Ceralyte, and alkaline supplements and alkaline diets.

[Guest guest]

> Your theory is interesting, and I might take a look at your book,

> but for now I'm curious about the electrolyte balance issue. How do

> you feel about using CeraLyte on the off days? I have a lot of this

> product in the house because my 5-year-old son uses it for daily

> hydration due to a medical condition. It has worked extremely well

> for him.

-----------------

Michele, well,

http://www.ceraproductsinc.com/research/..%5Cproductline%5Cnutrition.html

from here, you see that 1 liter of Ceralyte contains 1.2 g of sodium

and 1.5 g of potassium and 160 carb calories. It also contains 30 mEq

of citrate, meaning that it has alkalinizing potential (the body

metabolizes citrate into bicarbonate). This is because you tend to

lose alkali when you get diarrhea and acidify your body. So this is

basically a solution designed to treat chronic diarrhea. The calories

are all from sucrose and rice syrup.

Although the amounts of sodium, potassium, and calories are about

right, I don't know - I probably wouldn't recommend this.

1) There may be too much alkali - if you also take a lot of calcium

supplements with or without vitamin D, there may be (theoretically, at

least) a slightly increased risk of milk-alkali syndrome (you can get

this simply from taking calcium supplements plus alkali, even if you

take in no milk at all). Especially if you take in no protein on the

OFF day to provide an offsetting acid load.

2) The calories are basically empty sugar calories from sucrose. You

could argue, I suppose that the calories in vegetables are also mostly

carb calories, but at least some of these are from complex carbohydrates.

3) When you do this with tomato-vegetable juice, squash soup, and from

other vegetables, you also get a lot of other important minerals,

including magnesium, and vegetable anti-oxidants that you don't get

from a solution like this.

My bias is that using food is better - even though I use protein

powders, they're still basically just concentrated food.

I guess you might argue that the salt I use is not " naturally there " -

it's just added, and you could argue that adding the potassium from a

chemical is not too much more of a stretch.

You could make a case for using this while traveling for a day or so,

say when you don't have easy access to food. However, most gas

stations and corner grocery stores now carry tomato juice, orange

juice, and yogurt.

Interesting idea. The whole idea of how acid your diet should be is

an important area of study. When they give potassium citrate to

women, for example, bone density improves.

You find studies like these, for example:

--------------------------

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=pubmed & dopt=Abstra\

ct & list_uids=15952405 & query_hl=1 & itool=pubmed_docsum

J Endocrinol Invest. 2005 Mar;28(3):218-22.

Long-term potassium citrate therapy and bone mineral density in

idiopathic calcium stone formers.

by Vescini F, and colleagues:

Several authors have described an association between idiopathic

calcium (Ca) stone disease and bone mass reduction. Hypocitraturia is

a frequent feature of urolithiasis, and alkaline citrate has been

recommended as one of the choice treatments in this disease. Some

evidence exists as to the positive effect of potassium (K) citrate

therapy on bone mass.

The aim of this work was the longitudinal evaluation of bone mineral

density (BMD) changes in a group of Ca oxalate stone formers treated

with K citrate for two years. Enrolled patients were 120; 109 subjects

completed the study (51 males and 58 females). A metabolic study and

distal radius BMD measurements were conducted both at baseline (BAS)

and at the end of the study (END). BMD (0.451 +/- 0.081 vs 0.490 +/-

0.080 g/cm2), T-score (-1.43 +/- 1.02 vs -0.90 +/- 1.04), net

gastrointestinal alkali absorption (40.37 +/- 50.57 vs 61.26 +/- 42.26

mEq/day), urinary citrate (2.53 +/- 1.15 vs 3.10 +/- 1.44 mmol/day)

and K (58.93 +/- 22.28 vs 65.45 +/- 23.97 mmol/day) excretion

significantly increased from BAS to END. Urinary Ca excretion remained

unchanged from BAS to END (5.16 +/- 2.74 vs 5.57 +/- 2.85 mmol/ day).

Our results indicate that long-term treatment with K citrate increases

forearm BMD in idiopathic Ca stone formers. It seems probable that the

alkali load provided by this drug reduces bone resorption by a

buffering of the endogenous acid production. K citrate appears to be a

further therapeutic opportunity for the management of osteoporosis in

Ca stone formers.

-----------------------------------

So you can neutralize the acid from the protein in your diet by taking

in potassium citrate (the citrate is metabolized to make bicarbonate.

On the other hand, as I mentioned, taking in too much alkali plus

calcium supplements can lead to milk-alkali syndrome (you also might

worry about some (although not most) mineral waters, which have

enormous amounts of bicarbonate in them). And alkalosis can also

increase the risk of vascular calcification. So the whole area is

tricky, suggesting that when you go way out from the middle in terms

of changing a diet, there may be unforeseen risks. I would be careful

about the amount of calcium I eat from both supplements and other milk

products if I was taking any sort of alkalinizing supplements.

The acid- and alkaline load of different foods is an interesting area.

There are two books out there on this topic, one by Felicia Drury

Kliment,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0658016954

and one by Vasey,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0892810998

These books are on my " todo " list to read - they probably recommend

eating more alkaline foods. Acid-generating foods include most

proteins, but some proteins have more acid-generating ability than

others. This comes from the sulfur in some amino acids. Also, some

foods contain substances which, when metabolized, generate alkali -

mostly vegetables. Grains and egg yolk, and surprisingly, things like

oatmeal, when metabolized, generate acid.

Normally acid from metabolism is excreted in the urine. I guess you

can change the balance of what you eat to change this and go from an

acid-diet to an alkaline diet overall. Although I have an open mind

on this, I don't have enough information to recommend this - other

than the potassium citrate studies on bone density I don't think this

issue has been well studied using carefully designed trials.

Here's a nice paper talking about acid-ash and alkaline-ash food.

They call it " ash " because they actually burn the food in an oven, and

then see if the ash created is acid or alkaline.

-------------------------------------

J Am Diet Assoc. 1985 Jul;85(7):841-5. Related Articles, Links

Acid/alkaline ash diets: time for assessment and change.

Dwyer J, Foulkes E, M, Ausman L.

The purpose of this article is to review critically the assumptions

made to predict the effects of different diets on the pH of urine by

calculations from food tables and lists of acid or alkaline ash in

foods. Acid/alkaline ash calculations were completed for 7 days' worth

of omnivore, lacto-ovo, and vegan diets. The vegetarian diets were

significantly more alkaline than the omnivore diets, and the vegan

diets were more alkaline than lacto-ovo vegetarian diets. The article

discusses the history of the acid/alkaline ash concept, assumptions

underlying it, mechanisms by which urine is acidified, how the

acid/alkaline ash content of diets is calculated from food tables,

difficulties arising in acid/ash calculations, and their validity in

predicting urine pH. The authors conclude that while diet does

influence the pH of urine, present calculation methods are time

consuming, imprecise, and do not permit quantitative prediction of

urine pH. Better methods for calculating the effects of diet on

acid-base balance are needed.

------------------------------------