Sunday July 17, 2017 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study scheduled to be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN) suggests that red meat consumption may increase risk for kidney failure and substituting red meat with other protein sources may reduce the risk.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 50 % of adults aged 30 to 64 are expected to develop chronic kidney disease in their lifetime. The disease can progress to become end stage renal disease or eventually cause death. High protein intake is known to be a risk for kidney disease and it is recommended that dietary protein intake should be restricted in people with chronic kidney disease.
The study led by Woon-Puay Koh, PhD, affiliated with Duke-NUS Medical School and the National University of Singapore, and colleagues was intended to examine the relationship of the dietary sources of protein and kidney function. The study analyzed data from the Singapore Chinese Health Study in Singapore with 63,257 Chinese adults enrolled. Protein sources considered in the study included red meat (97% of red meat in Singapore is pork), poultry, fish/shellfish, eggs, dairy foods, soy foods, and legumes.
During an average follow-up of 15.5 years, the risk for end stage renal disease was found significantly higher among those who had high intake of red meat and the effect of red meat on the risk was dose dependent, that is, higher intake was linked to higher risk.
Specifically, people whose intake of red meat in the highest quarter (top 25%) were 40 % more likely to develop end stage renal disease than those whose intake was in the lowest quarter. Intakes of poultry, fish, eggs and dairy foods did not seem to have an impact on the risk while soybeans and legumes seemed to be slightly protective. In other words, plant sources of protein may be most friendly to the kidney. The study suggests that using other sources of protein instead of red meat (mostly pork in this case) can reduce the risk of end stage renal disease.
Source: Jasmine Quan-Lan Lew, Tazeen Hasan Jafar, Hiromi Wai Ling Koh, Aizhen Jin, Khuan Yew Chow, and Jian-min Yuan, Red Meat Intake and Risk of End-Stage Renal Disease," will appear online at http://jasn.asnjournals.org/ on July 14, 2016, doi: 10.1681/ASN.2016030248.
Another study released in American Journal of Kidney Diseases this year suggests that eating plant protein can reduce risk of death from chronic kidney disease.
The study led by Xiaorui Chen at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, UT and colleagues shows that among people with the eGFR (glomerular filtration rate which indicates renal function) lower than 60 mL/min/1.73 m2, each 33% increase in plant protein in relation to the total protein was associated with 23% reduction in the risk of death from kidney disease. The protective effect was less significant among those who had better renal function (eGFRs > 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 ). The reduction in the death risk was 12%. The findings hint that restriction of animal protein can be beneficial to those with worse renal function.
Source: Xiaorui Chen, Guo Wei, Thunder Jalili, Julie Metos, Ajay Giri, Monique E. Cho, Robert Boucher, Tom Greene, Srinivasan Beddhu, The Associations of Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause Mortality in CKD, American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Volume 67, Issue 3, March 2016, Pages 423–430
As one of the three major macro nutrients (other two are fats and carbohydrates), protein does not only affect the renal function or risk of chronic kidney disease, but also lifespan. High intake of protein is linked to a shorter lifespan. And the best diet should consist of high amounts of carbohydrates and low amounts of protein. High protein is just one dietary risk factor. Other dietary risk factors include silica, fructose consumption, and high phosphorus intake.(David Liu)
More reports on kidney disease
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