The title asks why alkaline pH food is required. To answer it honestly, you have to test each step of the argument for it, because the research does not back every step equally. Below, the claim is taken apart one link at a time and put back together with only the parts that hold up. Then dates go where they actually fit.
Step one: food changes your urine
This part is solid. In 1995 Remer and Manz calculated the potential renal acid load (PRAL) of foods people eat often. Their values ran from about 23.6 mEq per 100g for certain hard cheeses, through 0 for fats and oils, down to roughly -3 for fruits, fruit juices and vegetables. In their data, the net acid excreted by the kidneys tracked urine pH closely (r = .83). Eat more of the foods with negative scores and your urine moves toward the alkaline side (PubMed 7797810).
Step two: your blood stays where it is
Schwalfenberg's 2012 review of the alkaline diet notes that human life requires a tightly controlled serum pH of about 7.4, inside a slightly alkaline range of 7.35 to 7.45. Urine behaves differently. Its pH can vary from acid to alkaline depending on what the body needs to balance its internal environment (PubMed 22013455). A shift in urine pH is not a shift in blood pH.
Step three: the calcium argument
The acid-ash hypothesis, as Fenton and colleagues summarise it, says that protein and grain foods eaten with little potassium create an acid load, raise urine calcium and draw calcium out of the skeleton. Their 2009 meta-analysis kept 5 of 16 studies that met strict quality rules for calcium research. Higher acid excretion did go with more calcium in the urine. It did not change calcium balance (p = 0.38), and it did not change N-telopeptides, a marker of bone metabolism (p = 0.95). The authors wrote that changes of urine calcium do not accurately represent calcium balance (PubMed 19419322).
In 2011 the same group ran a larger check using Hill's criteria for causality. Of 238 studies, 55 met their rules, including 22 randomised interventions. No study revealed a biologic mechanism working at physiological pH, and they found no evidence that an alkaline diet is protective of bone health (PubMed 21529374). Schwalfenberg's conclusion is close to this: alkaline diets make urine more alkaline, but there is no substantial evidence that this improves bone health.
So is alkaline food required?
Not in the way alkaline diets and products are marketed, as a way to help the body regulate its pH (PubMed 21529374). Blood pH is held in its narrow band, and the reviews above found no evidence that an alkaline diet protects bone. What survives the check is plainer and still useful. Schwalfenberg points out that the ratio of potassium to sodium in the human diet has reversed, from about 10 to 1 in the past to about 1 to 3 in the modern diet. He also describes today's diet as poor in magnesium, potassium and fibre. Eating more fruit and vegetables, the same foods that sit on the negative side of the PRAL scale, would improve that potassium-to-sodium ratio, he writes.
Where dates fit
Schwalfenberg's review lists fruits among the foods with a negative acid load. Dates are not in its PRAL table, and the 1995 abstract gives no figure for them, so this article prints no PRAL score for dates. The minerals can be stated. USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy record 171726) lists Deglet Noor dates at 656 mg potassium, 43 mg magnesium, 2 mg sodium and 8.0 g fibre per 100g. A 30g serving works out to about 197 mg potassium and 2.4 g fibre.
Timing matters too. The NHS counts a 30g portion of dried fruit, and it names dates, as 1 of your 5 A Day, but says it should be eaten at mealtimes, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth. Dates beside a meal fit that advice better than dates nibbled through the afternoon.
Mazafati is one soft variety worth knowing by name. It comes from Bam in Kerman province, Iran, is dark and very soft, needs refrigeration, and is cold-stored so it is sold all year. One Malaysian site about this variety is Kurma Mazafati Malaysia.
The video below, from the YouTube channel AbuAyyash Farms, is titled "Amazing Medjool Dates Fruit Farming and Factory - Artificial Intelligence Date Processing Technology".
Before you change your diet
This article is general reading, not personal advice. The NHS says that anyone with a medical condition or on a special diet for their health should talk to a GP or a healthcare professional before making changes to their lifestyle.
Jual Kurma's about page says it delivers across the country. Questions can go through the WhatsApp number on the contact page, and more reading on dates is on the Jual Kurma blog.