Alkaline foods

[Free Rider]

Any suggestions for tasty alkaline foods? I love tomatoes, very acidic, and would like to balance things out a little.

[Jacaranda]

What an interesting question! I've never really thought about the pH content of foods - not since high school biology, anyway. Basically every food except Camembert cheese and egg white seems to be acidic to some degree, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.

Camembert soufflé?

The unfortunately-named Dr Mirkin from Georgetown University School of Medicine thinks that it's a nonsensical idea to worry about eating acid or alkaline foods - "You should not believe that it matters whether foods are acidic or alkaline, because no foods change the acidity of anything in your body except your urine."

[Free Rider]

Mmm, meringue and camembert. yum.

Blood has ph, so I wonder why someone would say that the food wouldn't matter. Our bodies extract vitamins from food, so why would our bodies not extract acid, etc from food?

[Free Rider]

That Dr. Mirkin has a number of interesting things. Taken from his web site:

Partially hydrogenated fats that you eat are deposited in your body fat. Lenore Kohlmeier of the University of North Carolina biopsied the fat in women's buttocks. She then followed these women for several years and showed that the amount of partially hydrogenated fats in a woman's buttocks predicts her susceptibility to developing breast cancer in the future (2). Other studies confirm this association (9).

[Free Rider]

Hats off to Mary Bacon! Check this out, Jacaranda, built on your suggestion.

Deep-fried Camembert cheese with strawberry preserves & apple slices -- Anotherthyme menu.

[Mezzaluna]

"You should not believe that it matters whether foods are acidic or alkaline, because no foods change the acidity of anything in your body except your urine."

Then why does my reflux kick up when I eat tomatoes and citrus? Why do I get a pounding stomach ache when I eat these foods in any quantity? When I avoid foods like that I don't have trouble. His is one opinion...