This last weekend I was in conversation with an NHS practicioner who said they had heard of cases of mostly recoverable renal failure being triggered by this diet – is there any grain of truth behind this what seems to be a scare-story?

Not definitive and I’m not medically trained but I’ve not heard or seen anything in the news and Dr Google hasn’t come up with anything on a quick search. Not sure how eating healthily as per plan could cause renal failure – recoverable or not. Quite possibly someone, maybe more than one, on this way of eating already had underlying problems (known or unknown) which were exacerbated in some way by the plan, maybe said persons were doing it in an unhealthy way.

I would say it’s a scare story, I’m surprised there haven’t been more before now (or maybe I’ve missed them).

There were certainly reports of this with the original Atkins Diet, but the BSD, whilst similar, is not the same and is as much about good nutrition as it is weight loss. Like AnnieW, I have not heard of any reports of renal failure on the BSD. Given the back up scientific research carried out by Professor Taylor in Newcastle, I’m sure had there been such issues, it would have been commented on before.

At 18mths in, I’m certainly not going to be worrying that there is such a potential, as I feel healthier and fitter than I have in years and will be continuing with the way of eating long into the future.

Again, not really an answer but just been reading a “healthy swaps that are bad for you” piece on a running site. One bit reads “studies have discovered a link between high levels of fructose consumption and kidney, liver problems” but as we don’t, or shouldn’t eat high fructose, it shouldn’t be a problem. They also say there is a suggested link between high fructose consumption and growing obesity problems.

Hi there, as an ex medical person I can say that any extreme diet can cause a number of problems. I think many people associate this with high fat Atkins style eating which can cause kidney problems but also an excess of protein rich meat products are a worry. On my last blood test is showed excess uric acid in my blood and I asked doc what the cause was and he said ‘protein’ so I asked if it was eggs, fish, chicken or meat and he said – no, it is rich or highly processed foods like smoked meats, dried meats, foie gras (I live in France) and pates. I must admit having been on holiday I had treated myself to these rich meats and it also showed as a small increase in my cholesterol (from 3.9 to 4.4).

The point of this diet is we are only eliminating one product and it is a product which is not good for us either i.e. starchy white carbs, it also has no purpose in our nutritional balance and is used as a filling up food. If you are replacing bad carbs with good carbs (lots of good veg based foods) and not going overboard on meat products or fats (bad fats) then this diet should be perfect. The fall down in this is that people take it one step further or replace a bad thing with another bad thing, you just have to eat a well balance diet to avoid any problems.

Hello Sunshine Girl, many thanks for this sage advice and the warning about too much protein – I know from weight training days that too much protein can burden the kidneys, so we will step carefully.

Kerry9 can I also say that you need to be wary of medical ‘evidence’ being extrapolated from one thing and given credence to another. For example, if you do something day in day out (over exposure) to a mouse and something happens i.e. cancer happens, that does not mean that doing the same thing now and then with a human will cause cancer. Cant think of an exact example but you see headlines all the time. The other thing is, sometimes something is already happening within a group of people unnoticed i.e. renal failure, then you change something, notice the renal failure and blame the changed thing i.e. this diet. You also have to remember that a lot of people on this diet are diabetics and they are very prone to renal problems so the problem might already have existed. Take everything you read or hear with a pinch of salt (not too much it is bad for you LOL) and have a certain amount of scepticism. The worry is when it comes from a medical person and they are not looking a the facts.

Again many thanks for this additional helpful info Sunshine-Girl.