Dietary pattern may have greater effect on kidney health than specific nutrients
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Key takeaways:
- Researchers assessed three distinct dietary patterns with varying levels of nutrients.
- The study found kidney outcomes were linked more with dietary patterns than single nutrients.
Eating patterns as a whole were more strongly associated with kidney health than intake of specific nutrients, researchers reported in the Journal of Renal Nutrition.
In addition, reduced rank regression may be a viable method to estimate disease-related dietary patterns and explore the effects of nutrients on kidney health, according to researchers.
“Diet plays a key role in [chronic kidney disease] CKD management, and several guidelines are available for individuals at risk of CKD, including those affected by hypertension, diabetes or reduced kidney function,” Giulia Barbieri, MSc, a PhD student at the Institute for Biomedicine at Eurac Research in Italy, wrote with colleagues. But “diet effects on kidney health and dietary recommendations vary according to the natural history of the disease, and discussion on which specific diet is more beneficial for CKD prevention ... is ongoing.”
Barbieri and colleagues focused on potential associations between dietary patterns and kidney health as part of the population-based Cooperative Health Research in South Tyrol study. Overall, 8,686 participants were categorized into two groups: those free of kidney disease, hypertension and diabetes, and those with any of the three conditions.
Researchers assessed diet through a self-administered food frequency survey, and patterns were derived through reduced rank regression selecting specific nutrients as mediators. Outcomes included eGFR, urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio, CKD and microalbuminuria.
Researchers found three distinct dietary patterns with varying levels of nutrients: high adherence reflected high levels of all nutrients (DP1); high potassium-phosphorus and low protein-sodium levels (DP2); and low potassium-sodium and high protein-phosphorus levels (DP3). Barbieri and colleagues found heterogeneous links across kidney outcomes, and kidney outcomes were linked more with dietary patterns than single nutrients, “confirming the importance of a holistic view when exploring the effects of diet on health.”
The study also underlined that specific dietary habits were associated with better kidney health for patients with kidney disease, hypertension or diabetes. This may suggest disease-specific diet interventions may play a role in disease control, the researchers wrote. “Using [reduced rank regression] RRR to derive disease-oriented [dietary patters] DPs proved to be a valuable approach, especially thanks to its extreme flexibility and exploratory capacity, which allowed us to determine relevant DPs reflecting composite effects of nutrients on kidney health,” they wrote.
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