Is the alkaline diet a myth or a fact?
A myth, he says. The diet assumes acidic food makes your body acidic and alkaline food sets it right. He says your body does not work that way.
He opened a whole episode with this:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1284I want to put to bed the alkaline diet, okay? I want to put it to bed.
Asked about body pH, he went to where the idea starts:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1682I'll tell you where it comes from. They look at acidic foods and tell you that that makes you acidic.
A food can test acidic on a chart. What matters is what your body does with it.
Can food change the pH of your blood?
No. Your blood sits in a narrow, slightly alkaline range, and your body holds it there.
The range he gives:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1284Your body does everything to keep the pH of your blood tightly, tightly, tightly regulated between 7.35 and 7.45, okay? Your body does everything to keep your pH there.
And where food comes into it:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1687Your body has a whole buffering system to keep you at a certain pH, slightly alkaline. Your body does that, and that is not influenced by food.
Part of that system is baking soda your body makes itself, sodium bicarbonate. So a glass of celery juice will not raise your blood's pH, and a steak will not lower it.
Why is your stomach meant to be so acidic?
To break your food down and to kill germs on the way in. This is the pH Dr. Martin actually cares about.
Answering a listener's pH question:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1687I talk about pH all the time, but I zero in not on your blood pH. I zero in on your stomach's pH, because that's important.
From an episode on steak:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1053Your stomach should be acidic, very acidic. It's a furnace. Use it or lose it.
He puts a healthy stomach at a pH of about 1.5 to 2, strong enough, he says, to dissolve a penny. That acid breaks down protein, and he says bacteria, parasites and viruses get killed there.
Are meat, tomatoes and coffee too acidic?
No. They may test acidic before you eat them, but he says they do not stay that way.
On foods that test acidic:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1159Well, a tomato is acidic, a lemon is acidic. Does that make it bad for you? No, because your body has a buffering system. Your body turns a steak alkaline, your body takes a tomato and makes it alkaline.
A listener read that eggs, meat, cheese and coffee are acidic. He pushed back:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1458Your body has an enormous ability to turn foods alkaline once they get past your stomach.
Coffee gets the same answer, he says: by the time it reaches your small intestine, it is alkaline. For more on meat, see whether chicken is healthier than beef.
What does sugar do to your pH?
Sugar is the exception. He says it is the one food your body really struggles to buffer.
Defending red meat against the acid charge, he added:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1084So acid isn't bad if it's in the right places like your stomach, okay? But food, the only thing that your body can't neutralize is sugar.
A listener felt her body was too acidic. He told her:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 981What makes a person acidic? It's not tomatoes or whatever, acidic foods. And it ain't, it ain't meat. It is sugar. There's nothing that will make you more acidic than crappy carbs and sugars.
Crappy carbs is his name for processed carbohydrates like bread, cereal and pasta. If sweets are hard to give up, read how he handles sugar cravings after 60.
"One takeaway. You can't change the pH of your blood by food. You can't. You can change the pH of your stomach by eating the wrong food, crappy carbs, sugars."
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1284Can low stomach acid cause acid reflux?
Yes, he says, and it is the opposite of what most people think.
On what changes with age:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 713But a lot of people, especially as you get older, you're not making as much acidity in the stomach.
Asked if low magnesium causes reflux, he said it may play a part, but:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1188The number one cause of acid reflux is low acidity in your stomach, not high acidity, it's low acidity.
When the stomach is not acidic enough, he explains, its pumps push out more acid, and some of it ends up in your esophagus. More in why digestion slows down after 60 and what helps painful acid reflux.
If you take something for reflux, ask your doctor before you change it. Chest pain that feels like more than heartburn is a 911 call.
Is alkaline water worth the money?
Drink it if you like it, he says, but don't pay extra for it. What helps you is the water, not its pH.
Asked about alkaline spring water:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 904I like alkaline water. I do. Don't spend a lot of money on it. Okay. That's all I'm saying.
Why he wants you drinking it:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1698Do I want you to drink water? Absolutely, I do. You guys know that? But I don't want you to drink water for the sake of your pH. I want you to drink water for the sake of hydrating and moving the blood.
Spring water is already alkaline from its minerals, he says, and a pinch of real salt does the same for filtered tap water. People who feel better on a pricey machine, he says, are mostly just drinking more water. See how much water he wants you to drink a day.
Should you test your pH at home?
Only one test is worth doing, he says, and most people do a different one.
A listener asked what her pH strips should read:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1159The only pH I like is first thing in the morning, your urine before you eat. Okay? If you're going to do a pH test, check your urine pH, and that should be very acid.
An acidic reading first thing in the morning is normal, he says, and it turns more alkaline as you eat. A saliva strip says nothing about your blood.
What should you eat instead of an alkaline diet?
Build your meals on protein and leave the sugar out. Fruit and vegetables are fine, he says, as long as you don't live on them.
His plate in one line:
Dr. Martin, from The Doctor Is In, episode 1284Your stomach wasn't designed to eat sugar. It wasn't. Your stomach was designed to eat eggs, meat and cheese.
For what that looks like day to day, read why he puts protein first for women over 60.
Watch the full episode
He takes blood, stomach and urine pH one at a time in episode 1284.
Common questions
Are there good alkaline recipes for grandparents?
He would skip them. Your body buffers food on its own at any age, so there is nothing to make alkaline. His plate is eggs, meat and cheese, with the sugar left out. Episode 1284.
Is baking soda a good way to become alkaline?
No, in his view. It will not change your blood, and it lowers your stomach acid in the very place you want it strong. Episodes 1249 and 1284.
Can your blood become too acidic?
Only in a crisis, he says, such as ketoacidosis in a diabetic whose blood sugar is out of control. That is a medical emergency, not something a meal does, and it is not ketosis. Episodes 1159 and 1682.
Put his plate on your table
Dr. Martin wrote his clinic eating plan down in a digital book called The Metabolic Reset. Sugar stays off the menu and the meals lean on protein, the same plate this page keeps coming back to.
60-day money-back guarantee. Under a doctor's care? Ask them before you make a big change to your meals.
