Switching to regimen higher in fruits, veggies might help stave off organ failure, researchers say
FRIDAY, Feb. 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Patients struggling with chronic kidney disease who routinely consume meat-rich, highly-acidic diets may boost their risk for kidney failure, according to research published online Feb. 12 in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Tanushree Banerjee, Ph.D., of the San Francisco General Hospital, and colleagues conducted a nutritional analysis of 1,486 kidney disease patients over a roughly 14-year period. All were participants enrolled in a large U.S. government health study. The researchers tracked each patient’s intake of high-acid foods such as meat, as opposed to their intake of low-acid foods such as fruits and vegetables.
The researchers found that those who consumed high-acid diets appeared to face triple the risk of kidney failure compared with those who consumed low-acid diets.
“Patients with chronic kidney disease may want to pay more attention to diet consumption of acid-rich foods to reduce progression to kidney failure, in addition to employing recommended guidelines such as taking kidney-sparing medication and avoiding kidney toxins,” Banerjee said in an American Society of Nephrology news release. “The high costs and suboptimal quality of life that dialysis treatments bring may be avoided by adopting a more healthy diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables.”
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