Acidic and Alkaline Foods

[zacjupiter]

I am confused about the food acidity. Some books list obviously acidic foods as alkaline when metabolised (like lemon) – that is in relation of creating less acidic body.
It is very confusing for IC patients especially as we seem to strongly react to obviously acidic foods and not react to say white rice which is apparently creating acidic body.
Could someone explain acidity in relation to food, body cells and metabolising.

Alan

[ICNDonna]

I have stopped trying to analyze why certain foods are irritants to my IC. I have found the IC diet in the Patient Handbook is a very good resource --- I may not know why things like lemons cause pain for me, but I do know they do so I just avoid them.

It's a mystery, isn't it?

Donna

[FrankieBee]

Alan - I think you have to be biochemist to really understand what is going on here, but from I what I have experienced, the alkalinizing and acidifying effects of food are are not reactions that occur upon immediate consumption of food. They are reactions that occur in the cell metabolism of the amino acid constituents of the food. Oranges are sour (sour is the result of Hydrogen Ions being released) and oranges must release alot of
H+ into the blood which the kidneys filter quickly, so you probably feel a burning in your bladder after about 10 minutes after eating an orange. But as the orange is metabolized in the body (over a longer time period) it has an alkalinizing effect.
Meat is acidifying to the urine a couple hours after eating, but it must be in such a small amount and the acidifying effect must not be overwhelming
b/c meat is not one of the things that ICers must avoid.

This is a very confusing concept and the IC books that promote eating an alkaline diet annoy me, because yeah I would love to eat an alkaline diet, but I can't eat fruit duh! I do the best I can with vegetables, but my GI tract cannot handle too much!

Hope this helps,
FrankieBee

[zacjupiter]

Thanks for that FrankieBee, that was quite usefull.

Alan