Eat Healthy to Keep Kidney Disease at Bay

Eating a healthy diet that includes plenty of vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, nuts, fish, and low-fat dairy products can prevent chronic kidney disease (CKD), reveals a new study.

Highlights:

Following a healthy diet can lower the risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD)
Healthy dietary pattern that includes lots of vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, nuts, fish, and low-fat dairy products was associated with a 30% lower incidence of CKD and 23% lower incidence of albuminuria

Eating a healthy diet may protect you from chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to an analysis of published studies. The findings appear in an upcoming issue of Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).

Making dietary changes can help slow the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD), but it's not clear whether a healthy diet is protective against the development of the disease. To investigate, Jaimon Kelly, Ph.D., Katrina Bach (Bond University, Australia), and their colleagues analyzed all relevant studies published through February 2019.

Healthy Plant-based Diet can Protect Your Kidney Health
Adhering to a diet based on nutrient-rich plants could lower a person’s risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD) and slow the decline of kidney function.

‘Eating a healthy diet can cut down the risk of albuminuria, an early indicator of kidney damage. So, make sure to add plenty of vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, nuts, fish, and low-fat dairy products and avoid red and processed meats, salty foods and sugary drinks to keep chronic kidney disease (CKD) at bay.’
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Details of the Study

The analysis included 18 studies with a total of 630,108 adults who were followed for an average of 10.4 years. Healthy dietary patterns typically encouraged higher intakes of vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, whole grains, fish, and low-fat dairy, and lower intakes of red and processed meats, sodium, and sugar-sweetened beverages.

Findings of the Study

A healthy dietary pattern was associated with a 30% lower incidence of chronic kidney disease
A healthy dietary pattern was also linked with a 23% lower incidence of albuminuria, an early indicator of kidney damage

"These results add to the accumulating evidence base supporting the potential benefit of adhering to a healthy dietary pattern--such as the Mediterranean, DASH diet, or National Dietary Guidelines--and the primary prevention of chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, cancer, and all-cause mortality," said Dr. Kelly. "These results may assist in developing public health prevention programs for CKD, which may assist in reducing the burden of the disease."

Foods to Avoid in Kidney Failure
Cut back on salt, restrict your fluid intake and limit consumption of proteins if you suffer from kidney failure.

Dr. Kelly noted that dietary approaches to kidney health that target individual (or multiple) nutrients can be difficult, but focusing on whole foods rather than nutrients can make it easier for clinicians to educate patients and easier for patients to carry out.

"Randomized clinical trials with sufficient follow-up time to ascertain meaningful kidney outcomes are necessary to determine whether a change in dietary patterns is causally related to favorable kidney health outcomes," wrote the authors of an accompanying editorial.