Maintaining pH balance in the body through various body systems, such as the blood’s alkaline acid balance, is a delicate balancing act that requires understanding the importance of different pH levels in your body. An acidic stomach is crucial for the absorption of calcium which helps regulate blood pH levels and build healthy bones.
While eating a diet high in alkaline-forming foods such as leafy green vegetables is healthy, understanding that the stomach is designed to have an acid pH is missing from the picture. Alkalizing the stomach with baking soda and alkaline water can do more harm than good. The best way to get more alkaline minerals into the body is by eating foods high in alkaline minerals. The alkaline mineral calcium requires an acidic pH of the stomach for optimal absorption.
What is the pH of blood?
The body tightly regulates the pH of the blood and ensures that it is slightly alkaline between a pH of 7.35 and 7.45.
What is the pH of the stomach?
The body also regulates the pH of the stomach, which is designed to be acidic, at a pH between 1.5-3.5.
As you can see, the stomach is meant to have an acidic pH, and the blood has a slightly alkaline pH. Disrupting the stomach pH required for optimal calcium absorption can also disrupt blood pH as calcium is an alkaline mineral that helps maintain normal blood pH.
What makes a food alkaline-forming or acid-forming is the ash or residue left over after the food is burned as fuel.
What are alkaline-forming foods?
Alkaline-forming foods are high in alkaline minerals: potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium.
What are acid-forming foods?
Acid-forming foods are high in acid minerals: chlorine, Sulphur, and phosphorus.
Most fruits and vegetables are alkaline-forming, while most bread, cereals, fish, meat, eggs, and chicken are acid-forming. A healthy diet should contain both acid and alkali-forming foods.
Before you jump on the next alkalizing trend, ask yourself how you are alkalizing your body. Are you disrupting your stomach acid levels in the process and causing low stomach acid, leading to weak bone density. (more on this later)
One of the body’s first lines of defense is for the ph of the stomach to have an acidic pH, and for a good reason. The purpose of stomach acid is to destroy harmful pathogens and bacteria that enter the body through the food you eat. Food is one of the primary ways in which the body is exposed to pathogens which is why one of the first steps of the digestive process is to bathe the food in stomach acid to kill any harmful bacteria that may have been on the food.
An acidic stomach is also needed to digest your protein. If you are constantly alkalizing with alkaline water, alkaline drinks, or bicarb soda (especially with meals), then protein and food will sit in your stomach longer and begin to ferment. As the body holds on to the food for longer due to low stomach acid, it will rot. Low stomach acid caused by alkalizing the wrong way can start a long list of digestive symptoms that begin to present.
What causes calcium deficiency?
A common cause of calcium deficiency and side effects of low stomach acid is poor absorption of calcium which can contribute to osteoporosis and weak bone density. Calcium is needed for making healthy bones and helping to maintain the slightly alkaline pH of the blood through bone remodeling.
How the bones support Ph balance in the body
The bone acts as a buffer and helps to balance the pH of the blood. When the blood’s pH levels fall and become too acidic, the parathyroid gland detects this change and releases parathyroid hormone. Parathyroid hormone stimulates the osteoclast cells in the bone to break down the bone to release calcium, an alkaline mineral that is then deposited in the blood to raise the pH of the blood back to the normal pH range.
When the pH levels of the blood rise and become too alkaline, the thyroid releases the hormone calcitriol to stimulates the osteoblast cells, which are the bone-building cells to take calcium from the blood and deposit it into the bone to help lower the blood pH back to its normal range.
Through the transfer of calcium being released from the bone through resorption or stored in the bone through the process of remodeling, the correct pH of the blood is maintained.
While maintaining optimal pH through dietary means is important, there is much more to support the fine-tuning of pH balance through the various parts of the body and its tissues through the function of the lungs, kidneys, and calcium homeostasis.
If alkalizing the body is done incorrectly, such as alkalizing the stomach with baking soda or alkaline water, more imbalances can occur throughout the body, further disrupting the intelligent systems of the body.
How to increase bone strength naturally to prevent weak bone density.
To have healthy bones, you must have the ability to digest and absorb calcium from foods in the diet. Calcium absorption requires adequate stomach acid (which often declines with age) and the ability to digest and absorb your fat-soluble vitamins D and K, which help with utilizing calcium in the bones. The absorption of vitamin D and vitamin k requires good bile production and flow.
The best natural way to improve bone strength is to eat calcium-rich foods while also supporting the stomach’s acidity by taking apple cider vinegar or lemon juice with meals to help with the absorption of calcium. Foods high in calcium include raw milk, cheese, plain yogurt, almonds, and leafy greens such as kale, okra, broccoli, and watercress.
Supplements for bone health
Seeking health’s bone nutrients contain calcium, magnesium, boron, vitamin D, and vitamin K, all essential nutrients needed to make healthy bones found in one supplement.
Seeking health’s gallbladder nutrients helps to improve bile production and flow, thus improving the absorption and the fat-soluble nutrients vitamin K and vitamin D required for making healthy bones.
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