You see, when a food is ingested, digested, and absorbed, each component of that food will present itself to the kidneys as either an acid-forming compound or a base-forming one. Therefore at the end of a meal, or at the end of a day, all those nutrients add up to create what we call an acid-base load.

If the diet provides more acidic food, we’ll have a higher acid load. And if it provides more basic food, we’ll have a higher base load. Since every cell of the body has a certain acid-base balance it likes, our bodies do a nice job of keeping this balance in check – regardless of what we eat. However, if our diets present, what scientists call, “low grade chronic metabolic acidosis,” our bodies have to work hard to balance out those extra acids.

In order to do so, our muscles break down (glutamine, an amino acid in muscles is a great acid neutralizer) and so do our bones (calcium in bone is very basic). In fact, the consequences of a high acidity diet are as follows:

1) Negative calcium balance and smaller, weak bones
2) Negative nitrogen balance and smaller, weaker muscles
3) Decreased anabolic hormone activity (IGF1 and GH)
4) Mild hypothyroidism (or low thyroid activity)
5) Increased catabolic hormone activity (cortisol)

Thank goodness all we really need to do is eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are very basic and can nicely balance out our high acid diets. Cover your nutritional acids and you’ll be fighting a front line battle against weakness and disease.