Most of What We Eat Is Acidic. So Is Most of Modern Life.

I think understanding balance in the body and the mind is the key to staying healthy. If you get out of balance mentally or physically, you get out of whack.

Most of what we eat is acidic. Most of life is a stress trigger or noise. Neither one fixes itself. You have to be proactive about putting things back in balance.

Quick answer: Meat, cheese, eggs, grains and processed food are acid-forming. Fruits, vegetables, leafy greens and nuts are alkaline-forming. Your body keeps its blood pH steady either way, but eating more from the alkaline list is still good advice, because it's mostly fresh produce. The full list, a chart and answers to common questions are below.

Does the alkaline diet actually work?

Not the way it's usually sold. Your blood stays slightly alkaline no matter what you eat. Your lungs and kidneys do that work for you, as Harvard Health explains. You can't eat your way to a different blood pH, and you don't need special water to do it.

Cleveland Clinic puts it well. The alkaline diet can help keep you healthy, "but not for the reasons you might think."

Here's the useful part. The foods that land on the alkaline list are fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. The foods on the acid side are heavy on meat, cheese, refined grains, sugar and packaged snacks. The chemistry claim doesn't hold up, but the list itself is a pretty good map of what most of us should eat more of and less of.

Acidic and alkaline foods list

Researchers measure this with a score called potential renal acid load, or PRAL. It estimates how much acid a food leaves for your kidneys to handle after you digest it. A positive number means acid-forming. A negative number means alkaline-forming. The scores below come from the 1995 study by Thomas Remer and Friedrich Manz that most food charts are built on.

What foods are acidic?

Not everything on the acidic side is bad for you. Fish, beans and eggs are on it. But most of the packaged, sugary and fried food we eat is there too.

What are alkaline and non-acidic foods?

Neutral foods

Acidic fruits and vegetables

This is where people get confused. Lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, pineapple and tomatoes all taste acidic, and they are acidic on the plate. But after you digest them, they leave minerals like potassium behind, so they count as alkaline-forming. The chart is about what food does after you eat it, not how it tastes.

The one time the taste matters is reflux. Citrus and tomatoes can bother a sensitive stomach even though they're on the alkaline list.

So I don't think about pH. I think about balance.

How much of the American diet is processed?

More than half. The CDC found that adults get 53% of their calories from ultra-processed foods. For kids and teens it's almost 62%. The top sources are sandwiches and burgers, sweet bakery products, savory snacks and sweetened drinks.

On the other side of the plate, only about 12% of adults eat enough fruit and 10% eat enough vegetables, according to the CDC. That's roughly one in ten people.

We're comfortable, and processed foods are comfortable. They're cheap, fast, always nearby and built to taste good. Nobody has to plan to eat a bag of chips. You do have to plan to eat a salad.

That's why I say you have to be proactive. The default pulls you one direction. Balance takes effort in the other.

Modern life is processed too

The same thing happens to the mind. Most of life is a stress trigger or noise. News, notifications, email, meetings, the next thing and the next thing after that. Like processed food, it's always available, and it's easy to take in all day without noticing.

Michael Easter wrote a whole book about this called The Comfort Crisis. He describes how most of us live today:

That line stuck with me. Overfed and underchallenged is a pretty good description of a diet built on processed food, and of a life built around a phone. Easter's point is that people do better with some discomfort in their lives, like a hard hike, time outside or a long stretch away from the screen.

I've written before about how the online world and the real world feel like they're moving in opposite directions. Reading the news gives me anxiety. Getting out among people gives me peace. More on that in my reflections on 2025.

What I do to stay in balance

None of this is complicated. The hard part is doing it on purpose, because the comfortable option is always closer.

• Fresh fruits and vegetables. I try to be proactive about them instead of waiting until I feel bad.
• Whole foods. Food that looks like where it came from, over food that comes in a wrapper.
• Quiet time. Some part of the day with no input. No news, no phone, no noise.
• Getting away. Time outside and away from the routine resets my head faster than anything else I've found.
• Taking real vacations. Ones where I actually step away from work.

Why this matters for anyone building something

When you run a company, it's easy to treat your health as something you'll get to later. I think that's backwards. Your energy, your patience and your judgment all come from the same place. When you're out of balance, you make worse calls and you're harder to work with.

I've written about the mental side of this before, in why I unplug to be present. My first leadership job was also managing a gym at 19, so health has been part of my life for a long time.

You don't need a perfect diet or a perfect schedule. You need to notice when you're tipping too far one way, and do something about it.

What drinks are acidic?

Soda and colas, coffee, alcohol, sports drinks and most fruit juices are acidic in the glass. Soda is the one most charts put at the far acid end. Plain water, milk and herbal tea are close to neutral, and mineral water rich in bicarbonate leans alkaline-forming. If you want one easy change, swap one soda a day for water.

Low-acid foods for acid reflux

Reflux is a different question from the alkaline diet. It's about what irritates your esophagus, not your blood pH. Johns Hopkins Medicine lists foods that tend to help, like vegetables, oatmeal, ginger, lean meats, non-citrus fruits such as melons, bananas and apples, and healthy fats in moderation. Common triggers include citrus, tomatoes, chocolate, mint, fried food, coffee and alcohol.

If you have heartburn more than twice a week, talk to your doctor. That's not something to fix with a food list.

Questions people ask about acidic foods

Is bread acidic? Yes. Bread and most grain products are acid-forming. White bread scores about +3.7 on the PRAL scale, and whole grains like brown rice score higher, around +12.5. That doesn't make whole grains bad. They bring fiber the white versions don't.

Are tomatoes acidic? Tomatoes are acidic to taste, with a pH around 4 to 4.6. But after digestion they're alkaline-forming, about −3.1 on the PRAL scale. They can still trigger reflux for some people.

Are eggs acidic? Eggs are acid-forming, about +8.2 for a whole egg, with most of that coming from the yolk.

Is coffee acidic? Coffee is acidic in the cup, with a pH around 5. On the PRAL scale it's slightly alkaline-forming, about −1.4. If coffee bothers your stomach, the acid in the cup is the part that matters.

What is the most alkaline food? Dried fruit, like raisins (about −21), and leafy greens, like spinach (about −14), are among the most alkaline-forming foods measured.

Does an alkaline diet change your blood pH? No. Your lungs and kidneys keep your blood in a narrow range around 7.4 no matter what you eat. Food can change the pH of your urine, not your blood.

The short version

Your body keeps its own pH. You don't need to chase it. But the alkaline list is a decent reminder to eat more fresh fruits, vegetables and whole foods. The same goes for your mind. Cut some of the noise, get some quiet and get away when you can.

We're comfortable, and comfort is the default. Balance is the part you have to choose.

If this idea of balance hits home, I've written more about it in chasing approval and your identity was never what you do.

This is what works for me, not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before changing your diet.