Alkaline diet: pros and cons
The management of patients with various chronic pathologies made it possible to establish the relationship of most diseases with the level of acidity in the body. This became the basis for a simple but effective diet called alkaline. It is also called alkaline. She just blew up social networks, and already in 2015 the British Society of Nutritionists recognized her as one of the most popular diets in the world.
Content:
- The essence of the alkaline diet
- Alkaline Diet Principles
- Who needs an alkaline diet?
- Phases of the alkaline diet
- Alkaline Diet Weekly Menu
- Allowed Products
- Prohibited foods (acidic)
- Alkaline Diet Recipes
- Pros and cons of an alkaline diet
- Contraindications
- Reviews and results
- Conclusion
The essence of the alkaline diet
The primary task of an alkaline diet is to normalize the pH balance in the body, to reduce the acidity of its internal environment. It has been proven that over time, high acidity leads to the development of many diseases, to a decrease in the rate of metabolic processes and is the main cause of obesity.
Any food after entering the body forms an alkali or acid. Therefore, nutritionists divide all foods into three categories: acidic, alkaline and neutral.
There have been many studies that have established that the more a person consumes alkaline foods, the longer he stays healthy and young. At the same time, the body works fully and without interruptions. Recent scientific experiments suggest that adherence to alkaline foods provides an opportunity to prevent the development of cancer and even get rid of them. Therefore, the alkaline diet is gaining more and more popularity every day.
The pH level for humans is considered normal if it is in the range of 7.35-7.45 units. If there is a shift in one direction or another, then there is a malfunction of metabolism, stagnation. Cells begin to age faster, as collagen synthesis deteriorates.
The main hazards of acidification are:
- Immunity will not work at full strength, which will increase the incidence of viral and bacterial infections.
- Stones will begin to form in the organs of the urinary system.
- Bone tissue will break down faster.
- The risk of developing cancer and diabetes mellitus increases.
- The nervous system becomes unstable.
In turn, an increased level of alkali in the body is extremely rare. However, if this happens, then the person develops allergic reactions, disruptions in the functioning of the digestive system occur, and dermatological diseases may develop.
Alkaline diet is designed to slowly and systematically "alkalinize" the body, to create a neutral or light alkaline environment in it. It is recommended to adhere to this nutritional method for 3-4 weeks. During this time, it will be possible to normalize the pH balance of the blood and remove all acidic toxins from the body.
Alkaline Diet Principles
For an alkaline diet to achieve the desired effect, the following principles must be followed:
- The share of acidic foods in the total diet should not exceed 30%. These include bread baked with yeast, all types of legumes, fish and meat, eggs, tea, coffee and dairy products. This does not mean that meat and fish will need to be abandoned altogether, you should simply limit their consumption to 3 times a week. Moreover, you need to choose low-fat foods.
- The percentage of alkaline products is equal to 70%. The menu should be based on vegetables and fruits, you can eat greens, berries, pumpkin and sesame seeds, sunflower seeds. It is imperative that the diet should contain vegetable oils, low-fat fish and cereals (brown rice, buckwheat, oats).
- All plant foods are best eaten raw. This will not only speed up the process of alkalization of the body, but will also allow you to cleanse the intestines qualitatively.
- Be sure to drink water (2 liters per day), herbal teas, freshly pressed juices.
- In order not to interfere with the process of losing weight and normalizing the digestive function, you need to stop eating canned foods, smoked meats and animal fats.
- Alcoholic drinks are prohibited during the diet.
- Salt is not completely excluded from the menu, but its consumption is minimized. The same principle applies to sugar. It should be replaced with honey, stevia, wedge syrup.
- The number of trips to the table per day should be at least five.
Who needs an alkaline diet?
You can stick to an alkaline diet in the following cases:
- A person is often worried about headaches.
- There is a problem of excess weight.
- Colds are common.
- There are serious sleep disturbances.
- Increased nervousness.
- The skin has lost its former attractiveness.
Phases of the alkaline diet
There are three phases to the alkaline diet:
- The first phase is aimed at adapting the body to a change in diet. During this period, 3-4 kg of excess weight goes away, in parallel toxins are removed from the body. A person may experience slight malaise, increased fatigue. Diet food is introduced into the diet gradually. At the very beginning of the first phase, it is allowed to drink coffee (a glass a day), you can eat several slices of bread. However, sugar and confectionery products are discarded immediately.
- The second phase is a continuation of the first. At this time, the body is continuously cleansed, while the acidity of the gastric juice decreases. At the same time, weight goes away more slowly. On average, a person loses 1-2.5 kg. The state of health improves, since the adaptation process is already behind. All flour products are removed at this stage, and green tea is replacing coffee.
- In the third phase, it is possible to achieve the desired alkaline balance of the medium. During this time, another 0.5-1 kg goes away. The goal of the last stage is to consolidate the achieved result.
Alkaline Diet Weekly Menu
The proposed menu can be modified and adjusted to suit your own diet, but you must follow the rules of an alkaline diet and do not use prohibited foods for cooking.
| Morning meal | Lunch | Dinner | Afternoon snack | Last meal | |
| Kefir with fresh fruit pieces and 1/2 teaspoon honey | Apple | Pasta with tomato-mushroom sauce | Pear | One chicken breast with vegetable salad | |
| Omelet from a pair of chicken eggs | Dried fruits | Broccoli puree soup | Cherry banana smoothie with milk | Oven-cooked fish with fresh vegetable salad | |
| Hot sandwich | Orange | Rice with stewed vegetables | Vegetable-based soup | Stewed cabbage, stewed potatoes | |
| Boiled egg and ½ grapefruit | Nuts | Salad: Feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, avocado and arugula | Apple | Any fruit salad with yogurt dressing | |
| five | Vegetable salad with olive oil and lemon juice sauce | Orange | Chicken fillet stewed with vegetables | Apple | Kefir soup |
| Omelet from a pair of chicken eggs | Banana | Minced vegetable cutlets (carrots + potatoes) | Any berries | Grapefruit and shrimp salad | |
| Cottage cheese with banana | Smoothie: cucumber + greens + kefir | Creamy soup with mushrooms | Orange | Salad: Cherry tomatoes + tuna + lettuce |
Allowed Products
Foods that can be eaten during the diet:
| Products | Create a high alkaline environment in the body | Promotes medium alkalinity | Weakly alkalize |
| Vegetable products (vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds) |
Onion and garlic Vegetable juice Broccoli and spinach Parsley and asparagus Citrus (lemon, lime, grapefruit) Papaya and mango Watermelon |
Beans in pods Celery and salad Pumpkin and okra Sweet potato Carob tree Zucchini Beet Berries Kiwi Apples Figs, raisins and grapes pears |
Jacket potatoes Carrot Fresh corn Mushrooms Carrots and cabbage Tomatoes Cilantro Soy beans Tofu Olives Oranges Avocado and pineapple Cherries Peach Banana |
| Oil | Flax seed oil | Rapeseed oil | |
| Sweet foods |
Raw sugar Honey, but not candied |
||
| Cereals |
Brown rice Amaranth millet |
||
| Egg, dairy products | Breast milk |
Soy cheese and milk Goat's milk cheese and goat's milk itself Serum |
|
| Beverages |
Herbal tea Lemon water |
Green tea | Ginger tea |
Prohibited foods (acidic)
Products that should not be on the menu:
| Products | Create high acidity in the body | Promotes moderate acidification | Weakly acidify |
| Vegetable products |
Cocoa Walnut Peanut Blueberry Cranberry Prunes |
Beans (white, variegated, crescent) Peeled potatoes Rhubarb Cashew nuts Pecan Cherry |
Beans Heat-treated spinach Pumpkin and sunflower seeds Plum Canned Fruit Juice |
| Oil | Corn | ||
| Sweets | Chocolate | Sugar white and brown |
Processed honey Syrup |
| Cereals and product containing cereals |
Biscuit Wheat Pasta White flour |
White rice Corn Rye and oats Buckwheat |
Sprouted flour bread Brown rice and spelled |
| Dairy products, egg |
Homogenized milk Ice cream Cheese |
Raw milk |
Cottage cheese Egg Oil Buttermilk Yogurt |
| Meat, fish, seafood |
Molluscs Pork and beef |
Chicken and turkey meat mutton |
Fatty fish Venison |
| Beverages | Beer and non-alcoholic beverages | Coffee | Tea |
Alkaline Diet Recipes
First meal
Borscht
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- Peking cabbage - 0.6 kg.
- Tomatoes - 0.3 kg.
- Beets - 0.25 kg.
- Sweet Bulgarian pepper - 0.15 kg.
- Cilantro, basil and green onions - 30 g each.
- A clove of garlic.
- Peeled sunflower seed and sesame seed - 40 g each
- Lemon juice - 20 ml.
- Salt and seasonings are at the discretion of the chef.
Pass through a blender: beets, half carrots and peppers, all the herbs, salt, spices, garlic and tomatoes along with 0.7 liters of water.
Peking cabbage, the remaining half of the carrots and peppers are chopped separately, these components are mixed and poured with the mass that was passed through a blender. Sprinkle with green onions on top. Pour the ready-made borscht into plates, add the dressing.
Method of dressing preparation: grind sesame and sunflower seeds in a blender to make flour, add lemon juice, water and salt to it, mix thoroughly.
Tomato Soup with Green Beans
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- Tomatoes - 0.4 kg.
- Beans in pods - 0.2 kg.
- Carrots and cranberries - 60 g each.
- Cilantro and basil - 20 g each
- A clove of garlic.
- Vegetable oil - 40 ml.
- Salt to taste.
Garlic is crushed, carrots are rubbed, beans are cut. Pass through a blender: peeled tomatoes, basil, garlic, vegetable oil, cranberries, water (50 ml). Pour chopped vegetables with the resulting mass and put in the refrigerator for two hours. Before serving the dish, sprinkle with cilantro.
Carrot soup with almonds
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- Almonds - 0.1 kg.
- Carrots - 0.25 kg.
- Dill - 1/2 bunch.
- A clove of garlic.
- Lemon juice - 20 ml.
- Spices and salt are at the discretion of the chef.
Almonds are soaked in cool water overnight. In the morning, the nuts are washed, 0.5 ml of water is added to them and passed through a blender. The finished mass is filtered.
Carrots are cut into pieces, greens are finely chopped, garlic is chopped. Prepared vegetables are passed through a blender along with the nut mass. The soup is poured into plates, decorated with herbs.
Okroshka with celery
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- 0.2 kg of cucumbers and radishes.
- 60 g stalked celery and the same amount of dill.
- 0.3 liters of almond milk.
- 20 ml lemon juice.
- Salt - at the discretion of the cook.
Chopped celery, cucumbers and radishes. Dill is finely chopped, salted and crushed with a mortar. Pass 1/2 of the radish and all of the celery through a blender along with the almond milk and lemon juice. The finished mass is filled with the remaining radish and cucumbers, dill is introduced and mixed.
Second courses
Vegetable cutlets with seeds
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- Sweet pepper - 0.15 kg.
- Carrots and sprouted sunflower seeds - 60 g.
- Flaxseed and almonds - 30 g.
- A clove of garlic.
- Vegetable oil - 20 ml.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
Flour is made from nuts using a blender, the rest of the vegetables are cut, garlic is pressed. Then all the products are passed through the blender again, but not brought to a puree state. The finished mass is salted and cutlets are formed from them.
Sprouted mung bean meatballs and vegetables
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- Sprouted mung bean - 0.2 kg.
- Carrots and red cabbage - 0.1 kg each.
- Parsley - 20 g.
- Garlic - 3 wedges.
- Vegetable oil - 70 ml.
- Salt and ground pepper to taste.
Mung, cabbage and carrots are passed through a blender. Horseradish, garlic and herbs are finely chopped, salted, pepper, oil is added to them. All components are connected to each other, meatballs are formed from minced meat and cooled for several hours in the refrigerator.
Peking cabbage stuffed cabbage
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- Peeled sunflower seed - 0.2 kg.
- Avocado and Bulgarian pepper - 0.1 kg.
- Petiole celery and walnuts - 50 g.
- Dill - 20 g.
- Peking cabbage leaves - 6 pcs.
- Garlic - 3 cloves.
- Olive oil - 60 ml.
- Lemon juice - 40 ml.
- Spices and salt are added at the discretion of the cook.
Leave sunflower seeds to soak in water overnight. Grind in a blender: nuts, soaked seeds, dill, garlic and celery. Pepper, salt and oil are added to the finished mass.
Avocados, peppers and green onions are chopped separately. Cabbage leaves are spread with the mass that was crushed in a blender, vegetable mince is spread on them. Rolls are formed from leaves, fastened with skewers.
Buckwheat porridge with vegetables and almonds
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- 0.2 kg of green buckwheat.
- 0.1 kg of Bulgarian pepper.
- 70 g almonds.
- 20 grams of stalked celery and parsley.
- A clove of garlic.
- 60 ml olive oil.
- 20 ml lemon juice.
Buckwheat is poured with water and left overnight, similar actions are performed with almonds. When the nuts are swollen, they are chopped with a knife. Water from buckwheat is drained and washed again.
Garlic is crushed, herbs, celery and peppers are cut, vegetables are mixed with cereals and nuts. The dish is seasoned with lemon juice and olive oil, garnished with parsley.
Pumpkin spaghetti
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- Pumpkin - half a kilo.
- 20 grams of parsley and sesame seeds.
- 2 g each of coriander, hot red pepper and cumin.
- Olive oil - 70 ml.
- Three cloves of garlic.
- Salt is added at the discretion of the cook.
The pumpkin pulp is grated with a Korean carrot grater. Garlic is mixed with oil, salt and spices, chopped pumpkin is seasoned with ready-made sauce. The vegetable is kept under pressure in the marinade for 2 hours. Then the sauce is drained, the ready-made "spaghetti" is spread on a plate, sprinkled with sesame seeds. Tomato paste is used as a sauce for serving.
Salads
Spring salad
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- 0.3 kg of cucumbers.
- 0.2 kg of radish.
- 0.1 kg of almonds.
- 50 g of dill.
- 50 ml lemon juice.
- A clove of garlic.
- 5 g of liquid honey.
- Salt at the discretion of the cook.
The almonds are soaked and then whipped in a blender with garlic, honey, lemon juice, salt and water. Separately cut cucumbers, dill and radishes, put them in a salad bowl, season with peanut sauce, mix well.
Avocado salad with watercress and zucchini
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- 0.2 kg of avocados and zucchini.
- Watercress - 30 g.
- Vegetable oil - 30 ml and the same amount of lemon juice.
- Salt is added at the discretion of the cook.
Cut avocados and zucchini into thin slices, fill them with oil and lemon juice, add watercress, mix again.
Beetroot salad with avocado and celery
To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:
- 0.2 kg of celery and avocado.
- 0.1 kg
- Beets.
- Red lettuce onions - 50 g.
- Parsley greens - 30 g.
- Lemon juice - 30 ml and the same amount of vegetable oil.
- Salt at the discretion of the chef.
Rub beets, avocados and celery, chop greens, cut onions in half rings. All components are mixed, seasoned with lemon juice and oil. Decorate with parsley on top.
Pros and cons of an alkaline diet
Pros of an alkaline diet:
- An alkaline diet can improve the quality of nighttime rest, which directly affects a person's performance.
- Cognitive processes are improved, in particular, concentration and memory.
- Hair, nails and skin become much stronger and stronger.
- Thanks to the diet, you can lose weight without harm to health.
- During a diet, the feeling of hunger will not pursue a person. The calorie content of meals and products does not need to be calculated.
- During the diet, you must definitely go in for sports, which will have the best effect on your well-being and health in general.
- The diet does not require significant financial costs. Products can be purchased at low cost at any time of the year.
The disadvantages of the alkaline food system include:
- The diet lasts quite a long time. The minimum period for compliance is 3 weeks. Moreover, many people continue to adhere to alkaline nutrition in the future. The weight will go away slowly. But health will not be undermined, the general tone of the body will increase.
- In the first week of the diet, a deterioration in well-being is possible, which is due to the adaptation of the body to a new diet.
- If a person is a meat lover, then he may not like the alkaline diet. After all, the emphasis in it is on plant foods.
Contraindications
Contraindications:
- Ischemic heart disease and other heart pathologies.
- Atrophic form of gastritis.
- Low acidity of gastric juice.
- Disorders of the kidneys. It is about kidney failure.
- Serious deterioration in well-being since the start of the diet. This is the reason for the rejection of this power system.
Reviews and results
Svetlana Grigorievna, nutritionist:
“Adherents of the alkaline nutrition system are convinced and are trying to convince other people that this technique can cleanse the body, bring health benefits and even get rid of some pathologies of the digestive system. The opposite point of view boils down to the fact that the body is able to adjust the pH balance itself. If you interfere with these processes, you can seriously harm him. In any case, the acidity of foods and their effect on humans have not been fully understood at the present time. Moreover, I want to note that the alkaline diet menu is not balanced. The person will feel the need for fatty acids and proteins.
I do not often recommend my clients to stick to this method of losing weight. This is especially true for older people and for pregnant women. If, nevertheless, there is an irresistible desire to try this diet "to taste", then first you need to get medical advice. It is not worth following this method for longer than 3 weeks."
Alexey Pavlovich, nutritionist:
“An alkaline diet cleanses the body due to the abundance of coarse and difficult to digest plant fiber in food. Animal fats, flour products and sweets in the diet are sharply limited, so a person loses weight.
I advise only those people who are in 100% health to stick to the alkaline weight loss program. This diet really improves the condition and appearance of skin, nails and hair.
You cannot use the method for losing weight to people who suffer from various pathologies of the heart and blood vessels, as well as those who have low acidity of gastric juice."
Reviews of those who have lost weight
Olga: “I follow a diet that is very similar to alkaline. The doctor recommended it to me. At that time, I had problems with blood pressure, I felt overwhelmed and tired, which affected my mental health. After I tried the diet, my health improved significantly, I forgot about the pressure surges. Now I'm not complaining about my health. Of course, it is difficult to constantly limit yourself in food, but the result is worth it"
Darina: “In my opinion, an alkaline diet is a way of rational nutrition. For example, my aunt eats this way all the time, but does not suspect that she is on an alkaline diet. I also follow her example and try to make my menu correctly.
I don't eat fast food, I don't go to the refrigerator before bed. If I eat bread, then only bran or rye. Although I can't refuse eggs.
In general, you can always "sit" on an alkaline diet without setting yourself the goal of losing weight. It allows you to rid the body of the abundance of cholesterol."
Galina: “For me, the alkaline diet turned out to be difficult, since it was not possible to satisfy the feeling of hunger with the help of vegetables and fruits. I became nervous, and I also developed an inexplicable weakness. So I returned to my usual menu."
Conclusion
So, an alkaline diet is based on vegetables and fruits, which are sources of vitamins and minerals, plant proteins and antioxidants. This is one of the obvious advantages of this power system. In addition, the menu is rich in magnesium, potassium and calcium, which helps to reduce the risk of developing many chronic diseases. Polyunsaturated fats, fiber and vitamins are all in sufficient quantities in the diet, so the diet can be called not only nutritious, but also healthy.
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The author of the article: Kuzmina Vera Valerievna | Endocrinologist, nutritionist
Education: Diploma of the Russian State Medical University named after NI Pirogov with a degree in General Medicine (2004). Residency at Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, diploma in Endocrinology (2006).
