Any pH value below is considered acidic, and any pH value over 7 is considered alkaline

On the pH scale, the difference between adjacent numbers represents a tenfold difference in acidity. They believe this helps them determine how alkaline their body truly is.

What they do not realize is that while lemon juice may make the pH of your urine more alkaline, it does not have the same effect on the pH of your blood.

According to research reviews published in 2013 and 2012, the foods you eat have a very limited effect on your blood pH .

Some much older studies estimated that you’d need to eat the equivalent of 18 pounds (8 kg) of oranges — which have an alkalizing potential similar to that of lemons all in one sitting to increase your blood pH by just 0.2 .

Foods have such limited effects on the pH of your blood because your body needs to maintain pH levels from 7.35–7.45 for your cells to function properly.

If your blood pH values fall outside this range, you’re in a state called metabolic acidosis or metabolic alkalosis, which can be dangerous or even fatal if left untreated .

However, this rarely occurs, because your body is very good at preventing your blood pH values from falling outside the normal range. Ash analysis is the reason foods are sometimes said to produce acid or alkaline “ash”.

However, ash analysis is an imprecise estimation, so scientists now prefer to use a different formula that grades foods based on their potential renal acid load (PRAL).

The PRAL of a particular food is the amount of acid that is expected to reach the kidneys after the body metabolizes that food .

Typically, the kidneys keep the blood’s pH constant by getting rid of excess acid or alkali through the urine.

Acidic nutrients such as protein, phosphorus, and sulfur increase the amount of acid the kidneys must filter out. Lemon Juice: Acidic or Alkaline, and Does It Matter?

Lemon juice is said to be a healthy drink with potential disease-fighting properties.

It’s particularly popular in the alternative health community because of its supposed alkalizing effects. For instance, a pH of 5 is 10 times more acidic than a pH of 6 and 100 times more acidic than a pH of 7.

Because they contain a high amount of citric acid, lemons have an acidic ph.

Lemon juice has a pH between 2 and 3, which means it’s 10,000–100,000 times more acidic than water .

The supposed benefits of alkalizing foods

The Alkaline Diet has gained popularity in recent years.

It’s based on the principle that the foods you eat may alter your body’s pH.

To set the record straight, there is no evidence to support the Alkaline Diet. The pH of their ash is used to classify the foods as either acid or alkaline. A pH of 7 is considered neutral. These ultimately reduce the amount of acid that the kidneys will need to filter out and are thus given a negative PRAL score .

Like other fruits, lemon juice produces alkaline byproducts once it has been metabolized. However, lemon juice has an unarguably low pH and should therefore be seen as acidic, not alkaline.

This article examines why some people consider lemon juice to be alkalizing, despite its acidic pH, and what that does to your body.

What is pH?

When discussing acidic versus alkalizing foods, it’s important to understand the concept of pH.

Put simply, pH is a rating of how acidic or alkaline a solution is on a scale from 0–14. According to research, the foods you eat have very little effect on the pH of your blood.

Nevertheless, the Alkaline Diet categorizes foods into three groups:

Acidifying foods: meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, and alcohol

Neutral foods: natural fats, starches, and sugars

Alkalizing foods: fruits, nuts, legumes, and vegetables

Proponents of the diet believe that eating large amounts of acidifying foods can cause your body’s pH to become more acidic, increasing your vulnerability to illness and disease.

For instance, many believe that your body steals alkaline calcium from your bones to buffer the acidifying effects of the foods you eat.

Some also believe that cancer grows only in acidic environments and that you can prevent or even cure it if you eat an alkaline diet.

Therefore, followers of this diet attempt to improve their health and reduce their risk of disease by limiting acidifying foods and favoring alkalizing ones instead.

Why lemon juice is thought of as alkalizing despite its acidic pH

Whether a food has an acidic or alkaline effect on the body has little to do with that food’s pH before it is digested.

Instead, it depends on whether acidic or alkaline byproducts are created once it is digested and processed by your body.

One method of estimating which type of byproduct a food will produce is the “ash analysis” technique.

In this method, foods are burned in a laboratory to simulate digestion. Therefore, it has a negative PRAL score.

This is why some people consider lemon juice to be alkaline even though it has an acidic pH before it is digested.

Lemon juice may alkalize your urine but not your blood

Many proponents of the Alkaline Diet use pH test strips to check the alkalinity of their urine. One of the ways it keeps the levels constant is by using your kidneys to filter out excess acids through your urine .

. Meats and grains, which tend to contain these nutrients, are therefore given a positive PRAL score .

On the other hand, fruits and vegetables are high in alkaline nutrients such as potassium, calcium, and magnesium.