Top 10 Foods To Detox Your Kidneys

Hello Health Champions. The Kidneys are rather  fragile. Unlike a lot of other vital organs, like  

the liver, the kidneys don't repair and regenerate  very well, and that's why it's so critical that you  

understand a little bit about how the kidneys work  in relation to food so that you can take really  

good care of them and make them last as long as  possible. I really urge you to watch this video  

all the way through because the best foods to  help detox your kidneys are going to be different  

depending on what type of kidney problem you  have. Chronic kidney disease also known as CKD 

is pretty common. When you reach stage 3, meaning  that your eGFR, or your filtration rate, we'll  

talk a lot about this, when that goes below 60  milliliters per minute now you have stage three  

and if that lasts more than three months now  you have chronic kidney disease. And this affects  

about one in seven in the united states that's  37 million people and if you think about your  

average crowd then it might be a whole lot more  common than you think. The kidneys are full of tiny  

little vessels called microtubules and when they  get damaged we have micro vessel disease. This is  

also what's causing blindness in diabetics so  the number one cause of this disease is  

type 2 diabetes. The high blood sugar causes  swelling and damage to these fine blood vessels.  

The second thing that damages these fine blood  vessels is hypertension or high blood pressure.  

The higher pressure increases the friction and  the strain on these blood vessels. Then we can  

have kidney infections which is of course an  immune issue. This is called glomerulonephritis  

and we also do damage with over-the-counter  drugs like aspirin and Tylenol, non-steroidal  

anti-inflammatory drugs and while there are other  causes as well, these first three accounts for the  

vast majority of kidney damage. And what  is the cause of these things in turn then  

of course what we talk about a lot on this channel  it is sugar and insulin resistance. So sugar and  

insulin resistance is almost synonymous with type  2 diabetes but they also cause metabolic syndrome.  

Type two diabetes is part of metabolic syndrome  and so is hypertension a huge percentage of high  

blood pressure goes away when people reduce their  insulin resistance. And also immune issues sugar  

is very detrimental to your immune system so all  in all sugar and insulin resistance accounts for  

the vast majority of kidney damage. Now we really  have to understand the stages of kidney disease  

because the foods are going to be different for  different stages and it's kind of interesting  

how they name these because stage one of chronic  kidney disease. That sort of sounds like you have  

early chronic kidney disease, right? But it actually  means that your filtration rate is over 90  

and that is normal so in my mind that would be  called healthy or maybe stage 0 if you will but  

for some reason normal is called stage 1. Then  it's equally curious with stage 2 because this is  

when you've fallen below 90, but you're still above  60. So that would be the pie chart number two here  

and the curious thing there is that now you  are starting to get some kidney damage your  

kidney is not filtering optimally anymore and  you could even have some symptoms at this stage  

even though that's not very common. However  when you get your blood results back and  

if your eGFR is for example 77, like in this case,  then you would be right in the middle of stage 2  

but you're not going to get a flag because you're  over 59 and the lab reference says anything over  

59 is normal even though you're at this point  now in stage 2 chronic kidney disease. But stage  

3 is when you start to really have some trouble  this is where you really want to pay attention. 

It's when you're between 30 and 60 and they've  divided this into 3a and 3b. Stage 4 is when it's  

below 30 but above 15 and stage 5 is  when you filter less than 15 milliliters  

per minute. Now your kidneys are really shutting  down. So we're going to go through and talk  

about some different foods relating to this but  understand that when they talk about the typical  

recommended foods for a kidney diet, they're  talking about this segment; this pie right here  

between 15 and 60; stages 3a, 3b and stage 4.  The other stages are completely different.  

And we'll talk about the worst one first stage  five is when you have kidney failure your kidneys  

are filtering less than 15 milliliters per minute.  This affects about 2 million people worldwide and  

interestingly the us has almost half of those 785  000 people of those are in the U.S. So even though  

the U.S. has 4 % of the world's population  we have about 39 % of all the kidney failures. Almost  

10 times the average rate. So that  should tell you something about this  

being a dietary problem. The fact that we spend  four trillion dollars on so-called health care has  

done nothing to reduce these numbers, which again  of course means that maybe that four trillion  

dollars that they call health care isn't health  care at all but rather sick care. So again if you  

want to get healthy then you have to learn and  understand some things and take care of yourself  

not rely on the system to do that for you. And the  reason you want to do everything you can to avoid  

stage five is that by the time you get there  there's really only two choices. One is dialysis  

which is sort of a miracle. It's very nice that  they have sophisticated machines to filter your  

blood for you when your kidneys have given out.  That can keep you alive for a while but it's not  

a pleasant lifestyle and the five-year survival  rate is only 35 %. That even though there are people  

who can live 20-30 years with dialysis, the life  expectancy is very, very poor and a large number  

of people die within the first year. If you were  a normal person and you hit your 60th birthday  

you would expect to live to about 80 or 85. But  if you are 60 and you get put on dialysis your  

life expectancy is about 64 years old. The other  option besides dialysis would be a transplant and  

the life expectancy here the five year survival  is much better it's a full eighty percent  

however, there's only about twenty percent who can  get it there's a hundred thousand people in line  

every year for a kidney transplant but there's  only about twenty thousand kidneys available. So  

most of these people have to wait and get dialysis  and a whole lot of them die while they're waiting.  

So why do people with kidney disease need to limit  certain foods and the problem with the kidney is  

that it can't filter certain things adequately  anymore and these are sodium, potassium, phosphorus,  

nitrogen, which is a waste product from protein  consumption and even fluids even clean water.  

So while the kidney normally does a fantastic job  of balancing and keeping and getting rid of all  

these substances when the kidney is damaged now it  can't do that anymore. It's also really important  

that we understand one of the myths regarding  this issue. And what they're saying is we know  

the damaged kidney can't filter certain things,  that the sodium, potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen  

from protein and water. They do damage. They injure  further the already damaged kidney. But then they  

jump to a conclusion and they say therefore  these are bad things and by reducing them  

the conclusion is that now we can prevent kidney  disease. That is not a valid conclusion because  

we need protein to build tissue. A healthy kidney  needs protein to repair and replenish itself  

a mildly damaged kidney needs protein to repair  the damage and these other things are essential  

minerals these are very very important that we  get on a regular basis. So a healthy kidney needs  

these things a sick kidney you have to limit them  because the body can't regulate it anymore and to  

give you an idea how silly this argument is. It's  like saying that weight bearing on a broken bone  

is bad because if you break a bone and you put  weight on it if you walk on it every day not that  

you could from the pain but if you did then that  bone couldn't repair properly. And then they say  

therefore weight bearing is bad for bones. While  the exact opposite is true of course because  

weight bearing is what builds strong bones to  keep them from breaking. Stage 1 and 2 the very  

early stages there is no major damage your  kidneys are still pretty healthy stage one  

they're absolutely normal stage two they're  starting to get just a little bit congested.  

So should we restrict these items? Well, stage one;  I would say no, because you're still healthy. You  

eat real, healthy food, then your body can regulate  this. Stage two; it sort of depends. Now you wanna  

start looking at your blood work. Are your minerals  off balance? Are some of these starting to build  

up? And if they're not, then you're still doing fine  then you want to eat whole food so that your body  

has the resources to repair and replenish what it  needs. But if your blood pressure is going up but  

if you have some other problems then yes maybe  start looking at that. What you do want to do  

is you want to understand that the problem is  insulin resistance. That's what causes it. The sugar  

and the insulin clog up the kidneys, so with a low  carb, high fat diet or a whole food diet, a paleo  

type low carb diet, you can stop putting the things  in that damage the kidney in the first place.  

That's the first key. Besides low carb you want to  eat whole foods so you get the proper nutrients  

to rebuild your body including the kidneys. And  what about protein? Well, you do need protein to  

rebuild the tissue so don't cut back too far and  don't exaggerate by eating huge amounts because  

large amounts of protein produces a lot of  nitrogen as a waste product and that can be toxic  

to a kidney especially if it's having some trouble  but you'd have to eat quite a lot to really  

create a toxic load of nitrogen but if  you're getting closer to the 60 here then  

maybe restrict the protein a little bit but  remember you still need it to rebuild your  

tissues. And then of course you still want to do  some exercise because exercise creates signals for  

your brain and your nervous system. It drives every  single functional system in your body benefits  

from exercise. And you want to do some kind of  stress reduction because stress drives blood  

pressure up relaxing and meditation reduces blood  pressure and like we said high blood pressure  

is damaging to the kidneys. By reducing stress  you're also going to improve your immune system  

and reduce the chances of a kidney infection. So  stage five is a little different than any other  

case because now there is major damage. You do not  want to try to handle this on your own you need to  

be under the care of a medical doctor. This is an  emergency. The specialist is called a nephrologist.  

And you have to limit your sodium, potassium and  phosphorus because your body can't eliminate it.  

But you even have to limit your water intake  because the kidneys are filtering so poorly  

you can't even eliminate fluids properly.  Now, protein is kind of a special case  

here because even though your kidneys are  damaged and the nitrogen waste products are  

tough to get rid of you're losing protein and you  have to have a little extra. So there's a protein  

called albumin. That's the main blood protein  that holds the water inside the bloodstream.  

But you're losing albumin a few different ways.  Usually when the kidneys are really bad your  

liver isn't super healthy either so very often  the production of albumin in the liver goes down.  

Then if your kidneys are still producing any  urine then the protein is leaking out through the  

kidneys and the very process of dialysis actually  filters out additional quantities of this protein.  

So you're losing it three-way and this is causing  severe edema. So it is very important that you get  

some protein but if you also watch my previous  video on proteins you'll understand that you want  

to focus on the high quality proteins because the  nitrogen waste comes from proteins that are turned  

into fuel, into energy. You want the better the  quality of protein the higher the percentage of  

the protein that gets turned into tissue and if it  gets turned into tissue there is no nitrogen waste.  

The lower the quality of the protein like  oftentimes protein powders are poorly utilized  

and create a lot of nitrogen waste. And this  brings us to the situation where a standard kidney  

restriction diet is appropriate and this is stage  three and four of chronic kidney disease. This  

is what we talked about the shaded area and now  there is moderate to severe damage. There is still  

hope, but you can't burden the kidneys very much  and they can't do their job optimally anymore.  

So in stage three and four you need to limit your  sodium below 2000 milligrams per day you need to  

limit your phosphorus to less than a thousand and  your protein should probably be limited somewhere  

between 60 and 80 grams depending on your body  size now potassium's a little different because  

it is still filtered properly in this stage 3a  between 45 and 60 so you don't want to limit it  

because it is a very very valuable mineral and if  your body needs it and can still handle it then  

you don't want to restrict it however once you  hit 3b between 30 and 45 now you need to start  

watching it and you should limit it to below 3 000  milligrams and once you hit even lower in stage 4  

you need to limit it below 2000 and why is this  so important because a lot of your signaling in  

the body especially regarding the heart is very  sensitive to potassium so too high a level of  

potassium can cause heart arrhythmias and in  really severe cases it can actually cause your  

heart to stop so now that you understand those  stages the foods become a cinch and you can figure  

this out for a wide variety of foods but remember  that this applies for stage 3 and 4 primarily and  

if you need to review the other stages then go  back and do that so apples are often recommended  

they have some good cleansing properties their  phosphorus is very low 11 milligrams potassium 107  

milligrams and sodium only one milligram and all  of these numbers are per 100 grams. So an apple  

might be actually large apple might be twice as  big as that so here's the caveat though if you are  

early like in stage three and your kidney  is getting damaged by insulin resistance  

then you want to pass on this because if you have  diabetes or insulin resistance sugar is the last  

thing that you want to add. There are other things  with low levels of these minerals that will not  

add the burden of sugar. One such example is bell  pepper so here you're getting roughly the same low  

levels as an apple but without all the sugar. Very  low levels of all three very common on recommended  

lists are berries so my favorite is raspberries  because they have a lot of nutrients tons of  

flavor and very low in sugar so these berries are  very similar they're low in phosphorus potassium  

and sodium but raspberries only have five grams of  sugar. Blueberries are a little higher in potassium  

and phosphorous but also twice as high in sugar  and then something that's associated with kidneys  

and bladder to help clear things out which is true  are cranberries. Now the problem is i do not know  

many people who can consume cranberries without  adding large amounts of sugar. So again just like  

the apple if you have insulin resistance or  diabetes that's what caused the kidney problem  

in the first place so don't eat that unless you  can drink it on its own without adding sugar.  

Cabbage is a great food very low in these and  there's many many different ways that you can  

use cabbage and one of course is sauerkraut. Number  five is cauliflower it's a little bit higher in  

potassium and keep in mind that these numbers  are per 100 grams and cauliflower is something  

that you could easily consume a few hundred grams  so it's only toward the later stages though that  

you have to limit potassium. Green leaf lettuce  is another great one it's very low in these  

items because their numbers are low to start with  but it's also very difficult to consume 100 grams  

of lettuce. I mean 30, 40, 50 grams of lettuce  goes a long way. Another great food is onion. It  

is low in all these minerals but it's also low in  carbohydrates but high in sulfur containing amino  

acids which can help boost glutathione and boost  your immune system and your cleansing ability. Now  

here's an interesting one because egg whites  is on virtually every list of kidney diets. So  

minerals are low in the egg white and it has a  good amount of protein but here's the problem when  

you take out the yolk which they recommend you  take it out because of the phosphorus in this case.  

Now when you take the yolk out you're lowering  the protein value of this food it's very poorly  

utilized when you only eat the egg white so you're  going to make more of this nitrogen waste that  

you're trying to avoid. So what I would suggest is  that you still eat the whole egg. When they say to  

restrict the phosphorus potassium sodium they say  restrict you don't have to eliminate it you don't  

have to eat zero because everything has a little  bit so what you want to do is you want to make  

sure that the protein you eat counts that you  get the most possible building blocks the best  

possible building blocks for the amount of these  phosphorus and these minerals that you consume. So  

you still have a kind of a budget of phosphorus  so when you eat the protein make it count but of  

course you can't have unlimited amount of  whole eggs because you're still trying to  

limit these things. Same thing with meat and  fish they're usually not excluded from these  

kidney diets but they're recommended that you  limit them which i would totally agree with  

but these are still some of your best choices  to get the protein because you do need  

some protein so when you do eat the protein  make it count. Get the best quality that you can  

so that your body gets the proper building blocks.  Even though it does have higher levels of these  

items you're getting a lot of bang for your  buck. And number 10 on the list are three items  

that are generally considered very cleansing  they have a lot of positive properties there.  

Anti-inflammatory antibacterial etc we have garlic  ginger and turmeric and this is the only time I  

give you the quantities per 5 grams not 100 grams  because you probably wouldn't even be able to eat  

100 grams of these if you tried they're pretty  potent. So garlic ginger turmeric very low levels  

and as you can see even a teaspoon of turmeric  has some amount of potassium but again you're  

not going to eat all that much. So this would be a  great addition almost like a medicinal addition to  

help cleanse the body in small quantities. If you  enjoyed this video you'll love that one. And if you  

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