Many people get confused about stomach acid and acidosis. These are two totally different things. In fact, the higher your stomach acid, the lower the acidosis or acid levels in the body. Let me explain. Your stomach and gastrointestinal tract form a beautiful, amazing tube that runs through your body, but not inside—they run through your body, not through your cells or in your blood. To get into the body, things have to pass over a barrier such as the gut wall, respiratory tract or skin. The stomach is meant to be acidic, very acidic so it can digest foods, particularly proteins, and destroy pathogens like deadly bacteria, viruses and parasites.
When the stomach is very acidic, in conjunction with digestive juices it breaks down proteins into amino acids. Some of these, like lysine and arginine, once absorbed into the body are alkalising. The high acidity level also allows for foods to be broken down, mostly the proteins, releasing the minerals which they are bound to and thereby allowing more ash minerals to be available for absorption through the gut wall and alkalising the blood. Because the foods are digested better, it also creates better conditions for the rest of digestion and the gut microbiota to function at optimal levels and increase digestion and absorption of even more minerals. Two totally different situations around the acid or pH levels but both influence each other.
Ironically, sufficient stomach acid is needed to absorb many of the same minerals and a lack of stomach acid inhibits the absorption of the B vitamins B6, B12 and folate. Lack of stomach acid also blocks the proper breakdown of proteins, since the protein digestive enzyme pepsin cannot work without sufficient stomach acid.
