I understand your anger, afterall you are faced with the choice of dismissing me, lashing out at me (which you've chosen), or accepting that you have either A) been scammed or are B) a paid schill helping to scam others.
But the whole "alkaline water" movement is all lies based upone the ability to make lots of money by exploiting the inability of most lay people to identify an incomplete and perverted understanding of basic chemistry and physiology.
That being said, I fully agree that a diet rich in fresh produce with moderate protein and fat that relies on drinking actual water instead of high sugar beverages like soda is generally healthy for a broad portion of the population. But that has almost nothing to do with the bodies pH buffer system.
Here's a great page written by a retired chemisty proffessor that goes into great detail to debunk myths about water. This link on the page specifically deals with the big fat scam that is alkaline water.
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html
Here are some highlights.
On the "research" that demonstrates benefits to alkaline water consumption:
"A few articles on this subject have appeared in the scientific literature. Most are from Japan, and none that I have seen clearly states the composition of the water used— a failure that would probably guarantee rejection by a mainstream medical journal. An extensive list of similarly dubious articles can be found at this huckster site.
S. Okouchi et al: Water desirable for the human body in terms of oxidation-reduction potential (ORF) to pH relationship: J. Food Science 2002: 67(5) 1594-98.
Tashiro, H et al: Clinical evaluation of alkaline ionized water for abdominal complaints: Placebo controlled double blind tests (no reference, but see article here)
K. Hanaoka: Antioxidant effects of reduced water produced by electrolysis of sodium chloride solutions. J. Appl. Electrochem 2001: 31(12) 1307-13.
S. Shirahata et al: Electrolyzed-reduced water scavenges active oxygen species and protects DNA from oxidatioin damage. Biochem Biophys Res Comm 1997: 234 269-74
K. Kikuchi et al: Hydrogen particles and supersaturation in alkaline water from an alkali-ion-water-electrolyzer. J. Electroanalytical Chem 2001: 506(1) 22-27.
None of these papers is very convincing to me, and I doubt that they would have passed muster in the more prestigious journals— which may explain the rather strange publishing venues several of the authors have chosen which are quite outside the medical and physiological fields. One wonders if these journals have reviewers qualified to give papers on this subject adequate scrutiny. It's interesting to note that the last journal in the list also published the now-discredited article on cold fusion in the 1980s.
As far as I know, not a single account of a placebo-controlled clinical study on alkaline/ionized water in humans has ever eppeared in a mainstream, peer-reviewed medical journal."
On claims made by Kurzweil-Grossmanm, notable proponents of alkaline water:
K&G state that;
How can alkaline water with a pH of 9 or 10 be expected to affect the body when the pH of the stomach is 2 or less?
1 It is important to remember that hydrochloric acid is present in the stomach only when food is there.
2 If acid were present all the time, it would eat a hole in your stomach lining.
Our chemist rebuts with;
1The stomach always contains some gastric secretion and is always acidic; eating food stimulates the production of more acid.
2Nonsense; the stomach lining is protected by a mucous film which is continually replenished.
On "using up" the bodies buffer system, a false claim made earlier in this thread:
K&G "The body keeps blood pH stable by utilizing alkaline buffers to neutralize acidic liquids (such as colas, which have a pH as low as 2.5) and other acidic products and byproducts. But as the blood stream receives these acidic substances, the alkaline buffers get used up. Drinking alkaline water helps reduce the burden on the limited alkaline buffers which are needed for the body s natural detoxification processes."
Chemistry says otherwise
"The principal buffer is bicarbonate which is continually generated when glucose, the body's immediate cellular energy source, is metabolized. Acids convert it into carbonic acid which breaks down to CO2 and water and is exhaled by the lungs. This is the main route of elimination of acids from the body, although the kidneys play a secondary role."
Some further information on the physiology of pH maintenence:
"The pH of intracellular bodily fluids such as blood is controlled by an exquisitely-balanced set of reactions involving removal of (acidic) carbon dioxide through the lungs, removal of (alkaline) ammonia through the kidneys, and the buffering action within the blood by bicarbonate, and to a smaller extent by phosphate and certain proteins. In the most important of these mechanisms, carbon dioxide produced by cell metabolism reacts with water to form carbonic acid H2CO3, and this reacts with carbonate in the blood to form bicarbonate
H2CO3 + CO32– → 2 HCO3–
which is carried by the blood to the lungs, where the carbon dioxide is then regenerated and expelled:
H2CO3 → CO2 + H2O
The pH of blood is especially critical and must be maintained within the range of about 7.35 - 7.45. If the blood pH falls outside this range the condition is known as acidosis or alkylosis. Temporary acidosis can be induced by holding your breath, preventing release of CO2. Temporary alkylosis can be induced by hyperventilation, causing excess release of CO2. Chronic acidosis or alkylosis can be very serious and is often associated with kidney failure.
The pH of ordinary drinking water will have little effect on the pH of the stomach contents because gastric fluid has an overwhelmingly low pH (Gastric fluid is essentially a dilute solution of hydrochloric acid.) Hundreds of millions of years of evolution have adapted humans to tolerate drinking waters having a fairly wide range of pH (5-8). Any water that is sufficiently alkaline to significantly affect gastric pH is unlikely to be considered potable by most people. Further, the enzymes that digest proteins in the stomach require a low pH in order to function properly, so if one were to ingest sufficient alkali to reduce gastric pH, it would also interfere with digestion.
If you really want (or need) to reduce gastric acidity, products such as Milk of Magnesia or Alka-Seltzer are cheaper and more effective than "water ionizer" machines. But bear in mind that acidosis and alkylosis are serious conditions that require medical intervention and can be properly diagnosed only by measurements of blood electrolyte and CO2 content."
