The Hay Diet is a nutrition method developed by the New York physician William Howard Hay in the 1920s. It claims to work by separating food into three groups: alkaline, acidic, and neutral. (Hay's use of these terms does not completely conform to the scientific use, i.e., the pH of the foods.) Acidic foods are not combined with the alkaline ones. Acidic foods are protein rich, such as meat, fish, dairy, etc. Alkaline foods are carbohydrate rich, such as rice, grains and potatoes. It is also known as the food combining diet.
A similar theory, called nutripathy, was developed by Gary A. Martin in the 1970s.[1] Others who have promulgated alkaline-acid diets include Edgar Cayce, Luigi Costacurta,[2] D. C. Jarvis, and Robert O. Young.