diet / pH question

by dlbarnha Comment Closed
Hello all, Doug (a newbie to the site) here. I have beeen fighting a flare up for the last two weeks, pain has moved all around in my right foot and ankle and is FINALLY subsiding... I visited the doctor last Tuesday and he was ready to put me on an Rx treatment. I told him about what I had been reading up online (mostly from GoutPal) and wanted to try some dietary changes first - much to my suprise,he agreed! As the site suggests, a gout diet is as much about balance as what we eat. I also see alot of talk about pH balance. I have been drinking distilled water for 30+ years. After reading about the balance of foods and pH, I decided to check the pH of the distilled water and found it to be 6.4! What is the chance of all of the acidic foods + beer, topped off with acidic...
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Potential Renal Acid Load

by KeithTaylor Comment Closed
Yesterday, I was asked for information about Potential Renal Acid Load. This is usually abbreviated to PRAL. Though PRAL is a precise calculation based on certain nutrient values in foods, it is not an exact measure. It is a shortcut measure to assess the affect of foods on the pH of the body. Experiments have shown that it is a reliable approximation of the acidifying or alkalizing effect of foods. PRAL=0.49 Protein + 0.037 Phosphorous - 0.021 Potassium - 0.026 Magnesium - 0.013 Calcium. This gives a positive value for acid forming foods and a negative value for alkaline forming foods. To ensure adequate nutrition it is important to chose a combination of foods with positive and negative PRAL values. Many nutritionists and health-workers believe that a diet that has an overall negative PRAL total is healthiest. For gout, an alkalizing diet reduces the chances of kidney stones forming, and helps to dissolve them if they form. It is important to also drink...
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