High Meat Diet Kills Off Kidneys
What is NOT very well known is the fact that the regular consumption of red meat in your diet results in an uric acid build up in your blood stream. Large amounts of circulating uric acid increases the work load of your kidneys. And, over a lifetime of excessive red meat consumption that is so typical of the Western Diet, you can easily end up with kidney failure, a life threatening health condition.
Remember that this Web site is offering nutritional advice that is best suited for the middle-aged and older adult. For this targeted age group, in brief, excessive protein is bad for you just like excessive amounts of carbohydrates and fat are bad. An excess of all meat products is bad for you. Excessive consumption of red meat is especially bad. An animal-based diet, otherwise known as the Western Diet, is just plain bad for you. All of which among all the many negative health side effects of the Western diet creates an excessive demand for huge amounts of both Vitamin D and calcium, which will no longer exist once you drastically reduce the amount of meat in your diet.
Here again, what is bad is the EXCESS rather than the macronutrient called protein, and animal sources of protein. It is truly amazing the number of people when presented with this information will wrongly conclude that you have to avoid absolutely all sources of protein and especially animal protein entirely.
Dangers of Western Diet
Eat more vegetables, fruits, nuts, and whole grains.
This is exactly what was found in a recent statistical study of the data collected during the Nurses' Health Study, which compared the typical Western Diet to two other diets that were higher in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains than in red meat consumption. This study found that the Western Diet was associated with higher blood levels of microalbuminuria, a marker for kidney disease.
Here again the extreme of cutting out all meat products entirely from your diet is NOT necessary at all, nor recommended. The best source of some very important nutrients, such as vitamin B-12, is meat products. All you have to do for a healthy lifestyle is learn how to eat meat in moderation rather than as the centerpiece of every meal, that is so typical of the Western diet. Occasionally treating yourself to a lot of red meat is okay, provided that it the exception rather than the norm of your dietary habits.
References:
- Association
of dietary patterns with albuminuria and kidney function decline in older
white women: a subgroup analysis from the Nurses' Health Study.
Lin J, Fung TT, Hu FB, Curhan GC.
Am J Kidney Dis. 2011 Feb;57(2):245-54.
PMID: 21251540
