Googling “Acid and alkaline nutrition” this morning brought up some 903,000 entries. Does this signal a profound shift in nutritional awareness?
I think it does, and that it is driven by soaring healthcare costs. When prevention of disease is as easily managed as it is by shifting away from our society’s emphasis on an acidic diet, many of us find “eating alkaline” a small price to pay for avoiding major illnesses*. There are contraindications, primarily within our drug-company-financed medical research, and while I can’t know that ethical and moral considerations will prevail at such institutions as Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and the University of California, I certainly hope and pray that will be the case. Although I’ve seen much research indicating that food choices such as I’m practicing correlate with absence of disease, science moves by the preponderance of research and the new paradigm will likely take many years. However, nutritional awareness is a more basic part of human experience than scientific research.
Having said this, I must confess: at the FEAST supper last night, I ate a smallish chunk of a delicious French baguette probably spread with butter and garlic, dipping it in my vegetable soup. Although it was my first bread in 21 days it was not a big deal, although I’m a purist at heart! Made up for it by politely declining the dessert: apple crisp topped with enough whipped cream to mousse a goose. The supper benefited a program that gives credit for high school students to learn and apply farming techniques. It was a great joy to listen to the students’ stories and see a slide show of their farm experiences, from diverting water to preparing a new organic fertilizer. When my mother graduated from this same high school, it was called “Orcas Island Agricultural School,” so it is wonderful to see a program that applies new technology to the meritorious old profession of farming.
* To understand what is meant by "eating alkaline," go to Day Two of Alkaline Year.
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