You can have too much of a good thing
Sat 7:51 am +00:00, 29 Jun 2024 1What you eat affects your body’s acid base balance, and maintaining a diet that balances acid and alkaline foods can help protect your health.
“Animal protein, particularly, meat, eggs and cheese, is what leads to the formation of large amounts of acid in the body,” DiNicolantonio says. “Fruits and vegetables are high in organic anions like citrate, malate and gluconate, which get converted to bicarbonate in the body. Bicarbonate is the base in our body that neutralizes the acid.”15
While I don’t recommend vegan or vegetarian diets, including more fruits and vegetables, which are alkaline, can help counteract acid load. DiNicolantonio says, “I personally try to neutralize the acid from my diet by calculating how much acid is going to be produced from the foods I consume.” For example:
| mEq of Acid per 3.5 oz | ||
| Parmesan cheese: 34.2 | Other cheeses: 18-29 | Egg yolks: 23.4 |
| Processed meats: 10 to 13.2 | Fish: 10.8 | Chicken: 8.7 |
| Pork: 7.9 | Beef: 7.8 | Grains: 3.7 to 6.5 |
| Alkaline Foods (Negative mEq of Acid per 3.5 oz) | ||
| Broccoli: -1.2 | Apples: -2.2 | Lemon juice: -2.5 |
| Potatoes/cauliflower: -4.0 | Zucchini: -4.4 | Carrots/celery: -5.0 |
| Bananas: -5.5 | Spinach: -14 | Raisins: -21 |
As a rule, protein should make up about 15% of your daily calories. More specifically, most adults
High Animal Protein Diet Raises Risk of Negative Calcium Balance (mercola.com)
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