@Buckian
I've had some good results from bicarb intake. I noticed this after having Gerolsteiner for the first time- it has a pretty high bicarb content and I felt really good afterwards. From what I've seen about bicarb and bacteria, bicarb in fairly low concentrations can be a potent antagonist of pathogenic bacteria metabolism and boosts innate immunity effects against bacterial infections; it also boosts antibiotics(except for tetracyclines due to pH effects). This goes for respiratory and oral bacteria, which I have a personal desire to protect myself from.
I wouldn't say that I take it because it gives me some particular feeling, but that it's easy to incorporate into my routine and covers several bases.
OJ for the pre-sleep sugar, baking soda is there to help with inflammation and bacterial inhibition to avoid night time serotonin surge. I have a history of insomnia and difficulty sleeping, so dealing with serotonin around sleep time through sugar and salt has been a big help.
Baking soda is sodium bicarb, so I get the sodium, the sugar from OJ, and the inhibitions from the bicarb. My rough math is that my bicarb to OJ ratio is high for inhibition concentrations. I usually do a small glass(4-6 oz) with 1 tsp baking soda(lightly packed). That's about 7g bicarb in 6 oz, which would be 37g in 1L or ~600mmol/L. That's well above the minimum concentration for inhibition(23-182mmol/L) and about 20% less than a minimum bactericidal concentration. I'm not going for an antibacterial effect, inhibition is good enough for me especially as I have a pretty healthy gut microbiome.
