"Alkaline meals" get suggested a lot, usually with a list of foods to eat and foods to avoid. The research behind the idea works with a number instead of a list. Foods are sorted by their potential renal acid load, or PRAL, and you can add those numbers up for a whole plate. Doing that for one ordinary lunch shows what the advice is really asking you to change.
The number behind an alkaline meal
A 2012 review in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health by Schwalfenberg (PubMed ID 22013455) says foods "can be categorized by the potential renal acid loads". It puts fruits, vegetables, fruit juices and potatoes on the side with a negative acid load, while grain products, meats, dairy products and fish "have relatively high acid loads".
Nutrition papers estimate PRAL from five nutrients. A 2025 study on dietary acid load in the journal Nutrients (PubMed ID 41305607) uses this version: PRAL = 0.4888 × protein (g) + 0.0366 × phosphorus (mg) − 0.0205 × potassium (mg) − 0.0125 × calcium (mg) − 0.0263 × magnesium (mg). The result is in mEq. Protein and phosphorus push it up. Potassium, calcium and magnesium pull it down.
Scoring one lunch, food by food
Take a plain plate: 150g of cooked white rice, 100g of roast chicken breast, a side salad of 80g raw spinach, and 30g of Deglet Noor dates after the meal. The nutrient values below come from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy records, last updated in 2019). The PRAL column is that formula applied to each portion and rounded.
| Food | FDC record | Portion | PRAL (mEq) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooked white rice | 168878 | 150g | 2.6 |
| Roast chicken breast | 171477 | 100g | 17.3 |
| Raw spinach | 168462 | 80g | -9.3 |
| Deglet Noor dates | 171726 | 30g | -3.5 |
| Whole plate | 7.2 |
The chicken does most of the work. With 31g of protein and 228mg of phosphorus per 100g, it scores 17.3 on its own. The spinach carries 558mg of potassium and 79mg of magnesium per 100g, which is why a small salad takes more than 9 points off.
What moves the plate to the alkaline side
Run the same sums with half the chicken (50g) and a bigger salad (150g of spinach), keeping the rice and dates as they were. The plate now comes out at about -9.6. Nothing unusual was added. Only the proportions changed: less meat, more leaves.
That is what an "alkaline meal" means in practice. Rice barely registers at 1.7 per 100g, so the starch on the plate is not what tips the score. The total depends on how much animal protein sits next to how much fruit and vegetable.
Dates at the end of the meal
Per 100g, Deglet Noor dates hold 656mg of potassium against 2.45g of protein (FDC 171726), which works out to a PRAL of about -11.6. Medjool (FDC 168191) comes to about -13.3. A 30g serving of either takes roughly 3.5 to 4 points off a meal.
Thirty grams is also the NHS portion. Its 5 A Day page counts "a 30g portion of dried fruit, such as currants, dates, sultanas and figs" as one of your 5 A Day, and says it "should be eaten at mealtimes, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth". So the meal is the right place for dates anyway.
The table uses Deglet Noor because USDA publishes a full mineral analysis for it. Iranian dates belong on the same plate. Mazafati comes from Bam in Kerman province; it is dark and very soft, needs refrigeration, and is cold-stored and sold year-round. Piarom, from Hormozgan, is dark and semi-dry with a thin skin. Sayer comes from Khuzestan and is amber-brown and semi-dry.
Why the advice is suggested, and where it stops
The Schwalfenberg review is clear about what food can and cannot shift. Blood is held in "a slightly alkaline range of 7.35 to 7.45". A low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet with its higher acid load "results in very little change in blood chemistry, and pH, but results in many changes in urinary chemistry." The conclusion opens with "Alkaline diets result in a more alkaline urine pH".
The strongest reason the review gives is the food itself. More fruit and vegetables "would improve the K/Na ratio", and it notes that this ratio "previously was 10 to 1 whereas the modern diet has a ratio of 1 to 3". The review introduces its list of other benefits with "may". Treat an alkaline meal as a way of building a plate, then, and not as a promise about your body.
Buying dates for family meals
Iran Date Fruits Exporter handles everything from retail purchases to wholesale supply and delivers across the country, as our about page sets out. For questions, quotes or orders, use the contact page. Readers who shop in Malay can also visit Green Diamond at Pemborong Kurma Green diamond and harga Kurma Ajwa Green diamond.
This article explains how a meal's acid load is scored from published nutrient data. It is general information, not medical advice.