Looking for the best PRAL calculator app this year? In this post I share the only nutrition tracking app I use to calculate PRAL alkalinity of my diet and specific foods. This app does the PRAL calculation of foods, meals and recipes so you can easily track your nutrition. Keep reading to learn more about this app and get links.

YouTube video for how I use Cronometer app for PRAL calculation

Here’s my video tutorial for how I use Cronometer app to calculate the PRAL for foods, meals and full day of eating.

Note, you’ll need to upgrade to the Gold Membership for this feature. You can save 10% on Gold Memberships using my affiliate link:

• Signup to Cronometer.com and save 10% on gold subscriptions.

Watch this video on YouTube

Watch my tutorial for how I use to app on my phone

What is a PRAL calculator app?

• A PRAL Calculator app is a website or mobile app which helps you calculate the PRAL alkalinity of foods. It helps you see which foods are acid forming and which foods are alkaline forming after consumption.

Why use a PRAL calculating app?

Using an app to monitor your PRAL alkalinity is great because if you are serious about staying balanced, having a nutrition tracker which tracks foods which are alkaline forming is key.

Instead of calculating the PRAL value of foods and meals, the Cronometer app with a Gold Membership calculates it all for you!

• Signup to Cronometer.com and save 10% on gold subscriptions.

Here’s a basic overview:

1. The kidneys process foods after consumption.
2. Foods which are alkaline forming do not overburden the kidneys.
3. Foods which are acid forming tend to overburden the kidneys.
4. There is a simple calculation called PRAL (potential renal acid load) which is used to determine which foods overburden the kidneys.
5. Calculating PRAL for foods is done by using a simple mathematical formulation, which is:

PRAL (mEq/day) = (0.49 × total protein (g/day)) + (0.037 × phosphorus (mg/day)) − (0.021 × potassium (mg/day)) − (0.026 × magnesium (mg/day)) − (0.013 × calcium (mg/day))

Foods and meals with a negative score, are alkaline forming.

Foods and meals with a positive score are acid forming.

You can combine alkaline forming foods with acidic forming foods throughout the day.

The goal is for your overall day to have a negative alkalinity score. This means you don’t have to eat only alkaline foods, just mostly.

Many doctors who talk about alkaline dieting recommend aiming for 80% alkaline forming foods and 20% acidic forming foods each day.

This can be a lot to keep track of without the help of an alkaline diet app.

Alkaline food calculator

Now, you can calculate each food and recipe using this formula using a basic calculator if you know the exact amounts for each nutrient listed above.

Or, you can use an alkaline diet app to do this for you.

This is where my favorite nutrition tracking app for alkaline dieting comes in: Cronometer.

PRAL calculating app for iPhone and Android download

To determine the nutrition facts of certain foods and recipes, I like to use the Cronometer app.

This app allows me to input specific foods from specific brands, and gives nutrition facts in detail for each item. I can also input several foods to create a recipe and get the nutrition facts for the recipe.

In the Gold membership there is an option to calculate PRAL automatically.

• Signup to Cronometer.com and save 10% on gold subscriptions.

Cronometer app is a gamechanger for alkaline dieting.

When you set the Cronometer to track PRAL Alkalinity you can easily see if your daily diary is trending alkaline or acidic. Here’s a example of the Nutrition Balances section in the Gold Cronometer membership section:

Here’s an example of the PRAL Alkalinity meter showing an alkaline diet from my personal Gold Membership Cronometer. This was for a full day of meals calculated to be -22.57 alkalinity. You can calculate specific foods, meals or a full day of eating like this image below:

 

Cronometer app cost

Using the Cronometer app is free if you want to calculate your own PRAL values. You can simply calculate alkalinity using the values in each category.

However, for a few dollars per month you can let Cronometer do the calculation for you (as pictured above). In my opinion, this is well worth it because it saved me A LOT of time and energy.

My recommendations

Prior to upgrading to the Gold Membership, I had to constantly use my calculator for each food, recipe and full day of meals.

Now, I just look at the bottom of my Gold Membership screen and I can tell if I’m sticking to my alkaline diet 🙂

The Gold Membership is regularly $59.88/year or $10.99/month.

You can save 10% using my affiliate link below:

• Signup to Cronometer.com and save 10% on gold subscriptions.

Other alkalinity calculating apps

There are several other alkaline diet apps available. These are apps specifically about alkaline dieting.

The reason why I don’t use these is because Cronometer helps me track specific food products which I purchase from stores like Amazon and Trader Joe’s.

Other apps only let me track nutrition from the USDA database which does not show specific nutrition for these specific grocery store products.

This is a major inconvenience because I need to know the exact nutrition for the products I use, not just guess.

Basically, all I really need in an app to help me track my alkaline diet is to know nutrition information for each food product, including protein, phosphorus, calcium, potassium and magnesium. And, the PRAL alkalinity score.

With these values, which Cronometer tracks, I can monitor my alkaline diet and create meal plans.

More features with Cronometer app

In addition to tracking my nutrition and PRAL alkalinity with Cronometer, I can also track:

• Weight
• Exercise
• Water intake
• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Fasting

and more.

With the Gold Membership, I can also get:

• Custom Biometrics
• Food suggestions
• Discover top contributing foods of specific nutrients.
• Create an easy to read PDF to share with your health professionals.
• Share your custom foods and recipes with your friends who use Cronometer.
• Easily import recipes from your favorite websites.

and more.

• Signup to Cronometer.com and save 10% on gold subscriptions.

Here’s an overview of all nutrition information found in the Cronometer app:

LONG DESCRIPTION

Further reading:

• Best app to track vitamins and minerals
• 11 best alkaline food supplements
• 5 alkaline herb seasoning mix recipes
• Signup to Cronometer.com and save 10% on gold subscriptions.

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