Study: Eating fish may help protect against CKD
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Key takeaways:
- Researchers found 30 associations between a protein-rich diet and serum metabolites.
- Fish, nuts, legumes, red and processed meat, eggs and poultry had distinct metabolic markers.
The fish-related metabolite 1-docosahexaenoylglycerophosphocholine may be positively linked to reducing the risk of chronic kidney disease, according to recently published data.
“Protein-rich foods have distinct nutritional characteristics and variable associations with kidney outcomes,” Lauren Bernard, MHS, of the epidemiology department at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, wrote with colleagues. “Identifying metabolomic markers of dietary protein can also lead to improved dietary assessment and inform dietary recommendations to modify kidney disease risk.”
Researchers in a prospective cohort study examined 3,726 adults from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study who did not have CKD at baseline. The aim was to use untargeted metabolomics to pinpoint serum metabolomic markers of six protein-rich foods — including fish, nuts, legumes, red and processed meat, eggs and poultry — to determine the relationship between dietary protein-related metabolites and incident CKD, defined as an eGFR below 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 with 25% or more eGFR decline relative to the first visit. Primary outcomes included eGFR, along with hospitalization, CKD-related death and end-stage kidney disease.
Researchers found 30 significant associations between a protein-rich diet and serum metabolites. Each of the six tested foods had distinct metabolic markers. Fish was tied to 1-docosahexaenoylglycerophosphocholine, known as 22:6n3, which had the most protective effect.
“These metabolites improved discrimination of dietary intake of protein beyond covariates [including] demographics, clinical factors, health behaviors and intake of nonprotein food groups,” Benard and colleagues wrote. “These metabolites are candidate biomarkers of dietary intake and ... may be important for the primary prevention of CKD.”
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