Facts about Low-Protein Diet in Diabetic Nephropathy

Diabetic Nephropathy patients always are asked to have low-protein diet which is said to have function of slowing down progression of kidney problem. However, is it enough to simply limit protein intake? Or they need to notice something while they ingesting protein?

Protein is a nutrient needed by us for growth and maintenance and long-term protein deficiency will lead to decreased metabolism, lower immunity to disease. For children, without enough protein, both their mental development and physical development will be affected seriously. Therefore, absolute avoidance to protein is not beneficial. Diabetic Nephropathy patients are asked to limited protein intake because too much protein in the body will increase renal burden and cause quick development of kidney problem.

To meet physiological demand and meanwhile avoid worsening Diabetic Nephropathy, appropriate protein intake or low-protein diet is necessary (usually 0.8g/kg/d). In our body, protein is decomposed into amino acid that can be adsorbed directly by our body and at the same time, some substances that need to be discharged by kidneys will be produced. Amino acid includes non-essential amino acid and essential amino acid which respectively refers to amino acid that can be synthetized by our body and amino acid that can not be synthetized by our body. In terms of non-essential amino acid, they need to be supplied by food protein. Therefore, to avoid increasing extra renal burden as much as possible and meet physical demand as well, Diabetic Nephropathy patients can ingest some food protein. Protein that can be decomposed into essential amino acid is called high quality protein and it is mostly found in lean meat, milk, egg white and fish and so on.

Low-protein diet, in fact, not only slows down progression of Diabetic Nephropathy, but also contributes to patient's recovery if combined with right treatment. Also, some Diabetic Nephropathy patients follow low-protein diet to alleviate proteinuria symptom. As a matter of fact, protein get into urine because of damaged glomerular filtration membrane. Therefore, just limiting protein intake is far from enough to remit proteinuria symptom. To receive real recovery from Diabetic Nephroapthy, aside from low-protein diet, medical treatment is indispensable as well.