A new study in this month’s online source of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology showed that in patients who have renal disease, a high acid diet increases the risk of kidney failure, three times more than those who ate a low acid diet. The examiners followed 1486 adults with known chronic renal disease who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III) for 14.2 years.
Alkaline diets are high in fruits and vegetables and low in animal products. Examples of high alkaline foods are sea vegetables, broccoli, wheat grass, onions, cauliflower, lemon, lime, and pineapples. Even beverages such as coffee tend to be more acidic than choices like organic coffee, black tea, or green tea. Does this mean we should only switch when we have signs of kidney problems?? No, because many of our bodies enzymes and functions perform best at a neutral pH of 7.
Following a low acid diet is not so much about lowering acidic foods like citrus, but using more alkaline foods. Acidic diets have foods which range from a pH of 0 to 7 which is usually related to meats and processed dairy. Alkaline diets look at pH of foods after digestion and range from 7 to 14. The goal is to get 80% of your foods through a more alkaline source to allow less of a burden on the kidney.
A plant diet following 8-10 servings of bright colored fruits and vegetables a day will help towards this goal.