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I've read, seen celebrities, and heard other people online claim that when they drink alkaline water or are on an alkaline diet, they have cured a number of problems and they swear by it. Now, I am not knocking anyone who enjoys the higher pH taste of the water or food, but I wanted to know if this was really something helpful or not. Unfortunately, what I found is that part of this is just one of those poorly researched trending fads. I think from this article published by The Guardian, the numbers should speak for themselves.

According to data from the Beverage Marketing Corporation, a research and consultancy group, the alkaline water market has grown from being a $47m business in 2014 to a $427m business in 2017. It’s projected to be worth $687m by the end of 2018.

The Science?

According to The Guardian's article:

Why would drinking water with a higher pH level be better for you? Dr Tanis Fenton, an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary and an evidence analyst for Dietitians of Canada, told me that the marketing claims behind alkaline water are based on an old idea called the acid-ash hypothesis. This posits that eating certain food like meat, dairy and eggs results in something called acid ash in your body, which increases your acid levels and causes adverse health effects including osteoporosis.

In 2002 an alternative medicine practitioner called Robert O Young spun the acid-ash hypothesis into a fad alkaline diet, with a popular series of books called the pH Miracle. According to these books, an alkaline diet could treat all manner of woes, from poor digestion to cancer. Young, by the way, was sentenced to three years in jail in 2017 for practicing medicine without a license.

Dr. Fenton continued to say how there is no "scientific evidence" to back this hypothesis up, even though people have been using it for decades to promote the alkaline way of living. The article continues to state that:

Fenton stresses, you simply can’t change the pH of your body by drinking alkaline water. 'Your body regulates its [blood] pH in a very narrow range because all our enzymes are designed to work at pH 7.4. If our pH varied too much we wouldn’t survive.'

While you can’t change the pH of your blood, your diet does affect the pH of your urine. 'Most people’s urine is about 6, which is acidic,' she explains. However, 'that’s no problem, that shows our kidneys is working.' So while it’s possible drinking alkaline water may make your urine less acidic, that doesn’t really make a difference; you’re literally just flushing money down the drain. Ultimately, says Fenton, alkaline water is a solution to a problem that doesn’t need solving.

This to me was very revealing because our bodies have been intelligently designed in such a way to be extraordinarily resilient. There seems to be no harm or foul to drink or eat this type of way, but it certainly isn't a miracle cure everyone is talking about. Your blood pH will regulate itself whether you go too acidic or basic. This was all very interesting and I figured whoever reads this might be interested to know as well. Overall, perhaps there are some small helpful benefits to having more alkaline foods and beverages, but it surely isn't the cure-all.

Note: All images not cited are my own or created by me.

Be well!

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