Edible insects exert a high potential renal acid load to the human kidneys
ABSTRACTThe potential renal acid load (PRAL) describes the capacity of a food to produce acid or base in the human body. The long-term consumption of high-PRAL diets induces a chronic low-grade metabolic acidosis state that has been associated with inflammation and impaired kidney function. PRAL tab...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2023-12-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Food Properties |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/10942912.2023.2292467 |
| Summary: | ABSTRACTThe potential renal acid load (PRAL) describes the capacity of a food to produce acid or base in the human body. The long-term consumption of high-PRAL diets induces a chronic low-grade metabolic acidosis state that has been associated with inflammation and impaired kidney function. PRAL tables are available to help individuals in selecting low-PRAL foods. However, these tables do not cover novel or uncommon foods in Western societies. Entomophagy – the practice of eating insects is an emerging trend in the Western world with unclear health consequences from an acid-base perspective. Here, we hypothesized that the consumption of insects is associated with a high PRAL, and analyzed the PRAL values of n = 39 commonly consumed edible insects. Our results suggest that the majority of edible insects have very high PRAL values (of up to 43.62 mEq/100 g), indicating strong acidifying properties and likely resulting in acid retention. PRAL values of edible insects rank well above the PRAL values of other high-protein foods, including legumes, pork and beef. PRAL was moderately correlated with the protein content (r = 0.42) and phosphorus content (r = 0.50) of the examined edible insects. Our data point to a potential health concern when regularly consuming edible insects. |
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| ISSN: | 1094-2912 1532-2386 |