A dear friend of mine has recently been going through some difficult medical problems, one of which includes kidney problems. In order to try and help her, I decided to do some research to see what foods and life style changes she may need to make in order to help her kidneys function normally. Some of the information I found was that eating a diet high in red and processed meats, sugary beverages and sodium increased the risk of kidney disease. If you have three unhealthy lifestyle factors such as obesity, poor diet and smoking, your risk increases to a 13% chance of kidney disease.
Diabetes also causes kidney disease because when your blood glucose levels are high the kidneys have to filter excess amounts of blood and it takes a toll on the kidneys. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds are great to eat for your health. Even though beans are a much better source of protein for your body than red meat, you still have to be extremely careful of the amount of protein you eat when you are having problems with your kidneys. Beans, bean products, fish, milk, egg white and lean meat are high in protein which can worsen your condition because it puts to much of a burden on the kidneys. It is important to have your protein levels monitors regularly by your doctor. Also, if you are diabetic, you have to be careful not to eat to much fruit because of the sugar in fruit.
The good news is that by making lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, not smoking and eating healthy foods, you can protect your kidneys and prevent future damage.
When we think of diseases we don’t want to have, it is usually cancer we think about. However, kidney disease kills 90,000 Americans each year, more than breast or prostate cancer. 26 million people have kidney disease and many don’t even know it. It is important that we start eating a healthier diet to prevent this disease and many others instead of trying to manage it after the fact.
This link below has some really good information as well as a list of lifestyle changes we can make to help reduce the risk of kidney disease. Please take a look and see if you can start improving your lifestyle. Maybe by starting with one risk factor at a time…
The Right Diet Can Prevent Kidney Disease, New Study Finds …
Researchers led by Alex Chang, MD, MS of Johns Hopkins University found that people with normal kidney function whose diet quality was poor—high in red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages and sodium, …