Low Phosphorus Diet | Information is Outdated for Kidney Patients

If you’re getting your low phosphorous diet information from the internet or even many healthcare services or places, you’re most likely getting wrong information, and that’s according to the Journal of Renal Nutrition, April, 2022. Here we go over this study. 

So title of this study that we’re gonna go over is “Currently Available Handouts for Low Phosphorous Diets and Chronic Kidney Disease Continued to Restrict Plant Proteins and Minimally Processed Dairy Products.” So in 2020, they updated the guidelines that you have to take into account the bioavailability of phosphorus foods, where the phosphorus is coming from.

So what we know is that whole grains, plant-based proteins, the phosphorus doesn’t absorb well, and these can be included in a low phosphorous diet, and they have a lot of benefits for the kidney, for the body if they do so. The conclusion here is, is in this study, they went and looked at a lot of different organizations to see what they were, what their handouts were for a low phosphorous diet, and found up to 80% of them were incorrect and not following the current recommendations.

So, Conclusion, many resources restrict items with minimal nutrition value to lower phosphorus intake. However, plant foods I’m reading verbatim too, including plant proteins and whole grains continue to be restricted in the majority of resources despite having lower bioavailability. The 2020 Kidney disease Outcome Quality Initiative guidelines recommend considering bioavailability.

Plant proteins are generally okay. Whole grains are okay. They’re great, they’re healthy, lots of fiber. You’re not gonna absorb the phosphorus. It’s, it’s not very bio available. It’s binded to other things. So, a lot of the resources, unfortunately, are just outdated. Feel free to have some of those plant proteins, have those beans, legumes, lentils, some nuts and seeds, and some whole grains.

The definitive thing is to always get your blood work check, get your phosphorus levels checked, but you really shouldn’t be on a low phosphorus side unless you’re at risk of high phosphorus.