Diseases

Diet-Induced Metabolic Acidosis

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Diet-Induced Metabolic Acidosis

Even a little does hurt.

Animal Acid

Proper acid-base balance (pH) is extremely important to health. Even small variations in the acidity of the blood can be lethal (deadly), which is why the body tightly controls the acid-base balance of the body. Whole plant foods – fruits, vegetables, and nuts – provide the body with healthful alkalization for proper acid-base balance. Animal products, on the other hand put the body in a state of metabolic acidosis, meaning that the body is too acidic. (Remember that animal products are high in protein, which is made up of amino acids.)

To prevent dangerous changes in acid-base balance, the human body employs multiple compensating mechanisms:

Once again, the body is implementing triage – sacrificing long-term health for immediate emergencies. Muscle breakdown, bone breakdown, and increased filtration load on the kidneys are all damaging in the long term, but the body employs these means to save your life now. But these are not things you want to continue on a long-term basis. Metabolic acidosis – the acidic state of the body from eating animal flesh, milk, and eggs – causes long-term damage to health.

Metabolic Acidosis and Insulin Resistance

In addition to the long-term health effects mentioned above, metabolic acidosis is also a significant – and perhaps underlying – cause of insulin “resistance”:

"Even a very mild degree of metabolic acidosis induces skeletal muscle resistance to the insulin action."

Adeva MM, et al. Diet-Induced Metabolic Acidosis. Clinical Nutrition, 30(4): 416-421, Aug. 2011.

Even mild metabolic acidosis causes insulin resistance. This is no small ordeal, as insulin resistance is the underlying condition of metabolic syndrome, reproductive disorders, diabetes, and many more disease conditions. In other words, when we eat meat and/or animal products, we maintain a state of metabolic acidosis and, as a result, insulin “resistance,” which over time leads to diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease:

"High dietary acid load is more likely to result in diabetes and systemic hypertension and may increase the cardiovascular risk."

Adeva MM, et al. Diet-Induced Metabolic Acidosis. Clinical Nutrition, 30(4): 416-421, Aug. 2011.

Eating meat and animal products disrupts the body’s natural pH balance and puts the body in a state of metabolic acidosis. Although the body mitigates those effects the best way possible, the means used to counteract even mild metabolic acidosis can have serious long-term consequences that compound over time, building up serious health problems such as diabetes, osteoporosis, kidney stones, kidney disease, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

Research

Adeva MM, et al. Diet-Induced Metabolic Acidosis. Clinical Nutrition, 30(4): 416-421, Aug. 2011.

Delimaris I. Adverse Effects Associated with Protein Intake Above the Recommended Dietary Allowance for Adults. International Scholarly Research Network: Nutrition, 2013: 126929, Jul. 2013.

Frassetto LA, et al. Commentary to accompany the paper entitled ‘Nutritional disturbance in acid–base balance and osteoporosis: a hypothesis that disregards the essential homeostatic role of the kidney’, by Jean-Philippe Bonjour. British Journal of Nutrition, 110(11): 1935-1937, 17 Jun. 2013.

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