Are there foods that can promote or prevent lactic acid?

JClishe

So I was reading the Wikipedia page on lactic acid tonight, and it mentioned that lactic acid is found in sour milk products such as yogurt and casein. This got me thinking, is there a connection between consuming (perhaps excessively) foods that contain lactic acid and lactate build up during exercise? Are there foods that we should avoid, or consume, in order control lactate build up during exercise?

Jason

gregp909

Whatever the answer is. . .please don't say we can't eat pizza! ;-)

kjanracing

baking soda! http://ironpower.biz/sup/sup_energy2.htm lots of info out there. I tried it a couple times. Not sure if it really made a big difference. See what you think!

mgraffeo

Data on baking soda supports its effectiveness only in very short bursts, like 100 yard sprints and such. Shouldn't be any benefit to endurance athletes.

The current understanding of how fatigue works is that it's not an effect of accumulated lactic acid, rather due to other brain-related factors.

Mike

William Jenks

Baking soda = CO2 in a box.

Mike (or anyone) - is there any real evidence that the body doesn't pretty well self-regulate pH anyway, just with carbonic acid (=hydrated CO2)? I understand if you doped up on a ton of baking soda you might overwhelm things for a while, but in a matter of minutes/hours wouldn't that all be gone?

There's TONS of reactivity that is pH dependent in the body...even O2-release from hemoglobin.

mgraffeo

William,

I believe that there is data on examples of acidosis affecting performance, though I'd be hard pressed to find them.

IIRC, the data on baking soda was from the Lore of Running, supporting it's benefit for very short events, but disputing benefit for anything longer than about 5 minutes. I'll have to check.

Tom Glynn

http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/DSH/coral2.html

I always like Quackwatch for their medical views. They don't believe it's possible to change the PH in your blood by consuming food.