ALKALINE DIET AND ITS EFFECT ON CANCER PREVENTION

I went to my doctor for yearly annual check up, and as he reviewed my labs, he asked me what I do for a living.

I responded.

“I’m an online cancer exercise trainer”

Immediately, without hesitation he said

“That’s great!
“Did you know that the alkaline diet is one of the best diets to help prevent and fight cancer because cancer cells thrive in highly acidic environments?”

I was shocked.

As an allied health professional, to hear this from a primary care doctor seemed odd,

But, I’m no doctor.

So, I kindly asked him a simple physiological question to get further understanding of what he was referring to.

“Doesn’t the human body tightly regulate the pH in your body so the organs can function properly?”

He responded,

“Correct!
“Your body tightly regulates pH in your body around 7.35-7.45.”

Alkaline diet and it's effect on cancer prevention

Once again, I was puzzled, and I followed up with another question

“So — just so I know, isn’t that considered neutral?”

He said

“Yes….
“Because otherwise your body can have acidosis or alkalosis, which is a disease that is caused when your pH goes above or below it’s neutral state.”

Confused, I now blinked…

He blinked.

And we moved on.

The reality is that your body needs to be held at a constant pH of 7 for your organs to work.

He was right. If your body goes under 7, then it can trigger acidosis, and if it goes over 7.45, it can trigger alkalosis, a condition in which the body becomes too acidic or too alkalinized.

But, unwillingly, he just proved my point — which is this:

Your body does not create an acidic environment; instead, it is tightly controlled and holds constant at a neutral state.

Therefore, what you eat cannot alter the pH in your body, and thus, cancer does not start from an acidic state.

So, why do I tell you this story?

Because if a doctor who spent 14+ years in school studying the human body can be fooled into thinking something like this, then I’m sure you have heard this as well and are puzzled by it.

So, what is the Alkaline Diet?

The alkaline diet actually comes from the acid ash hypothesis.

The acid ash hypothesis discusses that when certain foods are burned, they produce either an alkaline or acidic ash.

And this was assumed to have the same effect in your body, therefore altering the composition of your pH according to what you eat.

This idea was then was paired up with Dr. Otto Warburg’s findings, which theorized that highly-acidic conditions cause cancer.

Followers of the diet then tested to see if they could change the pH in their body by measuring the pH samples of their saliva and/or urine, which then led them to believe that the diet works

What they found was that according to the theory, certain food groups are considered acidic, alkaline, or neutral.

Examples of acidic, alkaline, and neutral foods include:

Acidic: fish, dairy, meat, poultry, eggs, grains, alcohol

Alkaline: fruits, vegetables nuts, and legumes

Neutral: water, natural fats, and starches

Once this was established, the theory became a diet, which focused on eating “alkaline foods” and avoiding “acidic” foods in an efforts to maintain an “optimal pH level” in the body to help fight or prevent cancer.

From there, this then turned in to “cancer-fighting” recipe books, a weight-loss diet, a drink, supplements, and more.

Therefore, the premise of the alkaline diet theory is as follows:

A) That the pH in your body can be changed by what you eat, as it can change the pH in your urine and saliva.
B) Cancer is an acidic disease that lives in an acidic environment.
C) By changing your body to be more alkalinized, this will help you prevent and cure cancer.

However, while this sounds solid in theory, in practice, science points otherwise, and what none of the followers of the alkaline diet tell you is that there is no scientific evidence to support any of these claims.

What Does The Science Say About Alkaline Diet and Cancer Prevention?

Let’s break this down claim by claim, but first we need to understand what pH is and why this is important.

1) What is pH?

pH is a measurement of the acidity or alkalinity in something.

This is measured through a litmus test that is expressed in a scale of 0 to 14

Now, in order for something to be acidic, it would have to be measured as <7 on a pH scale.

And for something to be alkaline (basic), it needs to be >7.

The caveat is that if something is right at 7, it is considered neutral.

Therefore, in order for your body to be acidic, it would need to be at most 6.9.

So, let’s break it down claim by claim.

Claim 1: What you eat can change the pH in your body

What you eat cannot alter the pH in your body because your body has multiple systems that keep your pH in balance.

Your respiratory system, buffer system, renal system work in conjunction with your digestive and circulatory system to buffer your pH, maintaining your body’s pH levels between 7.35 and 7.45—regardless of the food you eat.

If these systems were not in place, the enzymes in your body could not function, and it could lead to cellular death.

If, for example, your body was to reach a pH of just 6.9 (which is the level needed for it to be considered acidic), then your brain could go into a coma.

Luckily, this does not occu,r and what you eat does not change the pH in your body.

Claim 2: The urine and saliva in your body is a predictor of your body’s pH.

The idea that what you eat changes the pH in your body comes from samples of urine and saliva, which can greatly vary.

However, the pH in your urine or saliva is actually not indicative of the pH in your body.

In fact, well-established, randomized controlled trials of an acidic diet revealed that urine pH is not related to blood pH.

And in these studies, an acidic diet was able to change blood pH only by 0.014 units and urine pH by 1.02 units.

This study showed 2 things:

1) There isn’t a correlation between urine pH and blood pH. So, urine and saliva samples do not demonstrate whole-body pH.
2) The amount of change your diet can make to your blood pH is extremely minimal—literally insignificant.

Claim 3: Cancer thrives in an acidic environment.

This idea comes from Nobel-prize-winning Dr. Otto Warburg, who saw that cancer cells “live in very low oxygen, acidic conditions.”

While this was a great finding at the time, cancer research has come a long way and has learned more about what he actually found.

Meaning, what we know now is that cancer cells need oxygen to grow like any cell, but they grow so fast that they can’t get enough oxygen to themselves because they are competing with your body.

Therefore, they produce lactic acid to provide enough energy for the tumor to grow when there isn’t sufficient oxygen going to it.

So, what he saw was not that cancer thrives from low oxygen and an acidic environment, but rather that it produces an acidic environment around it because it doesn’t have enough oxygen.

Keep in mind, this does not mean that it turns your whole body acidic.

As we saw before, your body tightly regulates your pH.

Thus, cancer survivors actually have the same pH levels as a person without cancer.

Claim 4: An Alkalinized diet will help prevent and cure cancer.

An alkaline diet does promote many fruits, vegetables, and legumes, which are “cancer-fighting.”

However, the cancer-fighting effects are not from the acid/base ratio it has in your body but rather the fiber, nutrients, antioxidants, and other cancer-fighting properties it has.

That being said, meta-anlyses reviewing the effect of acidity or alkalinity of food and cancer risk have found no effect on cancer risk.

In conclusion, the claims this diet makes is actually quakery (It’s gives a dishonest practice and claim to have special skills, which it does not contain).

Is it Bad if I Follow the Alkaline Diet?

The short answer: probably not.

However, to truly know, you should check with an oncology-certified dietician to have a better idea whether it is detrimental to your condition.

One area that this diet misses the mark on is in protein intake, which could greatly impact your health and increase your risk of cancer or poor cancer survival by decreasing your muscle mass.

Now, if that is not the case for you, then the biggest area of harm may actually be more to your wallet.

The primary promotors of the alkaline diet are usually people who have something to gain from selling the diet, such as celebrities and book authors.

Usually, this is to get you to buy more books, supplements, waters, shakes, and more—all of which are unnecessary and do not improve your health but get you to spend more money on what they have to sell.

So, while the diet has no special benefits, if you like it and have checked with a dietician to make sure it doesn’t affect your health and you can afford to buy it, then there is no real downfall to following it.

As long as you are aware that it does not do what it claims to do.

What Diet Should I Follow if Not the Alkaline Diet for Cancer Prevention?

The best diet to follow to aid with cancer prevention is one rich in antioxidants and fiber.

Foods such as:

Beans
Berries
Fish
Leafy greens

are all great to include.

But, if you want a more specific list of what foods to be eating, check out 67 cancer fight foods for you to add to your grocery list.

Now, what you eat during cancer can be different than what you eat to help aid with cancer prevention because during cancer, what you eat can be affected by the side effects you are experiencing.

Common side effects to cancer treatment often include nausea and fatigue, both of which can create barriers to eating foods that help with treatment and recovery.

So, if you are having trouble eating, check out how to stop feeling sick during radiation or chemo to get a better idea of how to navigate eating through cancer nausea, mouth sores, taste changes and more.

Many cancer survivors also struggle with cancer fatigue, and research has found that there are certain foods associated with the reduction of fatigue.

If you are struggling with fatigue, check out the fatigue-reduction diet.

It is generally hard to pinpoint exactly what you need to eat during and post-cancer treatment, as there are so many factors to keep in mind.

In general, though, you should be eating fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, lean proteins, and avoiding processed meats and alcohol.

Closing Thoughts on the Alkaline Diet for Cancer Prevention

Cancer is a complex disease that is caused by a combination of factors (i.e. genetics, lifestyle, psychosocial, and environmental),

But the “acidity” of your body is not one of them.

What you eat is important for cancer prevention, improving your health, and lowering cancer side effects.

But not because it changes the pH in your body.

Furthermore, a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and legumes is recommended, along with the cessation of processed meats and alcohol in your diet, which the alkaline diet does agree with.

However, it is important to remember that the claim the alkaline diet makes has no legs to stand on.

because:

There is no one diet that can cure or prevent any cancer
Your diet can not change the pH in your body
There is no link between cancer and an acidic state
If pH was altered in your body, it would likely shut your body down
There is no proof that pH is acidic in the body
Urine and saliva samples do not represent body pH

Furthermore, while the alkaline diet may not negatively affect your health or have any positive effects on cancer prevention, it may hurt your wallet.

Therefore, if you are truly interested in giving your best fighting chance against cancer—whether that is for prevention or during/after treatment—focus on the main factors that do help fight cancer:

Maintaining a healthy weight
Exercising regularly
Limiting alcohol intake
Avoiding smoking

If you ever want any extra help, click below and type “Free Consult” in the message to schedule a Zoom call with a clinical exercise physiologist and learn more about whether coaching is right for you and what changes you can make to improve your health.

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