Veggie Diet Best for Kidney Patients

By Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: December 26, 2010 Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Action Points   Explain that in patients with chronic kidney disease, a grain-based vegetarian diet may be better than a meat-based diet in terms of holding down phosphorus levels. Note that those on the grain-based diet ingested the same amount of phosphorus as those on the meat-based diet. A grain-based vegetarian diet may be better than a meat-based diet in terms of holding down phosphorus levels in patients with chronic kidney disease, according to results from a small crossover study. Even though they ingested the same amount of phosphorus, patients on the vegetarian diet had lower serum phosphorus levels as well as other markers of improved phosphorus metabolism, Sharon Moe, MD, of Indiana University in Indianapolis, and colleagues reported in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology./.../