Acidic Diet for Colitis

Colitis is an uncomfortable digestive disease that affects the large intestine of the body, resulting in symptoms such as bloating, diarrhea or excessive gas. If you have been diagnosed with colitis, adopting a diet to curb the levels of acidity in your body might provide some relief from your condition. A diet limiting acidic foods can help to sooth the digestive tract, potentially lessening the frequency and severity of your symptoms.

Colitis

• Colitis can be brought on by any number of conditions, such as chronic infection, impaired blood flow to the digestive tract, radiation applied to the bowels or excessive acidity in the body. The normal treatment method for dealing with colitis is to focus on the underlying cause while using medication to stave off the symptoms of colitis in the meantime.

Acidic Diet Theory

• New York alternative health physician Dr. Anthony Salzarulo suggests the use of an acidic diet to curb a case of colitis. Calling the diet "acidic" is somewhat of a misnomer, as the goal is to actually remove acidity from the body by focusing food intake on foods that are considered alkaline. Because the body's natural pH level is alkaline, this will help to improve health by restoring balance to the body's systems.

Acidic Diet Rules

• According to Dr. Salzarulo, the most acidic foods are sugars, "junk" (processed) foods, white flour, caffeine, and alcohol. Thus, you should wholly remove these items from your diet while on an acidic diet to treat colitis. The most alkaline foods you can consume are fresh fruits and vegetables, so you should stock up on these items to help restore your body to its natural state. Ideally, over half of your diet should consist of alkaline foods.

Benefits

• According to Dr. Salzarulo, in addition to potentially treating your colitis, increasing the alkalinity of your diet can also treat the following conditions: low energy (chronic fatigue), frequent headaches and migraines and can help to prevent illnesses like the common cold and the flu. Additionally, by ramping up your intake of vegetables and fruits and decreasing your consumption of "junk" foods, you will likely lose weight in the process.

Considerations

• If you are interested in achieving the best bang for your buck, you should know that according to the PRAL scale (a table showing how acidic or alkaline a food is, with a negative number denoting alkalinity and vice versa), raisins and spinach are some of the most alkaline foods that you can consume, with scores of -21 and -14, respectively. The worst offenders for acidity include Parmesan cheese (+34.2), processed cheeses (+28.7), and egg yolks (+23.4).