Food pH and Its Impacts on The Body
pH is a scale utilized to express the acidity and alkalinity of any homogenous mixture. This figure is made from the German symbol p for power and H, the symbol for hydrogen. The pH scale, which runs from 0 to 14, demonstrates the concentration of Hydrogen particles in a solution (Himmel et al., 2010). 7 is the neutral value on the pH scale; lower than seven values (0-6) are acidic, indicating the Hydrogen ions are highly concentrated, while higher than seven values (8-14) are alkaline, indicating that the Hydrogen ions in the solution are few.
One of the foods that I like is spaghetti, which has a pH of 5.97 to 6.40. Secondly, my chosen drink is Coke, which has a pH of 2.6 to 2.7 (Walravens et al., 2011). Coke is more acidic than spaghetti, meaning that it has more Hydrogen ions than spaghetti.
The high acidity of coke is caused by phosphoric acid and dissolved carbon dioxide. Studies have shown that consuming large quantities regularly creates issues like dangerously lowering the blood’s potassium levels, a condition known as hypokalemia (Walravens et al., 2011), teeth decay, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. With regards to spaghetti, any type of it, from pasta to noodles, is also acidic. The most common impact on the body is causing acid reflux—some of the symptoms of acid reflux range from belching, nausea, epigastric discomfort, and heartburn.
References
Himmel, D., Goll, S. K., Leito, I., & Krossing, I. (2010). A unified pH scale for all phases. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 49(8), 6885-6888.
Walravens, J., Brouwers, J., Spriet, I., Tack, J., Annaert, P., & Augustijns, P. (2011). Effect of pH and comedication on gastrointestinal absorption of posaconazole. Clinical pharmacokinetics, 50(11), 725-734.
