Kidney damage is a serious health problem being tackled worldwide with over 497 million adults currently suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD). Just like how adhering to a healthy diet may prevent other diseases like diabetes, heart ailments and hypertension; can it work the same way to prevent the incidence of CKD too? To come up with a concrete answer, Jaimon Kelly, PhD, Katrina Bach (Bond University, Australia), and their team conducted a comprehensive study, the findings of which were published in Clinical Journal of American Society Of Nephrology (CJASN). The study analysed the relationship between dietary patterns and development of CKD in adults and children.
Dietary pattern can be referred to intake of particular class of foods that reflects an individual's dietary habits. That's why; dietary patterns are generally classified into two sections – ‘healthy' and ‘unhealthy'. A healthy diet pattern shows lots of high-nutrition fruits, vegetables, pulses etc. And, an unhealthy diet pattern represents consumption of saturated fats, processed foods, empty calories and so on.
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A healthy dietary pattern could reduce the incidence of chronic kidney disease
The findings of the study suggest that making dietary changes and inculcating more nutritional foods can help slow down the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). For the research, 18 cohort studies were carried out involving 630,108 adults for around ten years.
“This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the association between adherence to dietary patterns and incident CKD in adults without kidney impairment. With moderate certainty of evidence, the primary analysis demonstrated that adherence to a dietary pattern rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, and fish, and lower intake of red and processed meats, sodium, and sugar sweetened beverages was associated with lower odds of incident CKD, and albuminuria over an average of 10.4 years of follow-up,” Dr. Kelly revealed.
The study discovered that a healthy dietary pattern could reduce the incidence of chronic kidney disease by as much as 30%. Also a 23% lower incidence of albuminuria, an early indicator of kidney damage, was linked to healthy eating habits.
Dr. Kelly added, “These results add to the accumulating evidence base supporting the benefits of adherence to healthy dietary patterns for chronic conditions, including those which are considered to be risk factors for the development of kidney disease such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and increased weight.”