… Let me count the ways…

Why is it that cheeseburger is bad for you?

I saw an interesting video the other day on youtube about the many ways milk causes you to have osteoporosis (1). While it was a really good video, and osteoporosis is one of the ways cheeseburger is bad for you, it doesn’t mention the second reason that even less people know, and that is, that cheese is very strongly acid producing.

Milk itself is relatively harmless from this (acid/alkaline) point of view, but cheese, after the alkalanizing/neutral whey is removed (which is the liquid part of the milk with some protein), and processed (every cheese is processed, because cheese does not occur in nature without human interference!) the sharper (i.e. tastier) the cheese, the more acid forming it becomes.Parmesan cheese is the most acid-forming of the cheeses tested in the study I read.

I found a very interesting fact in another study: not all proteins are created equal… when you look at their acid forming tendencies. Most animal proteins are strongly acid forming, plant proteins are offset by the alkaline forming content of the plant. And a third type of protein: whey protein, though it is animal protein (the part of the milk that isn’t used for cheese, sour cream or heavy cream…) but it seems to be non-acid forming.

If the different studies on protein’s acid forming nature come up with different results, the above 3 categories are at the root of that.

If you are a body builder, or an athlete, you need a lot of protein. If you doubled up on the type of protein your typical American lives on, you would have little standing power, little energy, little patience, you would have arthritic complaints, pain, etc. So athletes drink a lot of protein drinks, and the smart athletes drink protein drinks with whey protein… which is at the root of their endurance.

Being overly acidic makes you tired, makes you lose bone mass, and sets you up to all kinds of diseases, including faster aging, etc.

Watch out for another article on the influence of food combining on energy, acidity and bone loss… Coming soon.