Two different numbers get called "alkaline" and they measure different things. This page sets out both for common foods, and marks which are on Dr. Sebi's nutritional guide.
The two measures, in one paragraph
pH is how acidic a food is in your hand. A lemon is acidic, a banana is mildly acidic, an egg white is alkaline.
PRAL — potential renal acid load — estimates the acid load a food leaves for your kidneys to handle after it has been metabolised. It is calculated from a food's protein, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and calcium content. A negative PRAL is alkaline-forming. A positive PRAL is acid-forming.
The two often disagree, and that is the useful part. Honey measures pH 3.9 — strongly acidic — and is alkaline-forming by PRAL. Citrus does the same thing. Acidic in the mouth, alkalizing after.
Where the figures come from: published PRAL tables, calculated per 100g. Different tables give slightly different values for the same food, because they draw on different food composition databases. Compare within one table rather than across several, and treat a difference of a point or two as noise rather than signal.
Alkaline-forming foods
Most negative first. A marks foods on Dr. Sebi's approved list.
Strongly alkaline-forming (PRAL below −5)
- Dates −15 — A
- Spinach −14
- Kale −8.3 — A
- Sweet potato −5.6
- Banana −5.5 — A (burro and baby only)
Moderately alkaline-forming (−1 to −5)
- Celery −4.0
- Pears −2.9 — A
- Tomatoes −2.8 — A (cherry and plum only)
- Raisins −2.7 — A (seeded only)
- Mushrooms −2.5 — A (all but shiitake)
- Apples −2.2 — A
- Apricots −2.2 — A
- Cucumber −2.0 — A
- Watermelon −1.9 — A (seeded only)
- Lettuce −1.8 — A (not iceberg)
- Garlic −1.7
- Onions −1.4 — A
- Coffee −1.4
- Potatoes −1.4
- Broccoli −1.2
- Carrots −1.2
- Wine −1.2
- Hazelnuts −1.0
Around neutral (−1 to +1)
- Olive oil −0.5 — A
- Tea −0.3
- Cola +0.4
- Butter +0.6
- Whole milk +0.7
Acid-forming foods
Least to most.
- Yoghurt +1.5
- Brown rice +1.7
- Lentils +3.5
- White bread +3.7
- Spaghetti +6.5
- Walnuts +6.8 — A
- Chicken +7.8
- Eggs +8.2
- Peanuts +8.3
- Beef +9.5
- Oats +10.7
- Fish +10.8
- White rice +12.5
- Cheddar +26.4
- Parmesan +34.2
Reading the chart usefully
A few things become obvious once it's laid out.
Hard cheese dwarfs everything. Parmesan at +34.2 and cheddar at +26.4 are in a different range from anything else on the list. If you were changing one thing on acid-load grounds alone, it would be that.
The plant side clusters tightly. Most vegetables and fruit sit between 0 and −5. The differences between them are small enough that picking one over another on PRAL grounds is not worth the effort. Eat a range.
Approved and alkaline-forming are two separate questions. Walnuts are on Dr. Sebi's list and measure +6.8. Spinach is not on the list and measures −14. The guide's criterion is whether a food reproduces from its own seed, not its acid load, so the two lists overlap heavily without matching exactly. More on what the guide is organised around here.
Quantity matters more than the number. PRAL is per 100g, and nobody eats 100g of garlic, ginger or turmeric. A seasoning's PRAL is close to meaningless in practice. The foods that move your daily total are the ones you eat by the plateful.
pH of common foods, for reference
Lower is more acidic. Neutral is 7.
- Honey 3.9
- Mango 3.4 to 4.8
- Banana (yellow) 5.00 to 5.29
- Coffee (brewed) 4.85 to 5.13
- Garlic 5.3 to 6.3
- Ginger 5.60 to 5.90
- Avocado 6.3 to 7.1
- Green tea 7 to 8
Note how little this tells you about the PRAL column. Honey is the most acidic thing here and is alkaline-forming; oats are close to neutral on paper and are the most acid-forming plant food on the chart.
Common questions
What's a good daily PRAL?
A typical Western diet lands somewhere positive. A diet built mostly on fruit and vegetables lands negative. There is no target you need to hit, and chasing a number is less useful than simply eating more plants and less hard cheese.
Why do different charts give different numbers?
Because PRAL is calculated from food composition data, and different databases differ — on variety, ripeness, soil and preparation. Use one table consistently.
Is a food with a positive PRAL bad?
No. Walnuts are +6.8 and are on the approved list. Lentils are +3.5 and are a perfectly good food. PRAL measures one narrow thing.
Does cooking change PRAL?
Somewhat — boiling leaches minerals into the water, which shifts the number. Most tables give raw or standard-preparation values.
Where does alkaline water fit?
The guide specifies natural spring water rather than distilled, filtered or ionised. That is the instruction as written.
Which foods should I actually change first?
By acid load, hard cheese and processed meat. By the guide, the exclusions that hide in everything — garlic, wheat, and the oils and seasonings in packaged food. The transition guide sets out an order.
Next
- The complete approved food list
- Electric foods: what the guide is organised around
- New to this? The beginner's guide
- The grocery list, aisle by aisle
Every food, scored, in your pocket. The Ackaline app scores any meal you log as alkalizing, neutral or acid-forming using PRAL values, and tells you whether each item is on the approved list. Free to start. The full reference, with the reasoning behind every exclusion, is in The Alkaline Healing Blueprint.
For education, not medical advice. This is not a treatment for any condition. Talk to your doctor before making significant changes to how you eat, particularly if you have kidney disease, where dietary acid load is something to manage with medical guidance rather than from a chart.
