High-protein diets, such as the increasingly popular Atkins diet, may accelerate kidney disease in people at risk.
The diets, which allow followers to eat unlimited amounts of meat, eggs, fish and shellfish while limiting amounts of carbohydrates like bread, potatoes and pasta, could overload the kidneys, according to researchers.
The 11-year study followed 1,624 women aged 42 to 68 years. Of the participants, 489 had a mild kidney problem. The women filled out questionnaires about their eating habits and researchers took blood samples to evaluate kidney function.
In women with normal kidney function, no link was found between high-protein diets and worsening of kidney function. However, among women who already had a mild kidney problem, a high-protein diet, especially those high in meat protein, showed some deterioration in kidney function.
No link was found between dairy and vegetable protein and a decrease in kidney function.
Since proteins must be broken down into amino acids in the body and waste products excreted, it is thought that too much protein puts a strain on the body’s ability to get rid of waste products, especially in those who already have a kidney problem. Severe kidney disease may require treatment with dialysis or a transplant.
If the kidneys are healthy, a high-protein diet is not likely to damage them, according to experts. However, some kidney diseases do not produce symptoms until the illness has progressed. Experts recommend that people considering a high-protein diet have a urine test done, which would pick up 90 percent of potential problems.
Annals Internal Medicine March 18, 2003;138(6):460-7
People are actually starting to get the message. With over two-thirds of the country either obese or overweight and nearly one-third obese, we need to more rapidly adopt the truth of the importance of grain restriction.
It is my sincere hope that the the information on this Web site will help to clear up the major source of confusion in this area and further contribute to a massive decline in grains in this country.
Dr. Atkins is an amazing pioneer and has been a major advocate of this approach for many decades. It is unfortunate that most of his approach wasn’t more precise though.
The major reason why the Atkins program works is because it restricts grains. By definition, a low-carb diet is a low-grain diet. But a problem results when one is a carb type according to their nutritional type. These individuals actually need a very high-carb diet, perhaps as high as 75 percent carbs. The only difference is that the carbs need to come exclusively from vegetables.
While these individuals may initially lose weight with an Atkins approach, they will almost universally be failures on his program. This is because they are designed to be far closer to vegetarians with very low fat and protein intakes. Their problem is that they need to eliminate grains and crank up their exercise.
My new book picks up where the Atkins diet leaves off in that it provides you with the full details on the essential principle of nutritional typing along with a basic test to assess your nutritional type. Knowing your individual nutritional type allows you to learn and understand what types and amounts of macronutrients (proteins, fats and carbohydrates) fit your own body’s metabolism and help you to prevent disease.
Protein nutritional types, on the other hand, can actually do quite well on the Atkins program and make up the bulk of his major success stories. As this study suggests, you do need to be cautious about consuming high levels of protein if you have impaired kidney function.
I believe this may contribute to some complications of a high-protein diet. However, this can be largely moderated by consuming far more of your protein in the raw state.
This is certainly true for eggs. When food is cooked there is a significant change in the structure of the proteins. This change can alter them into a more toxic product that may actually cause damage in the kidney.
This is further support to consume your food as uncooked as possible. This not only includes vegetables, but also raw animal protein and fats.
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