A healthy diet helps prevent kidney stones, according to a Maine Medical Center Hospital and Brigham and Women in Boston (USA) published in the Journal of the American Society Nephrology.
According to the authors, the consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, low-fat products and integrals, limit salt and red and processed meat and sweet drinks is an effective way to prevent kidney stones.
The scientists, led by Eric Taylor Maine Medical Center, collected information from individuals who participated in three trials: one for monitoring of health professionals (45,000 men followed 18 years), the Nurses Health Study (94,108 women followed 18) and the second study health nurses (101,837 women followed 14 years).
The researchers assigned a score to each participant according to eight components of the lifestyle of the DASH diet: high consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and vegetables, skimmed and comprehensive products and low consumption of salt, sweet drinks and red and processed meats. Those with the highest scores in this type of diet consumed higher levels of calcium, potassium, magnesium, oxalate and vitamin C and less sodium.
In total, 5645 participants developed kidney stones in the three studies. In each study, participants with higher scores on adherence to the DASH diet were at 40 and 45 percent lower risk of developing kidney stones that participant who followed these guidelines less food.
The researchers also performed an analysis limited to participants without hypertension or diabetes, and that diet could affect the development of hypertension, diabetes and other chronic diseases associated with kidney stones. The results showed that even in these individuals, the DASH diet reduced the risk of kidney stones.
