I didn't recommend broccoli sprouts because of there alkalinity, i recommend them because sprouts are the most mineral packed foods you can eat (often 30-100 times the content of standard greens).
I'm with you here on this. Alkalinity is an interesting topic, especially for those with poor renal function. I just get fed up with arguments over nutrition. For almost everyone, the advice "Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much," would suffice to give them much better health (Michael Pollan). For example, the obese? Restrict calories. How? Cut back on animal fats and sugars = eat plants. CVD? Cut back on saturated and trans fats and sugars, boost MUFA's and PUFA's = eat plants. Worried about maintaining nitrogen and calcium balance? Eat plants. We are omnivores, and do gain quite a bit from eating animal products. The American diet, however, has not only a great surfeit of calories, but specifically ones of animal protein, animal fat, and added sugar origin.
If what you say about acidity is true and it has no merit then why is acidosis one of the biggest problems in america?? When your body is overly acid it will leech calcium and other nutrients too bring itself back to alkalinity, its alot easier then you think to make your body overly acid. Especially when the typical american eats mostly acidic food...
Jesus...I said pH has no bearing on this, not that body alkalinity isn't a valid argument. If you had been following, I said:
The pH of a food is entirely irrelevant to this discussion
and it is. You can't just look at a raw food's pH and say whether it has an acidic or alkaline nature after digestion. You're not just dumping the food into your blood circulation. It has to do with the types of groups the food contains, such as phosphates, sulfates and carbonates. The food is acidified in the stomach, and then pancreatic secretions (which contain bicarbonate) are used to bring the chyme back to a tolerable pH.