What is the History of Alkaline Diets?
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors consumed a diet very different from what’s typical today. The diet was based on minimally processed plant and animal foods. But with the advent of agriculture, the standard Western diet changed greatly. Grains were introduced into the diet after the appearance of stone tools. Refined grains were available after the invention of automated rolling and sifting devices. Milk, cheese and other milk products were introduced with the domestication of livestock. Salt consumption rose when technology to mine, process, and transport it became available. Meat consumption increased with animal husbandry. It further increased with the advent of technology that enabled grains to be efficiently fed to cattle, which allowed cattle to be fattened quickly. Sugar consumption has risen since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Almost all foods that we eat, after being digested, absorbed, and metabolized, release either an acid or an alkaline base (bicarbonate) into bl
