Karen, what is your opinion of Alkaline Water? Somewhat faddish and expensive, allegedly de-acidifies the body to return to a more appropriate PH state.
Alkaline water, I never heard of it. My initial thought is that the stomach is so acidic that anything alkaline that goes into it will be acidic as well, pronto. But let me do research...
Now, alkaline water...are you trying to get me in trouble? I
s this going to be like with the sprouts? DISCLAIMER: THIS IS JUST WHAT I BELIEVE AND WHILE I TRUST ME, YMMV. A superficial scan of published literature on the subject leaves me with this impression:
Bunk.
There are two types of "alkaline water" being flogged by vendors, namely 1) water produced by ionizers which claim to induce alkalinity, don't ask me how the induced acidy doesn't cancel it out, and 2) what I would call hard water, water that has picked up or been treated with minerals such as magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium, aluminum, or silica. Of the two, I tend to dismiss water #1 as bunk because science, and water #2 is simply hard water with a higher mineral content. So I confine my denigrating remarks to water #2 as it could be beneficial, whereas water #1 is beneath notice.
Claim #1 of alkaline water proponents: the water helps the body maintain an alkaline state which is more healthful.
It is true that the body prefers to be in a slightly alkaline state, and it creates and maintains this state normally. I did some research about this a year ago. But it's not what you might expect. Surprisingly, acidic foods such as oranges create alkaline products when digested/metabolized, and alkaline foods tend to create/support a more acidic body chemistry. So lists of alkaline/acidic foods to eat should not be based on the acid/base characteristics of the food in its natural state, but in how that particular foodstuff influences body chemistry.
Conclusion: the claim is false, in that alkaline foodstuffs often create a more acidic state in the blood. Also, the amount of acid/base in water is miniscule. It only takes a few molecules of sodium carbonate or whatever to make water alkaline, and that's probably not enough to affect the body one way or the other. You get much higher loads of acid/base/minerals from food than from water. Food is a much more important place to consider acid/base affects on the body and it's beneficial to eat more foods that help create a slightly alkaline (natural) state.
Claim #2: the minerals in alkaline water are beneficial for you. Much more so than ordinary old pH neutral water.
Grawr. Some minerals are good for you, and some are probably good for you, unless you get too much of them, in which case they are bad for you. Ha ha ha I love science. Ok. Here's the scoop. Take silica. There are some - SOME - tests that show a slight protection against certain types of dementia in people who drink water containing silica for many years. Now, this is silica as a trace element, and too much of it in the water is detrimental. The studies are by no means conclusive. Just interesting, as in hey let's study this some more. It often happens that there will be a second study that finds the exact opposite effect, usually because the experimental protocol has been improved. Regardless, there are some minerals you don't want too much of in your water. Aluminum, for example, I prefer not to consume too much aluminum, that's why I don't use aluminum pans. Too much calcium can cause kidney stones. I don't want a kidney stone! Again, you likely get way more minerals from food than from water.
Conclusion: nonsense. Eat mineral rich foods, lots of veggies, don't cook in aluminum especially acidic foods in aluminum, don't drink highly mineralized water if you are prone to kidney stones.
As Michael Pollan says in the title of one of his books: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
I will go duck under something protective now.
Oh IMO!
