We all want to eat the kinds of foods that make us feel better, live longer, but there's

so much conflicting information out there, so many nutrition opinions.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast, I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

It's my job to give you the information you need to make the healthiest choices possible.

Kidney disease ranks as the ninth leading cause of death in the US, so what food should

we eat to keep our kidneys healthy?

Our first story.

Chronic kidney disease is one of the top 10 leading causes of premature death in the United States,

and its incidence is increasing. Chronic kidney disease affects more than 10% of the adult

population, and each year, more than 100,000 Americans develop end-stage kidney disease

and have to go on dialysis. What's crazy is that a staggering 96% of individuals with mild to

moderate decreases in kidney function and about half of individuals with severely decreased

kidney function go undiagnosed, meaning the vast majority, like 24 out of 25 people with

chronic kidney disease, don't even know they have it. What can we do to maintain our kidney

function? Well, in a study that followed more than a thousand older women for a decade,

those consuming a diet that was richer in plant-based protein had a slower decline in kidney

function, extending support for the health benefits of plant-rich diets in the general

population to maintain kidney health. Compared with protein from plant sources,

animal proteins been associated with an increased risk of end-stage kidney disease in several

such studies, we're not exactly sure why kidney damage from animal protein could result from the

dietary acid load, excess phosphorus, or gut microbiome, bad bacteria, and the resultant inflammation.

The dietary acid load in a standard American diet is derived mostly from animal sources,

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