Are alkaline foods healthy?

BEAT the summer heat with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Clinical dietitians from the UST Hospital’s dietary department have encouraged students to eat fruits and vegetables rich in fiber that cleanse our body system of toxins and waste. Fiber-rich foods lessen a person’s chance of acquiring cardiovascular diseases and colon disorders—they are mainly called alkaline foods.

Alkaline foods are known to lessen the risks of acquiring cancer because of their fiber and mineral content like potassium, sodium, and phosphorus, which help regulate normal body function.

Khristine Llave, a clinical dietitian, said alkaline-based foods are needed to balance the pH (power of hydrogen) level of blood. A low blood pH may result to acidosis, a pH imbalance caused by a rise in hydrogen concentration characterized by increased pulmonary loss of carbon dioxide, which may cause hepatic coma, congestive heart failure, and central nervous system failure. But dietitian Bernadette Platon warned a high pH level is also dangerous because it may result in alkalosis characterized by acquiring of lesions in the central nervous system.

Platon said alkaline foods are not healthy because of their pH level, but because of the nutrients they contain.

She said fiber in alkaline foods blocks cholesterol and absorbs fats. When cholesterol is absorbed by fiber, it will easily be released in feces.

“A blood pH six to seven is considered neutral; below six is acidic and seven to 14 is alkalinic. A blood pH level exceeding 14 may lead to death; therefore, high alkalinity has to be neutralized by taking acidic foods,” Platon added.

Dietitian Nicole Afuang said the food pyramid is a good basis for a good diet, although a diet depends on a person’s specific needs.

The website of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute-Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST) suggests that an average Filipino teen should take six to eight glasses of water everyday; six to eight servings of corn, root crops, rice and wheat products; three servings each of fruits and vegetables; a glass of milk, an egg, and two-and-a-half servings of meat products and legumes; five to six tablespoons of sugars and sweets, and six to eight servings of fats and oils.

Afuang said a balanced diet is still needed for a healthy life.

“Alkaline foods are healthy, but if you want to be healthy, maintain a balanced diet by observing proper servings of food,” she said.