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Countless people choose to eat high-alkaline diet foods because they suffer from heart burn, acid reflux, or similar conditions which can be worsened by the consumption of acidic foods. Other people seek out high-alkaline diet foods because they adhere to an alkaline diet.

Unfortunately, the question of acidity in relation to food is much more complex than most people realize. Since this is the case, to make sense of which foods are high-alkaline, we must differentiate between foods which are acidic on your plate, and foods which make the body more acidic once they have been integrated by your body.

To make this distinction easier to make sense of, I like to refer to the first type (foods that are acidic outside the body) as acidic, and the second type (foods that are acidic after you have eaten them) as acidifying or acid-forming.

For example, beef certainly doesn’t seem acidic. Even so, inside the human body, it has an acid-forming effect. To give you another example, all vinegars are acidic, and most vinegars also have an acidifying effect on the body. But one exception is apple cider vinegar, which is actually a high-alkaline diet food. This effect is on account of its high alkaline mineral content.

Foods that have an alkaline-producing effect after they are eaten include most fruits and vegetables (including sweet potatoes, raspberries, tangerines, persimmons, nectarines), many nuts, and some grains. On the other hand, with the exception of lentils, nearly all beans are acid-producing. So are meats and dairy products.

The Bottom Line on High-Alkaline Diet Foods

I hope you now see why acid and alkaline foods can be confusing. So it may be worthwhile to ask what conclusions we should take away. Is it best to do away with acidic foods, acidifying foods, both, or neither?

Heartburn, acid reflux, and other problems that are worsened by the overproduction of stomach acid can indeed be made worse by the consumption of acidic foods, such as orange juice. If you have one of these conditions, there is no harm in temporarily cutting out acidic foods and seeing if your symptoms improve.

Other foods that should be avoided by acid reflux sufferers include spicy foods, citrus juices, coffee, carbonated beverages, and fatty foods.

But if you are worried about the effect of too many low-alkaline foods on your overall health, then the important thing isn’t whether the foods you eat are acidic or alkaline in and of themselves. No, what matters is whether these foods are acidifying or alkalizing once they have been absorbed. To determine this, you can’t go by acidity of the food itself. Your best bet is to locate an accurate chart of acidifying and alkaline-forming foods, and consult this list as you do your shopping.

The author explains health issues for the Alkaline Diet Blog. Visit now to discover the truth about the high alkaline diet.