The theory behind it is that because cancer thrives in an acidic environment, then eating an alkaline diet would change that and would therefore make your body an inhospitable place for cancer cells.
Attractive as that sounds, your body is very good at self-regulation particularly when it comes to maintaining its pH balance. Your blood pH is very well regulated & controlled by systems involving your lungs and your kidneys to stay within a very narrow and slightly alkaline range of around 7.35 to 7.45.
There is NO scientific evidence to support the claim that dietary acid load or alkaline water can prevent or treat cancer.
But there are lots of people selling alkaline protocols and bottles of alkaline water at a ridiculous price so I understand why people feel this might be true.
Now, what you eat can temporarily change the pH level of your urine - because your kidneys excrete the metabolic by-products of digestion to maintain your blood's stable PH. And eating an acidic food doesn’t necessarily mean that food will have an acidic impact on your body because this depends on how that food behaves after digestion - your stomach acids will neutralise alkaline foods straight away!
And if you were to test the PH of your urine as some of these misleading claims recommend; there is another factor to consider - when you are well hydrated your urine is more diluted and in the opposite if you are dehydrated your urine will be more acidic.
And to come back to the really important point here - none of this has an impact on the pH of your blood or the environment around your cells.
Yes, cancer cells do create an acidic microenvironment around themselves but consuming alkaline foods will not affect this. Tumour acidity is created internally by how cancer cells process glucose.
Many of these so-called alkaline foods are actually fruit and veg. When you see people saying ‘the alkaline diet worked for me’ or ‘this is how I got a clean scan’ or whatever other wild claims they make; they probably did see a result from the fact that they included more fruit and veg. But there are much simpler, less stressful, and less overwhelming ways to do this, that also gives you flexibility in your diet for the more ‘fun’ foods.
So when it comes to your diet, what really matters is that we take a balanced approach:
Plenty of lean proteins
High fibre
Healthy fats
Variety
Flexibility
No strict rules or regimens
Whole Foods and Soul Foods
Focussing on eating what you can to support your body through the healing and recovery process of your cancer journey will not only give you a better impact in terms of:
managing your side effects
protecting lean muscle mass
reducing your risk of recurrence
keeping to a healthy body weight
improving and supporting your immune system
….and many other factors; it will also reduce the overwhelm and stress that following those strict rules and regimens and food labelling can bring.
Restrictive diets, food fear, and food labelling often just lead to more overwhelm and anxiety and in some cases; malnutrition. All of which are the last thing you need when you are a cancer survivor. Let’s focus on what we can add to our diet.
If you need some help with that, I’ll link my podcast here where I made a whole episode on what you could be including in your diet to fully support yourself, and how to do this simply.
And if you’d like to get in touch on how to work with me and have me supporting you throughout your cancer journey, you can click below to:
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