No, There's No Link Between Alkaline Food & COVID-19

A false claim is going viral to claim that alkaline diet can prevent one from getting infected with COVID-19.

(Photo: The Quint)

A message is going viral on social media claiming that consuming alkaline foods will protect you from COVID-19.

This comes amid the sudden increase in the cases of COVID-19 in India and it states that eating alkaline foods with a pH greater than 7 will help increase your body’s pH level that 'will protect the body from coronavirus'.

The claim further states a list of food items with a purportedly high pH level, including lemon, avocado, mango, garlic, orange, among others.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: This claim is false. There's no link between COVID-19 and pH or alkaline foods.

• Experts termed this "advisory" inaccurate and clarified that an alkaline diet will not help in killing the virus.

• They also stated that alkaline diet would also not bring an change in the pH levels of your blood.

How did we find out the truth?: The study being quoted in the research dates back to 1991 and was published in the Journal of Virology with the title ‘Alteration of the pH Dependence of Coronavirus-Induced Cell Fusion: Effect of Mutations in the Spike Glycoprotein’.

• The abstract of the study mentions that it is about coronavirus mouse hepatitis virus type 4 (MHV4). Further, COVID-19 is a different strain of virus which was not even known in 1990s.

• “Infection of susceptible murine cells with the coronavirus mouse hepatitis virus type 4 (MHV4) results in extensive cell-cell fusion at pHs from 5.5 to 8.5,” the abstract reads.

The research paper published in 1991 does not talk about the novel coronavirus.(Photo Courtesy: Journal of Virology/ Screengrab)

pH Values of Food Items:

The claim lists down the pH values of different food items such as lemon, orange, garlic, avocado, among others.

pH levels range from 0 to 14, with pH values less than 7 being acidic and more than 7 being basic in nature.

But the message claims wrong pH values. For example, avocado’s actual pH range is 6.27 to 6.58, garlic’s pH level is 5.80, mango’s pH level is 4.10-5.90, lemon’s pH level is also claimed to be 9.9 but it is between 2 and 3.

Speaking to The Quint earlier in 2020, Dr Shaheed Jameel, a leading virologist said that viruses do not have pH values.

“Viruses do not have pH values. Rather no living organism has pH values. The relation between alkaline foods and the novel coronavirus is totally baseless.”

Dr Shaheed Jameel, leading virologist

Further, Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, Senior Consultant – Internal Medicine at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital said that there is no evidence to claim that consumption of alkaline foods can be a cure for the novel coronavirus.

“There is no definite proof to the claim. These are only theories that are being circulating and not only in India but in other countries as well. There is no evidence or data to claim that alkaline foods will cure coronavirus.”

• We also found a study published in the Clinical Oncology Journal, from 2021, “The Alkaline Foods and its Relation with Immunity and COVID-19 Virus during Quarantine Time”.

• It states that the British Dietetic Association (BDA) has mentioned no specific food or supplements can prevent a person from catching COVID-19. "Alongside WHO advice, the BDA encourages people to consume a healthy, balanced diet to support the immune system,” read the study.

Conclusion: A false claim is going viral to claim that alkaline diet can prevent one from getting infected with COVID-19.

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