The acid vs alkaline diet is a less-common term for the alkaline diet. This popular diet is sometimes also referred to as the acid alkaline diet or the acid alkaline balance diet. Despite the variation in terminology, however, these phrases all refer to the same idea: By eating more alkalizing foods and fewer acidifying ones, you can cause your body to become more alkaline. In turn, a somewhat alkaline internal pH will give you the best chance to experience an optimal state of health.
Health is largely a matter of balance. Perfect balance equals perfect health. On the other hand, an imbalance equals illness. For example, too high a caloric intake leads to obesity, while too low a caloric intake leads to wasting. Too much or too little sodium in the diet... Too high or too low a blood level of LDL cholesterol... Too high or too low an internal pH... In each instance, perfect balance is the perfect place to be.
In practice, however, few people in the United States are at risk of consuming too few calories or too little sodium, or of having a dangerously low level of LDL cholesterol. Our contemporary diet pushes us in one direction. Likewise, it is far more common for our bodies to be too acidic than too alkaline. This is because we eat a great deal of meat, dairy foods, processed grains, sugar, and alcohol, but we don't get enough alkalizing fruits and vegetables in our diets.
"Alkaline diet" is undoubtedly the most popular term for this approach to eating. But if we want to be precise, instead of thinking of it as the "acid vs alkaline diet," it would be better to think of it as the "acid alkaline balance diet." Like yin and yang in Traditional Chinese Medicine, acidity and alkalinity are not inherently good or bad. It is up to us to create a state of harmony between these intertwined elements.
