PRAL: The Evolution of Alkaline Water

Water is indispensable to us. There is no living organism on our planet, and as far as we know in the universe, to live without water. It is the most abundant nutrient in the human body, so important that it is considered a super liquid. However, there are high and low-quality waters; for example, not all water is really "super." Let's start by understanding why not all water is the same?

The different types of water

Looking at a few glasses of water side by side is often impossible to distinguish from each other. However, even though they look the same, they are entirely different. When I say different, it is because they indeed are different, from taste to chemical-molecular structure.

TAP WATER: It is the most practical and cheapest, but the pretreatment to which it is submitted is not ideal for consumption. Although it makes it drinkable, this process adds chemicals to the water that are harmful to our health, such as chlorine and fluorine. Ideally, it should be treated again before we consume to eliminate traces of pretreatment.

• BOTTLED WATER: This type of water usually contains more beneficial elements than tap water. However, it is more acidic than recommended and is stored in plastic bottles that release chemicals such as Bisphenol-A, which are potentially carcinogenic.
  
  

• FILTERED WATER (a common filter): It is a good solution, as it helps to remove the elements from the pretreatment and is not stored for a long time in plastic bottles. The problem with this solution lies in three topics. First, you have to pay attention to the quality of the filtration that the device delivers. Secondly, the ordinary filters add no beneficial element to the water (such as magnesium and antioxidants). Above all, it does not make the water alkaline, which is of paramount importance for quality.

• IONIZED ALKALINE WATER WITH NEGATIVE PRAL: Simply the perfect water! Many studies consider it; the perfect water. Antioxidant, rich in minerals, light, pure, alkaline, and ionized, most cost-effective in the long run.

Learn more about water types by clicking here.

Alkaline Water

Substances can be classified into three categories: acidic, neutral, and alkaline. This categorization is done utilizing a pH measurement. It is a scale from 0 to 14, with the value seven being considered neutral. Anything below this value is considered acidic, just as everything above is considered alkaline. Water generally has a neutral of 7. A soda, for example, is more acidic, having a pH of 2.5 on average. It doesn't seem like a big difference, but the pH scale is logarithmic, which means it increases in multiplication form. See the table below:

Alkaline substances are roughly the opposite of acidic substances. Its scale, too, is logarithmic, meaning each level above is ten times more alkaline than the previous one. Studies show how eating acidic foods is bad for your health, which facilitates the proliferation of diseases and severely impairs various body functions. Consumption of acidic foods should be avoided as much as possible, always trying to consume foods that have a pH above 7, alkaline.

When we are born, we are primarily alkaline, and as we get older, we become increasingly acidic. This transition is one of the prime factors for us becoming more prone to advanced diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, gastric problems, and even cancer as we get older. For this reason, more and more doctors are recommending alkaline diets.

Our blood is slightly alkaline, between 7.35 and 7.45, and your body will do everything to keep it at that level. Every time our body is acidifying, it looks for ways to alkalize itself. One of the main ways to achieve alkalinity is through magnesium and calcium. Where does your body find these items? In our bones. It removes these minerals to compensate for the increased acidity, and this facilitates problems such as osteoporosis, arthrosis, and others.

Diseases usually need an acidic medium to sustain and spread, so an acidic diet is not only harmful but dangerous. The consumption of alkaline water helps to rebalance this disorder, making a kind of cleansing so that these ills cannot grow in your body.

Knowing the pH of water is a must for you to have perfect health, and it's not difficult to know what level of water pH we consume. Most people imagine that they need sophisticated lab tests to see the pH level, but you can test in seconds right from your home.

For this test, you only need a pH reagent, a liquid that reacts to contact with water by changing colour. The more acidic the water, the redder the water is, and the more alkaline, the darker the blue. The neutral pH water is displayed in green.

NEGATIVE PRAL: The Secret of Perfect Water

Yes! As we said, ionized alkaline water is considered the perfect water because it has numerous benefits that all others do not. It is unique because it helps our body achieve high levels of health, well-being, and quality of life, as well as assisting in the search for healthy longevity. 

The places in the world where we live the longest and with the highest quality are the same places where ionized alkaline water is found in nature. That is directly related to the life expectancy of these populations.

Want to know all about these places in the world? Click here

What many do not know is that water cannot just be alkaline. Today we are going to focus on one special item, the most significant difference between ordinary water, ordinary alkaline water, and the best water in the world: THE NEGATIVE PRAL, in other words, GOOD PRAL. 

Our challenge is to try to explain this relatively new concept, which brings a lot of scientific evidence to this topic since all published studies on an alkalizing diet (with negative PRAL) clarify and mention PRAL. 

For example, it has been found that an alkalizing diet prevents and even treats diseases such as diabetes. So it is not enough to drink water with alkaline pH, it is necessary to drink water with good PRAL. So we need to understand what is alkalizing power with PRAL.

What is PRAL?

Pral is an English acronym that, in translation, means Potential-Renal Acid-Load, it is a mathematical calculation that, in short, tells us whether food has an alkalizing power or not.

In 1995, researchers Remer and Manz were previously studying in calculating the acid or alkaline charge of food. This means that for the first time in the world, it was possible to define precisely whether a specific food had the power to acidify or alkalinize our body. 

Then comes the first doubt that many have: " Is it not enough for me to just measure the pH of the substance?" The answer is NO. Lemon, for example, is extremely acidic, but when the body absorbs, it has phenomenal alkalizing potential. That is, even being acidic, it helps our body. The reverse can also occur.

As we said, chlorine is an alkaline substance, but we don't recommend drinking a full glass with it (really, please don't do this). Chlorine-treated water is essential to reach your faucet by killing particles in the water, but it is terrible to drink because it acidifies your body.

How is PRAL measured?

PRAL is calculated by the presence of alkaline and acidic components in a given substance. For the diagnosis of how food is influencing your body, urine the calculation is done.

Let's make it easier. If, after your digestive process, your urine has higher levels of phosphorus and sulfur, it will have a positive PRAL or bad PRAL, which indicates that your body is acidifying because it is trying to eliminate excess acid.

On the other hand, if your urine measurement indicates the presence of minerals such as magnesium, calcium or potassium, PRAL is negative, which shows us that your body does not have many acidic wastes to eliminate.

The result of these differences between the amount of acid and alkaline is PRAL, where the negative result is good and positive outcome is bad.

How vital is PRAL for your health?

Well, it has long been well known that the kidneys (which are responsible for "filtering" substances out of our body) do not have an unlimited acid elimination capacity. So the more acidic a diet is, the more overloaded the kidneys and the more acidic the urine.

Several degenerative diseases manifest themselves in acidic environments, maintaining an alkaline diet, and thereby assisting your body in the production of alkaline charges is the best way to prevent or combat these diseases ranging from a simple cold to more severe diseases like Alzheimer's.

And PRAL, in short, is this. It helps you to be sure that what you are consuming, which seems alkaline, will be alkaline to your body. It is as if PRAL was your safe way to guarantee the good to your body and organism.

A simple way to understand how PRAL works is to imagine two glasses of alkaline waters, one with good PRAL and one with bad PRAL. If we put some vinegar drops (which is a powerful acid) in both glasses, the bad PRAL water will become acidic with 1 or 2 drops, while the good PRAL water will remain alkaline. Vinegar shows the true measurement of the water with bad PRAL. However, water with good PRAL has the power to alkalize even the vinegar that was dropped into the glass.

Below is a list of published scientific articles that show the importance of PRAL in our body health and diet.