How do you all-meat folks (or  virtually no carb folks) avoid the risk
of kidney malfunction, osteoporosis, age-related muscle wasting,
kidney stones, hypertension, exercise-induced asthma...and calcium
excretion, which can come from a net-acid producing diet? The
following points on acid-base (alkaline) balance, from Dr. Cordain's
recent newsletter, were not answered by the raw meat and no carb folks
in this Digest.

“After digestion and metabolism, foods release acidic or basic
substances into the circulatory system. With a heavy reliance on
fruits and vegetables, our hunter-gatherer ancestors maintained a
net-base-producing diet. In contrast, modern diets tend to be
net-acid-producing with heavy reliance on dairy products and cereal
grains and few servings of fruit and vegetables. The Paleo Diet offers
the net-base balance needed to reduce the risk of kidney malfunction,
osteoporosis, age-related muscle wasting, kidney stones, hypertension,
and exercise-induced asthma...Calcium excretion is also increased when
people eat a net acid yielding diet, which is key to bone health.
After the nutrients in the foods we eat are metabolized, they report
to the kidneys as either acid or base. If the diet yields a net acid
load, the acid must be buffered by the alkaline stores of base in the
body, such as calcium salts, which are released from bone and then
eliminated in the urine, gradually leading to osteopenia (low bone
mineral density) and eventually to osteoporosis. ..Acid producing
foods include hard cheeses, cereal grains, meats, fish, eggs and
salted foods.----- Fruits and vegetables are the only alkaline,
base-producing foods.----- Energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods (such as
separated fats and oils and refined sugars), although they have a
neutral effect in terms of acid-base balance, displace fruits and
vegetables, and hence contribute to the diet's net acid load...”

Ken


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