Southern Diet Linked to Early Death Risk in Kidney Disease Patients

A southern-style diet can up early death risk in kidney disease patients, a new study suggests.

Southern-style diet - complete with processed meats, fried foods and sugar-sweetened drinks - is high in calories and devoid of several nutrients. A latest study by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that the southern diet is linked to premature death risk in patients suffering from kidney disease.

The National Kidney Foundation said that the right kind of diet can reduce the workload of the kidneys.

Related research has shown that southern diet increases stroke risk.

For the study, researchers used data from the Reasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke or REGARDS study. Around 3,972 participants who had stage 3-5 chronic kidney disease were chosen for the study. These people hadn't started dialysis yet. The team then looked at the dietary habits of the participants. They found that people who ate a primarily southern-style diet had a 50 percent higher risk of dying during a 6.5 year study period as compared to those who followed other diets.

"This adds to the evidence that suggests that the foods that they eat can meaningfully impact long-term survival in individuals with kidney disease," said lead author Orlando Gutiérrez, M.D., associate professor of medicine in the UAB Division of Nephrology, according to a news release. 

The team also found that including fruits and vegetables in diet improved survival chances of kidney disease patients.

"For clinicians, this suggests that focusing on modifying general patterns of foods that people eat, instead of individual components of the foods like salt intake or fat intake, may be more helpful in counseling patients," Gutiérrez said. "It may be more helpful to focus on general patterns of eating instead of individual nutrients since this may be easier for patients to conceptualize and therefore actualize."

Note that the study doesn't say that following a certain diet will treat kidney disease or halt its progression. The research maintains that healthy diet only improves chances of survival.

The study is published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.