Diets for Kidney Patients | What is the Best Diet for Kidney Disease?

In this video we’re talking about different diets for kidney patients, and their impact on kidney disease and which diet is the most beneficial. Now, this is according to some research that came out from the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, March, 2023. It’s ahead of print, so they released it before printing the whole journal and releasing it to the public. The title of this is “Risk and Benefits of Different Dietary Patterns in CKD”

No matter what diet you pick, you should always be low sodium. Keep your sodium intake as low as possible. Now, if you’re obese or morbidly obese, what the research has shown is that if you lose a significant amount of weight, no matter what type of diet you use, it generally improves kidney function. So those are the two things I want you to keep in mind before I get into this.

The first diet they looked at are low carbohydrate diets. They talked about the popular keto diet or ketogenic diet and its impact on kidney disease. The benefits of low carbohydrates, including the keto diet, avoiding the high index glycemic foods, improved weight loss and glycemic control.

High protein content may cause hyperfiltration in CKD, so when you lower the carbs, you tend to increase the protein, which is bad for the kidneys. You can stress your kidneys out making them worse. The inclusion of saturated or trans fats, which raise your risk of cardiovascular. Also, long term adherence is difficult. Most people don’t stay on it. They usually don’t see the benefits of the diet after 12 months. So if people do lose weight, they tend to gain it back. Overall, low carbohydrates  are generally not recommended for kidney disease. If you structure it right for a diabetic, use more vegetarian protein, then it could be an option.

The second approach they got into was intermittent fasting, which is very popular. A lot of big claims behind it, which I haven’t seen any substantiated in the research, so. Things that they mentioned: improve weight loss and glycemic control. So anytime you restrict calories, you are going lose weight, you also get better blood sugar control. 

Now for the negatives; electrolyte imbalance is possible, decrease in kidney function from dehydration. Intermittent fasting hasn’t shown any benefits like regeneration or recovery or anything along those lines.

The next approach is plant-based diets. They talk about plant-based diets, and here’s what they highlight. Multiple benefits for chronic kidney diseases. High alkaline load, which is great for the kidney. High in antioxidants, reduction in eGFR decline and proteinuria. So plant-based diets are the top diet if you want to help improve your kidney health!