Acidosis Causes: Animal Protein, Grains, Salt

Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century

"food staples and food-processing procedures introduced during the Neolithic and Industrial Periods have fundamentally altered 7 crucial nutritional characteristics of ancestral hominin diets: 1) glycemic load, 2) fatty acid composition, 3) macronutrient composition, 4) micronutrient density, 5) acid-base balance, 6) sodium-potassium ratio, and 7) fiber content. The evolutionary collision of our ancient genome with the nutritional qualities of recently introduced foods may underlie many of the chronic diseases of Western civilization."

"After digestion, absorption, and metabolism, nearly all foods release either acid or bicarbonate (base) into the systemic circulation. Fish, meat, poultry, eggs, shellfish, cheese, milk, and cereal grains are net acid producing, whereas fresh fruit, vegetables, tubers, roots, and nuts are net base producing. Legumes yield near-zero mean acid values, which reflects an overlapping distribution from slightly net acid producing to slightly net base producing. Additionally, salt is net acid producing because of the chloride ion."

"healthy adults consuming the standard US diet sustain a chronic, low-grade pathogenic metabolic acidosis that worsens with age as kidney function declines. Virtually all preagricultural diets were net base yielding because of the absence of cereals and energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods—foods that were introduced during the Neolithic and Industrial Eras and that displaced base-yielding fruit and vegetables. Consequently, a net base-producing diet was the norm throughout most of hominin evolution. The known health benefits of a net base-yielding diet include preventing and treating osteoporosis, age-related muscle wasting, calcium kidney stones, hypertension, and exercise-induced asthma and slow the progression of age- and disease-related chronic renal insufficiency."

Partial Neutralization of the Acidogenic Western Diet with Potassium Citrate Increases Bone Mass in Postmenopausal Women with Osteopenia

"An important characteristic of the modern Western diet, when compared with ancestral diet forms, is that it imposes an acid load on the body via acid-generating proteins, a characteristic that is tightly coupled with a low potassium (K) content."