Can alkaline diets combat cancer and acidic foods make body cells more acidic, leading to cancer? No, that's not true: Alkaline diets cannot elevate our body's pH to levels that potentially combat cancer. Additionally, acidity in the body is often associated with tumors or cancer cells due to their higher metabolic rate and increased glycolysis leading to acidic accumulation, which is not directly influenced by dietary factors. There is no scientific evidence supporting the health benefits of alkaline diets and their association with low risk of cancer.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok by the @ceofactorythailand account (archived here) on March 3, 2024, under the title (translated from Thai to English by Lead Stories staff) "Alkaline diets suppress cancer." It opened (as translated):
No disease can survive if our body and cells have alkali properties. Conversely, if we allow our bodies and cells to become too acidic, they will be more susceptible to illness, especially cancer.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Sun Mar 10 19:17:11 2024 UTC)
The woman speaking in the video also said (as translated):
Diet can turn our body into an alkaline state, mostly through the consumption of plants because they contain various vitamins and minerals. By consuming plants, our body will exhibit alkaline properties.
Mineral water leads our body into an alkaline state. Reverse osmosis water is acidic, especially carbonated beverages, which contribute to acidity in our body and cause inflammation inside the body.
Drinking a glass of wine is alkaline, but consuming many glasses of wine will cause the body to become acidic.
Alkaline diets consist of foods with a higher pH level of 7. Most alkaline foods include vegetables, fruits and nuts, while most meats, protein-based foods, alcohol, carbonated soda and caffeine drinks are considered acidic foods (archived here). While mineral water and reverse osmosis water (RO) have a natural pH (around 7) which is not alkaline (archived here), carbonated soda has pH of 3 to 4, which is slightly acidic and does not contribute to our body being more acidic (archived here).
However, diet factors cannot change the pH of our body cells because an intelligent mechanism involving the liver and kidneys works to eliminate excess carbon dioxide from the body. This mechanism helps maintain the blood's normal pH, which naturally remains slightly alkaline at around 7.2 to 7.4 (archived here and here).
A healthy lifestyle article on Nebraska Medicine (archived here) and a scientific study titled "Examining the relationship between diet-induced acidosis and cancer" (archived here) stated that acidic foods do not cause cancer directly. Extracellular acidity is one of the hallmarks that involves increased metabolism rate and glycolysis linked to acid accumulation in cancer patients (archived here).
Therefore, alkaline and acidic dietary factors are not directly involved in changing the pH of the body. Acidic foods do not lead to cancer. There is no scientific evidence supporting alkaline diets related to a lower risk of cancer (archived here).
Lead Stories has previously debunked the claim that cancer is not caused by acidity in the body, and alkalizing your body cannot prevent cancer. You can find more information on this topic here.
