The Alkaline Diet for Cancer

“Breast cancer patients need to be on an alkaline diet”. 

I know you’ve heard it.

Unfortunately, an “alkaline diet” just doesn’t make any physiologic sense. The body just doesn’t work in a way that the proponents of this diet says it does.  There are two assertions about the rationale for the diet that just are not true.

The first misconception is that cancer cells thrive in an acidic environment.  Cancer cells exist in an acidic environment, but they don’t thrive there.  They don’t like it any more than a regular cell would.  The reason they exist in an acidic environment is that they create that environment.  This is because they grow so fast and uncontrollably.  Which means that they outgrow their blood and nutrient supply quickly.  Which also means that they have no way to clear the waste they produce through their metabolism (which is acidic).  So, cancer cells create this acidic environment just through creating waste which they cannot clear.  They sure don’t thrive in the acidic environment though.

And since they have outgrown their blood supply, they can no longer get the nutrients and oxygen needed for survival.  In fact, the cancer cells that are at the center of the tumor (where the tumor started) are necrotic (that’s med speak for dead).  That is because there are no blood vessels getting to the center of the tumor.  The cells grew too fast and on top of each other so they crowded out the blood vessels.  The only cancer cells in a tumor mass that are still alive are those on the outer edge of the tumor mass where they can still get a blood supply.

The second misconception supporting the alkaline diet is that what you eat can influence the acidic environment around a cancer cell.  This would mean that what you eat would change your body’s pH (which is a measure of the balance of acid and alkaline substances in your blood).  Proponents of the alkaline diet assert that by eating so called “alkaline” foods you could create an alkaline environment around the cancer cells that they would not like.  

In fact, the foods you eat have absolutely no influence on your body’s acidity or alkalinity.  The pH of your blood is 7.4. This is where all the chemical reactions and normal metabolic processes in your body are most effective.  If the pH strays from that number very much at all, you are very sick.  For this reason, your body has many, many mechanisms to keep your blood pH at 7.4.  

Imagine this…if everything you consumed had an influence on your body’s pH, you would be at risk of being in the Intensive Care Unit with each meal.  Instead your body takes care of this important balance for you. The foods you eat have no influence over your body’s pH.

The foods you eat after breast cancer are important, but not because they have any effect on your blood pH or the acidic environment surrounding cancer cells.

Stay tuned for much more information on what an appropriate diet for a breast cancer survivor would be.