Many wellness advocates recommend the alkaline diet because of its potential health benefits. An acid-alkaline diet or alkaline ash diet calls for a diet that alters your body’s pH value within your body. The alkaline ash diet states that it can help you lose weight and prevent illnesses like cancer and arthritis. According to this diet, several foods like wheat, refined sugar, processed foods, and meat produce entirely harmful acids for your body.
On the other hand, an acid-alkaline diet promotes eating vegetables and fruits to create alkaline in your body. The idea of this diet suggests that eating specific foods that they considered alkalic will stabilize your stomach acid levels to improve your blood’s acidic content. However, several studies state that following this diet will give your false ideas on what foods are.
For instance, blueberries are considered alkalic on this diet—but this food is acidic. It has a pH level of 4, which makes it scientifically proven as sour. But this doesn’t mean that blueberries should not be eaten, primarily since this food provides many essential nutrients to keep your body’s immunity at its peak.
Are Blueberries Acidic?
Consuming acidic foods must be done in moderation to prevent your stomach acids from rising to your esophageal tract. As soon as your stomach acids reached the flaps of your esophagus, it will flow a painful, acidic sensation called acid reflux. While this is normal, continuous acidic foods may cause daily turbulence forming gastroesophageal reflux disease or simply GERD.
GERD may cause discomfort to your body, limiting your movement and capacity to do daily tasks. To prevent this, limiting your consumption of acidic foods must be done. An alkaline diet can be tricky since most foods have pH levels above the neutral line (7 pH, which constitutes water).
Our stomach acid is considered the highest acid on the pH scale, while water reaches the neutral level of 7 pH. Baking soda, baking powder, and other leavening agents are considered alkalic since it has pH levels lower than water (about 11-12 pH). While most foods are considered acidic, it doesn’t mean that you cannot eat those foods.
Balancing the pH levels is essential, but it doesn’t require limiting yourself from eating acidic foods. That is why daily suggested diets are done to regulate the body’s consumption from exceeding. Checking the pH value of the food you are consuming will give you an idea of whether it considered acid, base, or neutral—in order to balance your food:
- Foods that have a pH level of 1 is highly acidic.
- Foods that have a pH level of 7 is considered neutral.
- Foods that have a pH level of 14 is highly alkalic.
In blueberries, it has a pH level between 3 and 4, making it fall under acidic fruits. It has the same acid levels as blackberries, cranberries, peaches, pears, raspberries, and apples. Unlike what the acid-alkaline diet mentioned, the blood’s acidity couldn’t be regulated by eating what they considered “alkaline.” With this considered, we can infer the following:
- Fruits like blueberries is not an alkaline fruit, but rather it is an acidic fruit. It has a pH level of between 3 and 4. For foods to be considered acidic, it needs to have a pH level of 4.6 or lower.
- While foods are considered acidic, they are deemed alkalizing, which can effectively reduce acid levels within the body. Sour fruits also have a negative Potential Renal Acid Load (PRAL), a measurement used to estimate potential acid load in the digestive tract for every 100 grams of the food.
- Blueberries have a -0.6 PRAL count, which means they cannot actively disrupt your stomach acids if taken in an average amount.
Are Blueberries Bad for Acid Reflux?
Blueberries are known for their multiple nutrients provided to the body—improving its overall immunity. It is one of the citrus fruits that are healthy to consume. If you are finding certain fruits that low in calories but is boosted with vitamins and other antioxidants, picking blueberries is the best choice. Since blueberry is 85% water, the nutrients can be easily diluted and transferred throughout the body.
Blueberries contain vitamins K and C, manganese, and fiber. These minerals are proven to improve the body’s blood cholesterol levels while keeping our body’s brain function at bay. Consuming blueberries are also known to lower blood pressure and improve the arterial part of the self.
Some can also know acid reflux as “heartburn” since it gives a painful, burning sensation to the chest area—located near the heart. Aside from the chest, it can also provide a deliberate pain to the throat area, which gives this condition a term called “throat burn reflux” as well. These two sensations are different, but the leading cause of this is the stomach acid level inside your body.
Removing berries from your diet is not recommended. Fruits and vegetables constitute the best-balanced diet you can have. To counter the production of stomach acids that can result in acid reflux, it should be mixed with foods that are considered alkalic. Mixing blueberries with nuts like almonds, cashews, and walnuts can reduce symptoms related to acid reflux.
You can also eat blueberries with vegetables like cabbage, cucumber, radish, and beets. All vegetables are considered alkalizing, and they can counterpart the fruit’s acidic properties. Another suggestion is to mix blueberries with yogurt and milk. These two have lower pH levels that can neutralize the stomach’s response to sour fruits.
Listed below are some low-acid foods that you can consider mixing with blueberries:
- yogurt and milk
- most fresh vegetables, including potatoes
- herbs and spices, excluding salt, mustard, and nutmeg
- beans and lentils
- soy, such as miso, soybeans, tofu, and tempeh
- some whole grains, such as millet, quinoa, and amaranth
- herbal teas
- fats like olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds
What Are the Least Acidic Fruits?
Acid reflux gives you a prolonged hot burning sensation on the chest or throat area while leaving your stomach bloating for hours. Suppose this condition continues to worsen within a day or two. In that case, it can give you complications such as Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) and laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR). These two may occur at a single time or simultaneously, depending on the severity of your acid reflux.
GERD occurs in the chest area, and it happens when the stomach acids already reached the esophagus. This condition may last for 24 hours or can sustain for about a week. On the other hand, LPR goes not only to the esophagus area but also the throat area. Stomach acid reaching the larynx can cause complications like soar throat and irritation on your voice box.
To prevent the sudden increase of stomach acid, you may consider eating less acidic foods. In the case of fruits, while citrus fruits are deemed acidic, you can still consume other fruit options that have lesser acid content. Listed below are some of those:
- Melons like cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelons are low-acid fruits. These fruits have lower acid levels which prevent your stomach from experiencing stomach acids.
- Bananas also have lower acid content than other fruits, making them an ideal fruit against acid reflux. Combining it with other citrus fruits will also help repel the acid production of such fruits.
- Like bananas, apples can also reduce your acid content while providing a fantastic source of fiber. Fiber-enriched foods can satiate your hunger while improving your body’s metabolism.
What Fruit is High in Alkaline?
Consuming foods that are alkalic counteract the risk of increasing the acid production of your body. While most fruits are deemed acidic, there are still fruits that are considered alkalic. Listed below are arranged according to the moderately acidic, up to the highly alkaline fruit.
- Moderately acidic fruits include banana, blackberry, blueberry, cranberry, grapes, mango, mangosteen, orange, peach, papaya, pineapple, and strawberry.
- Neutral, acidic fruits include cantaloupe, currants, dates, nectarine, plum, sweet cherry, watermelon, nuts like pecans, and hazelnuts.
- Mildly alkaline fruits like grapefruit and coconuts.
- Moderately alkaline fruits like avocado, beetroot, lemon, lime, and tomato.
- Highly alkaline fruit like cucumber.
Acidic foods fruits are suggested that be consumed only at 20% of the daily diet. These fruits are actually considered alkalic in lemons and limes despite their noticeable sour taste—the leading indicator that a portion of food is acidic. The reason why lemon, lime, and bananas have reduced their acid content is due to the high alkaline level found in the mineral composition of each fruit.
The high alkaline mineral found on its fruits is transferred further—since this fruit doesn’t have enough sugar. Sugar reduces the alkalic element found on several fruits—making it lose its effect. Eating alkalic food that is low in sugar creates an alkaline effect on the body right after consumption. Another fruit that possesses this quality are avocados, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
