Mmmm. Baking soda cures prostate cancer.
When you ingest an alkaline substance such as baking soda a chemical reaction occurs with the hydrochloric acid in your stomach. It is immediately neutralized. Heat is given off by the reaction and gas produced. In this case the reaction is :
NaHCO3(s) + HCl(aq) --> NaCl(aq) + H2O(l) + CO2(g)
The end result is a stomach containing plenty of table salt (NaCl) (oh, oh, watch out heart and blood pressure), a little water and quite a bit of gas.
Any alkalinity is completely neutralized. Of course you will also be bloated and belch and fart quite a bit.
Incidentally if taken with food the baking soda may neutralize quite an amount of the stomach acid required to fully digest your meal allowing undigested material to pass through your digestive system.
But of course all that is science so we can disregard it.
Bill
Post Edited (BillyMac) : 11/29/2011 3:32:27 PM (GMT-7)