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This article in ThoughtCo.com claims we have a resting stomach pH of 4-5.

Unfortunately, there are no references, so I can't verify what it says.

I am slightly confused, however. The study says "Results are given as medians and interquartile ranges: fasted gastric pH, 1.3 (1.1-1.6); gastric pH during the meal, 4.9 (3.9-5.5)"

This other one says "In the fasted state, the median gastric pH was 1.7"

This article in UCSB Scienceline says "The normal human stomach has a pH which can range from approximately 1-3 but is usually closer to 2.". Unfortunately, they too don't provide any references, so I can't check their claim.

So what is the pH of a human stomach at rest? If it is about 2, then did the article in ThoughtCo.com get it wrong? If it is about 4-5, then what did I misunderstand in the two studies I cited?

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  • $\begingroup$ It feels to me like your two papers answered your question. The pH of fasted stomach as around 1.1 - 1.8 and it is around 3.9 - 5.5 during a meal. $\endgroup$ – Remi.b Aug 6 '17 at 16:26
  • $\begingroup$ What confuses me is why the ThoughtCo article says we have a resting pH of 4-5 $\endgroup$ – man_in_green_shirt Aug 6 '17 at 16:33
  • $\begingroup$ 1. It is not a peer review document so they might as well say anything 2. I don't where they got these numbers from but it actually match well with the 3.9 - 5.5 estimates of Russel et al. 1993 that you found. $\endgroup$ – Remi.b Aug 6 '17 at 16:41
  • $\begingroup$ 1. true, but I thought ThoughtCo was a generally respected website, so I was surprised to see them get something wrong. 2. yes, they match well, but seem to be reversed: Russel et al. says our stomach pH is approx 1-2 fasted and 4-5 during a meal, while ThoughtCo say it's 4-5 at rest (I guess they mean 'fasted'?) and 1-2 after a meal. $\endgroup$ – man_in_green_shirt Aug 6 '17 at 16:45

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