of assessing the intensity of intestinal putrefaction.
In the duodenum, if the food environment is too acidic, the digestion of fats and especially proteins will remain incomplete. They will decompose in the small intestine and colon, and this is too late.
In this case, the putrefaction process oversteps the normal fermentation process and constipation and self-poisoning by ptomaine (putrefactive or cadaveric alkaloid) ensue.
Moreover, if the diet does not include a sufficient amount of slow sugars and if almost all of the carbohydrates are absorbed before reaching the cecum, the protective fermentation process decreases in the colon and putrefaction occurs.
Diurnal and Nocturnal Phases
Diurnal Phase
During the day, food provides the body with amino acids, proteins, sugars, organic acids and minerals through the bloodstream, and fats through the lymph stream. The liver receives these elements and proceeds to sort, detoxify, stock and distribute them through general circulation. This phase of metabolism produces many acids that are in turn:
- quickly eliminated through breathing in the form of carbon dioxide, for volatile acids; and
- more slowly eliminated by the kidneys through urine, for non-volatile acids.
Most of the excess mineral acids are diverted in the mesenchyme in order for the blood pH to remain constant. Acids become fixed to collagen fibers. Therefore, there is a general tendency towards TISSUE acidosis.
This tendency slowly modifies the colloidal structure of the mesenchyme tissue that, under the effect of the accumulation of acid, gradually becomes a gel, i.e. it solidifies.
Nocturnal Phase
During the night, the flow of material brought by food ceases. This is a period of physiological fasting during which the body transforms its assimilation and stocking activities into elimination and cleansing activities. As with the diurnal phase, the liver participates though its activities are coupled with those of the kidneys; both organs evacuate the metabolic waste that accumulates in the mesenchyme tissue, which becomes more alkaline and its colloidal structure becomes more liquid as it loses its acidic waste. This represents a short healing period of sorts that occurs every night.
Signs of Tissue Acidity
A certain number of symptoms progressively appear when the body suffers from chronic tissue acidosis. Here are the main symptoms:
- morning tiredness
- disrupted sleep between 1:00 and 3:00 AM
- regurgitation and sourness (pyrosis)
- disrupted appetite, bulimia
- constipation
- frequent migraines
- oily skin, especially on the face
- rear part of tongue feels pasty
- morning breath
- hands are cold and damp
- abundant foot perspiration, cold sweat
- cold-sensitive
- muscle pains
- chronic bronchitis and mucus formation
- leukorrhea
- sluggish, unhappy at work
Urine pH Test
In practical terms, first find some litmus paper. This paper will enable you to test the pH of urine. It changes color according to the pH of the liquids it comes into contact with. Thanks to a color chart that is provided with the paper, it is possible to determine instantly the pH which corresponds to each color.
Proceed to write down systematically the pH values three times a day (second urine in the morning, at noon and in the evening before supper) for several days and write down the results. Use a clean and dry bowl for 8 to 15 consecutive days.
If the values obtained are often or constantly below 7 or 7.5, this indicates a metabolic acid overload that permeates tissues and disrupts normal physiological functions.
Correction of Tissue Acidosis
In healthy people, correcting the acid-base balance is done by modifying one’s eating habits. This modification alone will allow the condition of tissue acidosis to be progressively and gently curbed.
For sick people, simply modifying one’s eating habits is not enough? It is therefore necessary to take alkaline citrates. This is done under the supervision of a well-trained health practitioner.
Acid-Producing Foods
Foods that produce acids contain substances whose catabolism generates acids. This is the case with proteins, which provide various acids (sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, uric acid, etc.).
However, all these acid-producing foods are also fundamental components of our diet. It is not possible to suppress them because this would mean suppressing essential amino acids as well.
It is therefore important to pay attention to the quantities absorbed. The body requires regular supplies of proteins, but in much smaller quantities than what we presently consume. Our modern dietary habits supply us with excessive quantities of proteins every day. For a normal body, it is unhealthy to consume over 50 grams of protein per day (20 grams are often enough). Any excess is likely to cause self-poisoning. However, the notion of excess depends on the individual, i.e. it is based on personal metabolic capacities and on each individual’s level of physical activity. It is obvious that for a manual worker or a person living in cold climates, a protein-rich diet is better tolerated than it is by a sedentary person living in temperate climates.
Amino acids that come from milk and milk by-products (cheese, yogurt, etc.) contain few acid-producing agents, as the substances produced are ketone bodies and urea, which are weak acids.
Whey is however a special case: the pH of fresh whey is approximately 6.5 or 7, which makes it alkaline. Ten hours later, the same whey will have a pH of 2 or 3, therefore indicating that it has become acid.
Amino acids from animal proteins (meat, chicken, fish, etc.) contain strong acids (phosphoric and sulphuric) and purines, which provide acid components (uric acid). They are therefore strong acidifying agents. As we have already seen, the elimination of these strong acids can only be done by the kidneys.
Carnivorous animals that eat meat almost exclusively have a specific enzyme (uric) which protects them from becoming clogged up with uric acid, a condition that is linked with heavy meat consumption. In humans, excessive consumption of animal proteins is often responsible for urea related diseases, gouty arthritis and renal lithiasis.
Whole and refined food grains consumed in any form also produce acid bodies.
Toxic foods that contain alkaloids such as coffee (caffeine), tea (theine) and cocoa (theobromine) are rich in purine and are classified as acidic foods. The same goes for white sugar, refined wheat flour and its by-products as well as refined fats. This explains why certain vegetarians who do not consume whole products exclusively, and who eat too many food grains and too few raw vegetables also suffer from hyperacidity, just as meat eaters do.
As we have seen, in order to balance the massive daily intake of mineral acids, the body must draw from its mineral stocks. Acidic foods therefore destroy bases and de-mineralize.
Examples of acid-producing foods
- Meat, fish, poultry, game
- Delicatessen foods, liver, kidneys, offal, brain
- Egg whites
- Strong and fermented cheese
- Pulse: lentils, peas, white beans
- Asparagus, artichokes, Brussels sprouts
- Peanuts
Examples of foods which produce high amounts of acids
- White sugar
- White flour and its by-products: white bread, crackers, pastries, pasta
- Semolina
- Refined oils
- Hardened fats
- Tea, alcohol, coffee, chocolate
- Fatty broth
Alkaline-Producing Foods
A vegetarian diet generally provides a large quantity of bases that come from alkaline salts and weak organic acids contained in vegetables and fruits.
Milk, vegetables and fruits produce alkalin, though eggs and food grains are generally acid-producing foods.
Milk is rather basic, but it should be consumed wisely. It is preferable when it is fermented (yogurt, curdled milk, etc.). Milk loses most of its vital components during pasteurization (vitamin C, modification of its proteins).
Food grains combined with pulse and eggs provide the body with all the essential amino acids contained in their proteins, and are therefore very important components of a meat-free diet.
However, they also produce acids and should not be consumed in large quantities.
Vegetables, raw vegetables, milk and fruits provide the body with mineral salts and trace elements, and are alkali-producing foods. The consumption of these foods should be favored in cases where there is a tendency to develop tissue acidity. These foods contain little or no acidic elements. They are, however, very rich in alkaline mineral salts.
Organically-grown potatoes are an ideal base-producing food. They contain calcium and potassium, which accounts for their considerably alkaline pH. One should nonetheless be wary of overcooking them as this destroys their beneficial effects. They are unfortunately considered fattening. They maintain all their organic properties when they are steam-cooked (and not pressure-cooked).
Chestnuts also produce high amounts of alkali and should be consumed more frequently during the winter. They go with all vegetables, especially cabbage.
Examples of base-producing foods
- Fruits and fruit juices
- Leaves and vegetable roots
- Edible stalks of vegetables (except asparagus)
- Onions, garlic
- Potatoes
- Chestnuts
- Fresh fermented milk
- Unsweetened condensed milk
- Powdered milk
- Powdered whey
- Yogurt
- Soybean and by-products
- Vegetable broth
- Vegetable juices
- Egg yolks
- Aromatic herbs: parsley, chives, thyme, oregano, and rosemary
Caution: this list is not exhaustive and there may be exceptions.
Certain vegetables such as asparagus, artichokes and Brussels sprouts produce acids. Asparagus is a sprout, artichokes and Brussels sprouts are flowers. They should be consumed with highly basic foods such as potatoes and chestnuts. Sick people should avoid eating them. Pulses are generally acidic, with the exception of soybeans, which are basic. Among the nuts that are generally basic are peanuts, which produce acid because of their high uric acid content. Thus, peanut butter and peanut oil produce acid.
Balanced Foods
A certain number of foods do not belong to the aforementioned lists. Their good acid-base balance makes them suitable for people who are ill.
- Fresh nuts, green beans
- Sweet peas
- Millet and by-products
- Whole rye bread
- Whole food grains
- Wheat germ
- Whole rye flour pasta
- High-quality fresh butter
- Whole sugar
The foods mentioned above are all mildly acidic, but nonetheless are good foundations for a balanced diet. Their slightly acidic tendencies can easily be compensated for, by adding aromatic herbs and virgin oil when consuming them.
Oxygenation
Taking a walk, physical exercise, and time spent at high altitudes or any activity that favors the metabolism in general and accelerates breathing, increases the elimination of weak acids and contributes to de-acidifying the body. Often neglected by city-dwellers, these activities are essential to the maintenance of good health when associated with a proper diet.
One day of physical exercise in fresh air causes urine to become acidic. This is due in part to the increase in the metabolism of muscles, which produce lactic acid, and also to the general increase in basic metabolism. Oxygenation oxidizes a number of tissue acids, which can then be eliminated by the kidneys.
Using Citrates
In most cases, prescribing a base-producing diet to an ill person is insufficient. The absorption of an alkaline citrate-based basic mixture becomes essential.
Correction then occurs due to the regular intake of alkaline citrates in the form of powders or pills.
Citrates have weak basic salts that are rapidly eliminated by the lungs as carbon dioxide. Remaining basic salts feed the subject’s alkaline stocks, emptied by chronic tissue acidosis. Thus, the acid overload can be put back into circulation from the mesenchyme where it was stocked, in order to be gradually eliminated by the kidneys. These are essentially strongly bound mineral acids, which cannot be eliminated by the lungs.
There are a number of specialties that enable the body to rid itself of its acids. Laboratories in every region provide catalogues on demand.
Controlling Individual Doses
If a state of chronic tissue acidosis requires citrates to be taken, one should begin with a spoonful of the chosen mixture (or a pill) every morning. The pH level should be measured three times a day.
The results will vary, and urine pH levels will correct themselves. If taking it once a day is not sufficient, the dose of citrate should be increased either by doubling the morning dose, or by adding a second spoonful or pill before lunch. In general, two doses a day is enough for most people.
Alkaline salts can be dissolved in a large glass of lukewarm water. Pills should be taken with a big glass of water. Once the proper dosage has been found (different from one person to another), citrate intake should continue regularly for several months or years (a 2 or 3-year period is required to cure acidosis).
Urine control should be carried-out daily, for a period of two weeks in order to determine whether the dosage is still appropriate.
Some Acids
Malic acid
Malic acid is found in foods such as apples, pears, plums, grapes, peaches, melons, tomatoes, cherries, currants, cranberries and strawberries.
Citric acid
Citric acid is found in lemons, grapefruits, pomegranates, oranges and other fruits.
Tartaric acid
Tartaric acid is found in large quantities in grapes and in small quantities in other fruits and vegetables.
Lactic acid
Lactic acid is found in whey and curds. It is also produced in the body by the fermentation of sugars under the action of certain ferments. Lactic acid counteracts the harmful effects of putrefaction in the colon.
Acetic acid
Acetic acid is found especially in vinegar and should be excluded from the diet. It stops digestion and has no nutritional value. It should be replaced by lemon juice.
Oxalic acid
Oxalic acid is found in spinach, rhubarb, sorrel, pepper, tea and cocoa. For healthy people, a diet including large quantities of this acid (from spinach, rhubarb and sorrel) is not harmful if it is not consumed in excess. However, if oxalic acid is found in the urine, these foods should be consumed sparingly. If necessary, large quantities of this acid can be eliminated in spinach by boiling it until it is half-cooked.
Benzoic acid
Benzoic acid is found in plums, prunes and cranberries. Manufacturers of food preparations are authorized to use small quantities of this acid as a preservative. Excess amounts tend to cause acidosis.
Tannic acid
Tannic acid is an astringent that is found in large quantities in coffee, tea and cocoa. It hampers digestion.
Butyric acid
Butyric acid is found in butter and in other rancid fats. People suffering from chronic disorders should either stop or limit their consumption of this acid.
Uric acid
Uric acid is found in large quantities in meat, and an excessive amount of this acid in the body tends to cause rheumatism, neuritis, gravel and other disorders.
