Fad diets are nothing new. But one you may have spotted doing the rounds on your social media feeds claims to do everything from slow down ageing to cure cancer. Yes, it’s the alkaline diet, and its fans range from chefs to alternative therapists to a whole host of A-listers (Elle Macpherson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson are all reported to be devotees). There are a number of doctors on the bandwagon, too. Dr Stephan Domenig, who wrote The Alkaline Cure (2014), and Dr Robert O. Young, author of The pH Miracle (2002), have been vocal about the diet as a pathway to tip-top health and less disease. (That said, Young has since faced jail time for practising medicine without a licence, and for advising a cancer patient to stop chemotherapy.) So is there anything good about this way of eating? Can what we eat really ‘alkalinise’ our blood? […]