Is Clarified Butter Acidic or Alkaline?
Clarified butter (raw) is neutral: PRAL close to zero: hardly shifts your acid-base balance.
Classification
Clarified butter is butter with the water, milk protein and milk sugar removed. What's left is almost pure fat, and there's nothing in it to balance, hence +0.1, neutral. Even regular butter sits just above that because of its protein traces. It's handy for searing because it tolerates high heat. For the PRAL, all that counts is what you fry in it, plus the 897 kcal per 100 g.
In the Oils & Fats category, clarified butter (raw) ranks #20 of 22, sorted from alkaline to acid-forming. More alkaline options include Lard (+0.1), Olive oil (0.0), Grapeseed oil (0.0). More acid-forming are Butter (+0.9), Herb butter (garlic butter) (+2.9).
Acidic or alkaline: PRAL, not pH
On this site, acidic and alkaline refer to the PRAL (potential renal acid load). It estimates what a food leaves behind once it has been digested: a positive value is acid-forming, a negative value is alkalizing. That is different from the pH of the food itself: a lemon tastes sour, yet its PRAL is −4.0, so it is alkalizing. Your diet does not change your blood pH. It does change how much acid your kidneys have to deal with.
Goes well with
Frequently Asked Questions
Is clarified butter acidic?
It depends on what you mean by acidic. The pH describes the food itself, for example how sour it tastes. The PRAL describes what it leaves behind after digestion: Clarified butter (raw) has a PRAL of +0.1 per 100 g, so it counts as neutral in your daily acid-base balance.
Does clarified butter count in the acid-base balance at all?
Hardly. At +0.1 per 100 g, clarified butter is in the neutral range between −0.5 and +0.5. You can eat it without shifting your balance.
Clarified Butter logged, balance checked.
Basentracker adds up every meal automatically and shows whether your day is in the alkaline range. The same values as on this page, all 977 foods, photo scan, recipes.
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Compare all Oils & Fats: Oils & Fats table. Common questions are answered in Acidic or Alkaline?, and the PRAL calculator adds up a whole meal.
Source: Basentracker food database (PRAL according to Remer & Manz, calculated from protein, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and calcium per 100 g). This information does not replace medical advice.