theoretically, bathing your muscles in an alkaline environment should enable faster acid removal

from muscle cells, delaying the muscle fatigue this due to the build-up of lactic acid in the muscle.

Given these buffering effects, no wonder sodium bicarbonate, in other words baking soda, has been found to have such significant ergodgenic or performance-enhancing effects on muscular endurance.

The problem with loading with baking soda is that it frequently causes severe gastrointestinal

distress, and at standard doses you can easily take in twice the recommended upper daily

limit of sodium in just that one load.

Therefore, what about a low-acid diet, which focuses on high intakes of fruits and vegetables?

That may be an attractive alternative to bicarbonate loading for improving anaerobic

exercise performance, meaning short-burst activity like sprinting.

Today's diets are acid-forming, meaning higher in animal foods with fewer vegetables and fruits,

whereas in general the alkaline-promoting diet is centered around whole-plant foods with fewer vegetables and fruits, whereas in general the alkaline-promoting

diet is centered around whole-plant foods with few processed foods and less meat, dairy,

and eggs, which are accepted as acid-forming foods.

Although alkalizing chemicals, such as sodium-bicarbonate, have been shown to consistently

improve performance, alkalizing diets do not demonstrate the same effect.

A review of 10 studies that investigated the effect of high-versus

low dietary acid loads on athletic performance

did not find consistently improved exercise performance

at maximal or sub-maximal exercise intensities.

However, maybe they just didn't go alkaline enough.

For example, in this study, they had people eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat,

cheese, cereals, and eggs, but saw no difference in any performance-related parameters.

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