Countless people prefer to eat non-acidic foods because they suffer from heart burn, acid reflux, or similar conditions which are often worsened by the consumption of acid foods. Others search for non-acidic foods because they are trying to follow the alkaline diet.
It is unfortunate that the issue of acidity as it relates to food is much more complicated than most people think. Therefore, to comprehend which foods are non-acidic, we have to differentiate between foods which are acidic outside the body, and foods which make the body more acidic once they have been integrated by your body.
To make this distinction easier to grasp, I like to refer to the first type (foods that are acidic on your plate) as acidic, and the second type (foods that are acidic after you have eaten them) as acidifying or acid-forming.
For example, milk certainly doesn’t seem acidic. At the same time, 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. The one exception is apple cider vinegar, which is actually an alkaline-forming food. This effect is due to its high alkaline mineral content.
Foods that have an alkaline-forming effect after they have been eaten include most fruits and vegetables (including kale, raspberries, tangerines, persimmons, nectarines), many seeds, and a couple of grains. On the other hand, except for lentils, almost all beans are acid-forming. So are meats and dairy products.
Non-Acidic Foods: The Conclusion
As you can see, acid and alkaline foods can be complex. So it may be worthwhile to ask what conclusions we ought to leave with. Should you cut back on acidic food, acidifying food, or both?
Heartburn, GERD, and other conditions that are made worse by too much stomach acid can certainly be made worse by the consumption of acidic foods, such as orange juice. If you suffer from one of these problems, there is no harm in temporarily cutting out acidic foods and seeing if your symptoms improve.
Other foods that acid reflux sufferers should avoid include spicy foods, citrus juices, coffee, carbonated beverages, and fatty foods.
But if you are concerned about the effect of too many acidifying foods on your general health, then the important aspect isn’t whether the foods you eat are acidic or alkaline in and of themselves. Instead, what matters is whether these foods are acidifying or alkalizing when they have been digested. To find this out, you can’t go by intuition. Your best bet is to find an accurate list of acid-producing and alkaling-producing foods, and consult this chart as you do your shopping.
Tags: acidic food, acidic foods, alkaline diet, non-acidic foods