An alkaline diet is one that is intended to help balance the blood pH level of the fluids in your body, including your blood and urine.

This diet goes by several different names, including: the alkaline ash diet, alkaline acid diet, acid ash diet, pH diet, and Dr. Sebi’s alkaline diet (Dr. Sebi was an herbalist who created a plant-based version of the diet).

Your pH is mostly determined by the mineral density of the foods you eat. All living organisms and life forms on earth depend on maintaining appropriate pH levels, and it’s often said that disease and disorder cannot take root in a body that has a balanced pH.

The principles of the acid ash hypothesis help make up the tenets of the alkaline diet. According to an article published in Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, “The acid-ash hypothesis posits that protein and grain foods, with a low potassium intake, produce a diet acid load, net acid excretion (NAE), increased urine calcium, and release of calcium from the skeleton, leading to osteoporosis.”

The alkaline diet main goal is to prevent this from happening by carefully taking food pH levels into consideration to limit dietary acid intake.

Your pH can range between 7.3 to 7.4 depending on the time of day, your diet, what you last ate, and when you last went to the bathroom.  If you develop electrolyte imbalances and frequently consume too many acidic foods — aka acid ash foods — your body’s changing pH level can result in increased “acidosis.”

It’s measured on a scale from 0 to 14. The more acidic a solution is, the lower its pH. The more alkaline, the higher the number is.

A pH of around 7 is considered neutral, but since the optimal human body tends to be around 7.4, we consider the healthiest pH to be one that’s slightly alkaline.