Setting: Local cafe
Scenario: Run into friends of friends who join us in the sunshine for a cuppa & we’re discussing the finer details of chai (western version V the real streets of Delhi stuff), tumeric lattes etc etc. as you do. I comment on how unpleasantly strong I found the cow’s milk in those downtown Delhi chais we had when we were there.
50 something man: Oh I LOVE that – I just LOVE cow’s milk. I drink loads of the stuff. I used to drink 2L a day but now it’s more like 1L a day.
Me: Seriously?
50 something man: Absolutely. Then there’s the cheese as well – I would eat at least 1kg of that a week. But it’s good for my bones, right? I have that thing, you know, before osteoporosis…brittle bones.
Well blow me over with a feather [not]…let me just explain PRAL to you. Normally (and friends will vouch for me on this one) I simply will not be drawn into these inpromptu public education sessions but I was so stunned by how dangerous his ignorance was and how much he has been mislead by public health messages…’yes such a shock a relatively young fit active man like yourself, who doesn’t smoke etc to get this diagnosis so early, make sure you increase your dairy’, …that words such as ‘acidity’, ‘net calcium loss’, and ‘impossibly enormous requirement for vegetables to equal out’…were starting to fall out of my mouth.
Let’s just do some basic maths shall we: the PRAL of just his daily dairy intake alone is somewhere around 26 mEq/d. To alklaise this part of his diet alone, would necessitate: approx. 800g of mixed vegetables…and we have not yet accounted for his high meat and grain intake to boot – so effectively his total fruit and vegetable requirement will be around 2kg/day!!!
50 something man: Oh I eat lots of vegetables…you know even twice a day!
I did say once that I might design a human feed bag to facilitate the vast quantities of vegetables we humans are going to need to consume if we insist on these kind of acidic excesses and want to avoid chronic metabolic acidosis…that day might be getting real close, so keep your eyes peeled to Shark Tank! LOL 😉
Need to update or deepen your knowledge around the acid base balance – its drivers and its ramifications for health & disease? In her capstone installment of her recent Acid Base Series, Advanced Acid Base Assessment, Rachel brings the theory to life with real cases, real results and breaks down your perceived barriers to assessment and management of acid base imbalance. Whatever you thought you knew about acid base assessment, this highly engaging seminar will rewrite the rule book and advance your knowledge particularly in identifying both causes and consequences of acidosis through basic pathology results.