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Home » Diet » Experts Disagree Over Benefits Of Alkaline Diet In Fighting Diseases

Posted: Jul. 9, 2012 | 12:29 a.m.

Gabe Mirkin trains three to six hours a day as a bike racer in Florida. His stamina is impressive for any age, but at 77 the retired physician and former teaching fellow at Johns Hopkins University definitely turns heads. Mirkin's key to health is a diet rich in many different-colored fruits and vegetables, he says. He also avoids red meat and opts for better lean proteins instead.

There are others who use this diet approach to achieve optimal health or even to battle diseases. Many know of Kris Carr's 2007 "Crazy Sexy Cancer," a film that follows the actress and photographer's journey after a 2003 diagnosis of stage-four epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, a rare cancer found in the liver and lungs' blood vessel linings.

After nine years with only the help of a plant-based diet, Carr appears to be going strong and has created a not-so-small wellness empire. At the root of her plant-based diet is the topic of pH balance. According to Carr and other medical professionals, acidic processed foods, grains and meats ravage many Americans' bodies. Carr, with the help of researchers and academics, puts her best foot forward to explain how a higher acidic diet should shift to a more alkaline diet with more raw fruits and vegetables to keep metabolic and other processes in high gear.

Fruits and vegetables, when burned through the metabolic process, leave an alkaline "ash," or film with a pH above 7 on a scale of 1 to 14; meats leave an acidic ash well below 7. But while Mirkin likely consumes a supposedly higher alkaline diet, he balks at the topic of pH balance.

"It's complete nonsense," he says.

The retired doctor, who wrote his first essay against pH balance more than two decades ago, argues that the body regulates its blood pH level at approximately 7.4, a slightly alkaline state that is needed in order to live. The doctor says the body's every chemical reaction is guided by enzymes that work in that same narrow pH range to maintain health, and the body's other systems such as the lungs and kidneys also do their part to filter out excess acid ultimately expelled as waste. It's an extremely efficient system that works to keep fluids slightly alkaline at all times, he says.

"My statement is that the foods exclaimed by acid-base theory are helpful but not because of acid-base. Buying products based on changing your pH is walking on very shaky ground," he adds.

JUST GOOD FOOD?

Mirkin says there are countless studies that show red meat's association with many types of cancers, and it's impossible to ignore the connection. However, chicken and fish are considered to be acidic meats, too, he notes, but they are less likely to be associated with disease. He says those that are promoting the diet often have products such as supplements or books to sell.

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Experts Disagree Over Benefits Of Alkaline Diet In Fighting Diseases

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Home » Diet » Experts Disagree Over Benefits Of Alkaline Diet In Fighting Diseases