Do fermented foods cause acidic pH in the body?

[lealdragon]

I know that eating foods that cause acidity in the body makes the body too acidic and susceptible to cancer. Generally speaking, animal 'foods' (meat, cheese, etc.) cause the body to acidify whereas fresh fruits and veggies have an alkalizing effect on the body.

This isn't necessarily based on how acidic the food actually is. Lemons, for example, are highly acidic, yet alkalize the body. (I don't understand the chemistry of this but I know it's true.)

Does anyone know how fermented foods affect the body's pH?

NOT referring to blood pH here...but overall bodily tissues and fluids...urine and saliva pH.

[Nerium]

The ladies who wrote the Looney Spoons cookbooks gave a great tip on t.v. not too long ago for testing your body pH. Simply take a litmus paper strip and dip it in your saliva! I happen to have the strips for my fermentation projects, so I've tried it and my saliva is alkaline (I'm vegan) and my husband's is more acidic (he eats meat and dairy). It's kind of interesting to see. I'm not an expert on this, but I know with other saliva tests, you want to do it first thing in the morning before you've had anything to eat or drink and before you've brushed your teeth, otherwise you could get a false reading. Maybe while you're regularly eating cultured food, you could try doing this. Let us know the results!

[bravebird]

Well I've been eating fermented things for a while now, at least one serving of something fermented everyday. My urine was checked after a doctor's visit and came back to bea pH 7.5, which to my knowledge isnt a sign of acidity.

[jpt120]

Generally speaking fermenting foods are alkalizing. The best example is kefir, which is fermented milk. Milk is naturally acidic. But fermenting is makes it highly alkaline, primarily because the lactic acid and casein (if done properly) are broken done by the fermentation process. Those two ingredients are mostly responsible for the acidity.

Fermentation, or the act there of, breaks down bonds that make food more digestible. Typically, those bonds are also what are responsible for the acidity in food. By breaking those bonds and making food more digestible, almost always means normally acidic foods will become alkalized.