The PH Myth

WE’VE ALL HEARD THAT IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP THE BODY ALKALINE – BUT IS THIS STRICTLY SCIENTIFIC? ACTUALLY NO, NOT AT ALL. HERE’S WHY.

- Sally-ann Creed

The idea that we need to be in an alkaline pH state is an unscientific myth – like the myths that margarine is better than butter, eggs will kill you, and veganism and/or raw foodism is healthy. The pH myth (also called ‘the alkaline diet’ or similar) is the belief that the body has to be ‘alkaline’ to be healthy, and that it stops cancer. In truth, though, the body is supposed to be pretty acidic. This may come as a shock, but stay with me.

The pH of a solution tells us how many hydrogen ions the solution contains. The pH scale ranges from 0–14: acidic is below 7.0, and alkaline is above 7.0. So an alkaline solution has a higher pH than an acidic one. Battery acid has a pH of 1.0, distilled water has the ‘perfect’ pH of 7 (perfectly neutral), and bleach has a pH of 13.0.

Let’s look at some of the pH values of different parts of the body.

• Your skin needs to be very acidic so that mould doesn’t grow on it – the optimal pH is 5.5. Your sweat, together with the sebum, forms what’s known as an ‘acid mantle’ for your protection, with a pH ranging from 4.0–5.5.

• Stomach acid needs to have a pH of 1.5–3.5. Battery acid has a pH of 1.0 – so our stomach acid is not far off. It has to be very strong in order to kill pathogens in food and to provide the right environment for protein digestion. Stomach acid unravels the proteins to get them ready for the enzyme pepsin to break them down into chunks called peptides. Without this acid environment, not only will the pepsin not work, but you open your body to a multitude of viruses, bacteria and disease. This highly acidic environment is there to protect you.