FREE SHIPPING for orders over $75

The 8% Newsletter

Alright, let’s get real—how many of you woke up this morning, stumbled into the kitchen, and hit the coffee machine before your eyes were even fully open? We’ve all been there. But have you ever wondered why coffee can sometimes leave your stomach feeling off? Or why people say coffee is acidic, like in what world? Well it’s all thanks to that sneaky thing we call pH.

Now, we know what you’re thinking—pH? Didn’t we leave that back in middle school chemistry along with balancing chemical equations and pretending to care about lab safety? Yeah, not quite. Whether it’s that morning coffee, the salad you pretend to enjoy at lunch, or even the water you chug post-workout, pH is quietly calling the shots in your body. And when it’s off balance? Let’s just say things can go from zero to chaos faster than your phone battery drains on a bad day.

But fear not! We’re here to break down why pH isn’t just for chemistry nerds, why you should know about it, and what to do, because nothing is worse than a mystery novel ending with, well mystery. So, buckle up, this is one science lesson you won’t want to snooze through!

What is pH?

Alright, folks, let’s talk pH. Now, before you roll your eyes and click away—stay with us. This is more relevant to your life than you might think.

pH stands for "potential of hydrogen," but let’s be real, no one is going to quiz you on that at dinner. Essentially, it measures the concentration of hydrogen cations that something absorbs or releases when dissolved in pure water. In other words, it measures how acidic or basic (alkaline) something is. The scale goes from 0 to 14, with water chilling right in the middle at a neutral 7, acid near 0 (no not that acid), and drain cleaner around 14. But what really matters is the way pH controls everything from your morning coffee's taste to, you know, keeping you alive. Let’s discuss.

Hydrogen ions (H+) are a single proton and are pretty darn reactive. They react with the chemical structure of nearly anything that you put in it, breaking bonds and ultimately creating completely different substances.

 

Why Perfect Body pH Means Life or Death

By now you may be asking yourself what the heck we’re doing talking about pH. A nutrition newsletter talking about chemistry experiments? Well, it goes beyond the classroom, and its close maintenance by your body is the reason you're alive. As we all know, the body likes balance (aka homeostasis), and you can bet it keeps a very close watch over your body pH and keeps it between 7.35-7.45. Now what would happen if this balance were ever so slightly off? Well that will be the beginning of the end for you. Let’s take a look at what this apocalypse looks like: 

  • Acidosis: This is when your pH is below 7.35. Here your body begins to deteriorate quickly, like taking a golden idol from a temple. At a pH of 7.2 there is a 50% mortality rate, and there is no record of anybody surviving below 7.0. So yeah, we should take our pH more seriously. Don’t believe us? Check out this study.

  • Alkalosis: Starting at anything over 7.55 you are toast. So best stay right in the safe zone! Here’s the study.

Luckily, we do have some words of wisdom to keep you calm: your body has incredible mechanisms that keep everything in check, phew! The prevention measures include the bicarbonate buffer, the phosphate buffer and the protein buffer system. We don’t want to bore you too much so we’ll spare you the ‘whys’ of these buffers, but if we get a few of you letting us know you’re interested, you can expect a buff newsletter shortly (please don’t make us write it)!

Let’s talk about enzymes. They are quite literally little chemists driving every reaction you need to, you know, live. Fun fact, everything you do, from contracting a muscle to digesting is a chemical reaction, have fun with that existential crisis! By now you’ve probably glanced at the image above and may be wondering what gives. Let’s break it down. The graph depicts the optimal pH for enzyme X (a random enzyme) to have the fastest rate of reaction (this is good for any/everything you do functionally). Notice that if we have a little more or less pH, the rate of reaction decreases exponentially. The specific pH that is optimal for an enzyme varies for each enzyme. 

And now is the moment we tell you we’ve hidden the truth from you. We did say body pH is 7.35-7.45… but that is for serum pH or blood pH. Obviously there is hugevariability throughout the body. Just think about the stomach where it can reach an acidity of 1, enough to dissolve iron (don’t get any ideas)!

Another interesting thing you’ve probably never thought about is your bones. Not what they are or where, but the fact that they are not some static structure. Your bones are constantly getting dissolved by osteoclasts and rebuilt by osteoblasts every second of every day. Calcium is a very important component to helping to keep us in the sweet spot pH. So when our bodies become more acidic a phenomenon called bone resorption occurs, which is when our bodies destroy bone to liberate the calcium within and help us maintain pH. This means that sustained low pH can, over time, cause your bones to practically dissolve as in the good old cartoons.

We Become Acidic Over Time

Everybody likes to think of their grandma as a sweet person. Don’t get us wrong, she is probably amazing, but science tells us that we get acidic as time goes on, not sweeter. Here’s a study proving so. I know, shocker! It’s because the buffers that we mentioned earlier start to get defective, and they don't work as well as they used to. So over time, specifically after the age of 40 generally there is a progressive tendency to become more acidic. But this acidity is a key component in accelerating aging and making our bodies not work as well as they could. Of course, there is more than meets the eye here. Rest assured, science is still working on giving us specific answers, and for now there are 3 things that can help nudge us in the direction: 

  • Environmental Contamination: For all you city guys and gals, cities are the epicenter for environmental contamination, specifically air contamination. There is still much to learn about this but one thing is clear, contaminated air has a profound effect on us humans and does increase our overall acidity. 

  • Diet: Now don't go running to the alkaline diet just yet. Refined sugars and saturated fats are directly implicated in making our bodies more and more acidic- start there, because the alkaline diet has no registered results and is simply there to be one of those trendy things people cling to. We’ll go one step further and say it actually creates deficiencies, but enough on that, we'll get a bit more into it in a second. The bottom line is to have refined sugar and saturated fats in moderation.

  • Chemicals/Additives/Etc: Actually a sneak peek at next week’s edition, but we’re happy to give you a little taste of what's to come. When a chemical is approved as safe by the FDA or any other competent regulatory agency, they approve that specific chemical safe at a specific amount. What is not known yet is the effect that hundreds of chemicals can have on our bodies, like the ones you have on your table, chair, the air you breathe that is contaminated by the paint on your walls, you get the idea. The effects that all of these (and much much more) have on the body is unknown. That’s all we’ll say!

Pitfalls of the Alkaline Diet

The logic behind this diet checks out right? If my body is getting more acidic than if I eat alkaline things it will fix that issue. Well although logical, it doesn’t turn out to be a useful tool in fighting acidity. For one, an alkaline diet restricts food to basically some veggies and fruits. This is very, very limited, meaning that it makes you exponentially more likely to suffer deficiencies in the protein, iron and calcium just to name a few. Not only that, but if you did decide to follow this diet long-term, retrospective studies indicate that it does not yield the expected outcome. So in summation, acidity is not dependent on the diet and if it is to a very small degree. With that out of the way, let’s divert our attention elsewhere.


How Can You Actually Get Results?

Don't eat too much protein. To all of you protein enthusiast-gym bros, this message is for you. Protein is in almost everything, so between the steaks, chicken dinners and protein powders, yeah it may be too much. Just think, protein is in wheat, rice, meat, fish, legumes, potatoes, etc. The point being that if you are consuming an excessive amount of protein during a long period of time, this will cause an increase in those hydrogen protons (H+) in our body because eliminating protein that you didn’t use requires us to release them. 

Eat enough of everything and in moderation: Again, we repeat the same mantra. We are what we eat, and we need all the nutrients to be healthy! Although diet may not have a significant effect on your acidity, all the pH buffers in your body rely on interconnected chemical pathways that need each and every mineral, vitamin and macronutrient. So a balanced diet is the best way to go!

Avoid toxic habits: Things like alcohol, smoking and excessive amounts of caffeine all contribute to a more acidic organism. Basically don’t do anything your mom wouldn’t approve of.

Get enough magnesium, calcium, phosphorus: These minerals are super important as they are directly involved in our bodies pH buffers that keep us in that safe zone. Let’s shoot through the how’s:

  • Calcium: As we know it forms part of the calcium bicarbonate buffer, and when our bodies become more acidic they will retrieve it from our bones! This, believe it or not, is one of the leading contributors to osteoporosis. 

  • Phosphorus: This electrolyte plays a key role in maintaining our body pH by regulating how many H+ we keep. 

  • Magnesium: SuperMag to the rescue! Whilst you need calcium for the bicarbonate buffer, it is greatly limited by the fact that calcium precipitates very quickly. Magnesium addresses this issue by increasing the amount of calcium that can be dissolved in our bodies. This directly increases our bodies ability to respond to deviations in pH. 

Editor's Note: It is interesting and worth noting that these minerals are the most implicated in our bone structure. A leading theory as to the cause of osteoporosis is not so much a lack of estrogen as we discussed, but also an increased acidity which increases the demand for calcium, phosphorus and magnesium to counteract this.

 

Final thoughts

So, here we are—at the end of our little pH journey. Now you know who that little guy is behind the curtain! At the end of the day, life is all about balance (get it?). On another note, feel free to respond to this email with any nutrition endeavor you’d like us to cover, we’ll gladly do our homework on it and show the world. 

See you at next week’s ‘chemical paradox’ edition? Have a wonderful week!