 In my video, Treating Kidney Failure through Diet, a profile research suggesting that the use of plant-based diets may be helpful for patients with kidney failure, because control of dietary phosphorus intake is the linchpin and the successful control of the leading cause of disease and death in kidney failure patients, too much phosphorus in the blood. But now we're beginning to realize that absorbing too much phosphorus isn't good for anyone. Having high levels in our blood has been found to be an independent predictor of heart attacks and mortality in the general population. Increasing the risk of not only kidney failure, but heart failure, heart attacks, coronary death, and overall death. Higher phosphate levels associated with a significantly shorter lifespan. Dietary intake of phosphate is an important matter not just for persons with kidney disease, but for everybody. It's thought to cause damage to blood vessels and accelerate the aging process, even potentially hurting our bones, contributing to osteoporosis by disrupting hormonal regulation. The estimated average requirement of phosphorus is less than 600 a day, but the estimated average intake is nearly twice that in the United States. How do we stay away from the stuff? Well, if you look at nutrient tables, it looks like many plant foods have as much phosphorus as many animal foods, so why are plant-based diets so effective in treating kidney failure patients? Because most of the phosphorus in plant foods is found in the form of phytic acid, which we don't digest, so the bioavailability of plant phosphates is usually less than 50%. See, only a third to a half of plant phosphorus may be absorbable, whereas most animal products are all up around 75%. So when you adjust for how much actually gets into our system, you see plant foods are better. It's like the absorption of heme and non-heme iron. Our body can protect itself from absorbing too much plant-based iron, but can't stop excess blood-based or heme iron from animals slipping through the intestinal wall. The worst kind of phosphorus absorbed nearly 100% are phosphate additives, added, for example, to cola drinks. Why would they do that? Otherwise, cola drinks would be black. Without the added phosphate, there would be so many glycotoxins produced that the beverage would turn pitch black. Thus, cola drinks owe their brown color to phosphate. Phosphate additives play an especially important role in the meat industry, where they're used as preservatives for the same reason— to enhance a meat product's color, just like the dairy industry adds aluminum to cheese. Meat and poultry is enhanced by injecting it with phosphate. If you look at meat industry trade journals and can get past all the macabre ads for head-dropping robots for the kill floor and foot chopper offers, you'll see all these ads for injection machines. Why? Because of increased profitability, enhanced meats have better color and less purge. Purge is a term used to describe the liquid that seeps from flesh as it ages. Many consumers find this unattractive, and so the industry views it as a win-win. When you inject chicken with phosphates, the consumer benefits through the perception of enhanced quality, and the processor benefits from increased yield, because they just pumped it up with water and they sell it by the pound. The reason is that it can boost phosphorus— the problem, excuse me, is that it can boost phosphorus levels and meet nearly 70 percent, a real and insidious danger for kidney patients. But now we know it's a danger for all.