Why Do You Recommend Avoiding Alkaline Water?

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Recommend avoiding alkaline water? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times bestselling author, celebrity nutrition expert, and fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions, and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Buffalo Glitter from Instagram asks, why do you recommend avoiding alkaline water? Hey, it's JJ and I remember hearing Dr. Sarah Ballantyne talk about this at Paleo FX. I'm like, oh my gosh, that makes so much sense. So I'm thrilled to have her with us today to answer this question. You may know her as the Paleo Mom. She's also the world's leading leading expert on the autoimmune protocol. She manages her own three autoimmune diseases through diet and lifestyle. And she has this incredible gift for translating complex scientific research into understandable, actionable strategies. And on the side, she's a professional improv comedy performer. She'll be right back. Stay with me.

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The marketing surrounding alkaline water is not at all supported by the scientific literature. So what alkaline water actually does, what alkaline means is that it has a basic ph that's a ph higher than 7. If it's less than 7, it's acidic. If it's 7 on the nose, it's neutral. And stomach acid is a very important part of our ability to digest. So what happens when we consume alkaline water is it neutralizes stomach acid, raising the ph of that acid. So that when the contents of our stomach, which is gastric juices and the foods that we're consuming, mixed together, enters the first segment of the small intestine, that acidity, the ph of that material, it's called Chyme, is actually a really important signal to the pancreas to secrete digestive enzymes and to the gallbladder to secrete bile, which helps us digest fats. When we neutralize stomach acid, we actually don't digest our food very effectively. And that can cause all kinds of problems. But even more importantly than that, most of the really important probiotic bacteria that live in our digestive tract are incredibly sensitive to the ph of their environment. And the ones that are ph sensitive require an acidic environment to thrive. And actually, our gut bacteria make all of these different organic acids, short chain fatty acids like acetate and butyrate, as well as other organic acids like lactic acid. And those actually help to create a more acidic environment in the intestines that helps support the entire diverse community of microbes living in there. So the species that are really important for creating those acids are acid sensitive themselves. So if we neutralize the ph of the intestines, we actually create a more hospitable environment for pathogens like Salmonella and E. Coli and C. Difficile and a less hospitable environment for the most important probiotic bacteria. And studies have actually shown that both in animal studies and in humans, that drinking alkaline water actually reduces the biological diversity of the gut microbiome. And diversity is one of the most important hallmarks of a healthy gut microbiome. So we can actually see this in the scientific literature the harm that is being caused by alkaline water. Now, there are studies showing benefits to alkaline water outside of digestion in the gut microbiome, but those studies don't actually differentiate between the benefits that are attributable to the high mineral content of commercial alkaline waters versus the pH itself. And if you look at natural sources of water in the world, actually most of them are slightly acidic. Acidic. We can actually get that neutral to slightly acidic water by looking at mineral rich spring waters. That is actually a much more sort of historically appropriate, biologically appropriate water source for us to drink. And we can still enjoy the benefits of that high mineral content through spring waters and mineral waters with out the basic alkaline ph that is causing so many problems. So alkaline water, the marketing is very, very clever and it's not supported by the scientific literature. It is far, far better to enjoy a mineral rich water that is slightly acidic to neutral ph. And actually, just as studies show that alkaline water causes sort of a dysfunction in the gut microbiome, acidic water, you might get that by adding like a squeeze of lemon juice to your water, for example, actually benefits the gut microbiome. So it shows exactly what we would expect, knowing that these bacteria are really sensitive to the PH of their environment. So save some money and then skip the alkaline water.

This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetoj.com.

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