Vegetarian diet: Relevance in renal disease

Dietary habits are increasingly linked to health and disease. Vegetarian diets have stimulated medical and public interest because vegetarians typically maintain excellent health. In general, their diets are lower in energy, percentage of energy from fat and cholesterol, they have lower bodyweight, blood pressure and plasma lipid levels than omnivores. The vegetarian diet contains sufficient essential amino acids, minerals, and trace elements for optimal nutrition, being deficient only in vitamin Bit The medical possibilities for using vegetable protein as therapy in renal disease are diverse, ranging from treating hyperlipidaemia to protecting the kidney against experimental immune and ablation injury. A vegetarian diet, especially a vegetarian soy diet, has been shown to significantly reduce proteinuria disease progression in diabetic and non-diabetic nephrotic patients. This review summarizes current information about vegetarian and other low protein diets in renal disease which, in the viewpoint of the authors, strongly supports their beneficial role in disease management.