Vegetarian diet in dialysis patients

Abstract

Nutritional status is a predictor of mortality and morbidity in dialysis patients. This study aimed to assess dietary behaviors in dialysis patients compared to the recommendations of the Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative. Ninety five dialysis patients recruited from a hospital completed a 24-hour dietary recall questionnaire. Body weight, energy requirements, protein requirements, albumin, normalized protein catabolic rate, and 25(OH) vitamin D levels were measured. Of the 95 patients, 11 (11.6%) were below the desirable body mass index range, 59 (62.1%) were within the desired range, and 25 (26.3%) were above the desired range. However, only 32.7% of patients met the target energy intake, 29.5% reached the protein intake target, and 20.0% had adequate vitamin D concentrations. Vegetarian patients had lower energy, protein, fat, vitamin D intake, lower body mass index, serum blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, phosphate, normalized protein catabolic rate, and vitamin D status than the omnivorous patients ( P < .05). After adjusting for age, sex, and body weight, vegetarianism was an independent risk factor for severe vitamin D deficiency (<10 ng/ml, P < .01). Most dialysis patients do not meet their dietary recommendations or goals. The risk of a vegetarian diet may outweigh the benefits in dialysis patients. Careful consideration of dietary behaviors is required for dialysis patients to prevent malnutrition, more so in vegetarians.

Dietary nutrient intake and nutritional status in maintenance hemodialysis patients: a multicenter cross-sectional survey

“…The results indicated that over half of the patients had insufficient protein and energy intake, consistent with previous studies [ 29 , 30 ]. Compared to Cupisti et al.’s study [ 31 ], the dietary potassium intake of MHD patients in this study was significantly lower, possibly due to different dietary habits regarding potassium-rich foods in China.…”

Vitamin D concentrations and their relationship with iron parameters in patients with chronic kidney disease

“…Subih et al [25] confirmed the prevalence of inadequate 25(OH)D3 levels in HD patients, with concentrations <30 ng/mL before the study began. Chen et al [26] found that 80% of patients had insufficient vitamin D levels (25(OH)D3 < 30 ng/mL) and 11.6% had severe deficiency (25(OH)D3 <10 ng/mL).…”